Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, Google, 2010. Installation. Image courtesy of the artists. © Marman and Borins.

Google

Artwork | Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, 2010

Installation | The Martin Prosperity Institute

Commissioned by the Martin Prosperity Institute in Toronto, Google is a sculptural installation composed of two large “googly” eyes mounted on a wall. Hidden cameras inside the sculpture watch, track, and record people as they pass by, adding a potentially sinister element to the humour offered by the googly-eye form. The title of the piece, Google, acknowledges the ways in which the search engines watch and record user data for ambiguous reasons. With this work, Marman and Borins combine humour and surveillance technologies to highlight how personal surveillance and data collection by governments and corporations occur in our physical and virtual everyday lives, and to question whether we should trust them.

Website:

http://marmco.com/

Marika Dermineur and Stéphane Degoutin, Google House, 2003-ongoing. Interactive online installation. Image courtesy of the artists. © Marika Dermineur and Stéphane Degoutin.

Stéphane Degoutin

Artist

Database works: Marika Dermineur and Stéphane Degoutin, Google House, 2003-ongoing. Interactive online installation.

Born in Toronto, Degoutin is an artist, writer, and researcher currently based in Paris where he teaches at École des Arts Décoratif (ENSAD). With collaborator Gwenola Wagon, he has created a number of online works, including Terrorism Museum in an Airport (2009-2013, http://www.nogovoyages.com/terrorism_museum.html), and Dance Party in Iraq (2012-2013, http://www.nogovoyages.com/dpi.html). He is also the author of the book Prisonniers volontaires du rêve américain (Voluntary Prisoners of the American Dream), Editions de la Villette, Paris, 2006.

Website:

http://www.nogoland.com/