Dwelling for Oil Traces

S+T+ARTS4WaterII fragment Proposal June 2024

"Dwelling for Oil Traces" aims to expose the accumulated hidden oil leakage in the environment, focusing both on the hidden process of leakage itself and its broader impacts. This project will collect and map existing research media outcomes on this topic, explore the tactile properties of this media, and develop a graphic user interface prototype to make this media accessible to a non-specialist user. By linking the concept of forgotten spaces to artistic speculative methods and employing an OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) approach within the storytelling, the project will create an accessible and engaging artistic presentation of these neglected areas, involving users in an interactive narrative, installing new sustainable habits.

DeCeNTRaLiZiNG ReaLiTy: Navigating the Symbolic Landscape of Consensus

DeCeNTRaLiZiNG ReaLiTy is interactive graphic web novel by Fanny Zaman conceived in the context of the ARTeCHO fellowship March - November 2023.

DeCeNTRaLiZiNG ReaLiTy on vimeo

“What was meant to be a revolutionary tool for creativity soon became a cruel joke, a weapon of mass destruction. It was a tragedy of epic proportions, and yet somehow, in the midst of all this chaos, there was a certain dark humor to be found."

"They said that the world had entered a new era of decentralization.
Through this form of decentralization we had redistributed poverty and redistributed pleasure. We had redistributed agriculture and redistributed nature. We had redistributed family and redistributed housing. Redistributed anger and redistributed fear. We even had redistributed colors and redistributed sound."

"At the heart of this new world order was a technology called “Decentralized Information Interference” (D.I.I.). The D.I.I. served as a masking agent, taking the edges off things and thoughts, creating a sense of privacy and security. Some individuals formed a group known as 'Resistance against Information Oppression and Tyranny” (R.I.O.T.) and they began an insurgency to undermine the D.I.I.'"

Excerpt from DeCeNTRaLiZeD ReaLiTy by Fanny Zaman 

DeCeNTRaLiZiNG ReaLiTy on vimeo

Publication 2024: Down the Rabbit Hole of the Symbolic Landscape of Blockchain Technology

Exploring the symbolic world of blockchain technology evoked for me the whimsical universe of Carroll's Alice, filled with grids, codes, and mysteries. This was the basic strand through which my interactive graphic novel, Decentralized Reality, came about. In this work, I intertwine metaphorical narratives with political and technological fiction. This exploration of decentralization within blockchain technology led to a reflection on the concept of consensus in our democratic society, exemplified by the “Byzantine Fault” of the blockchain.

Coined by Lamport, Shostak, and Pease in 1982, the “Byzantine Fault” stems from a scenario where Byzantine generals must reach consensus regarding a binary military maneuver: attack or retreat. The problem appears unsolvable, yet choices must be made. As we explore this blend of metaphor, military strategy, and technology, we dwell on storytelling as problem solving technique.

Reflecting on past revolutions and our current reality, characterized by social disunity and authoritarianism, we face the challenge of preserving democratic values. Despite radical differences, consensus remains crucial, shaping decision-making and action. However, in this calculated system, random data can also simulate consensus. This raises questions about the sustainability of radical consensus. What seems logical in calculations takes on a new dimension within an emotional and social reality.

ATLAS OF ID

 ATLAS OF ID

Developed in the context of CODE 2022

CODE 2022 is the second edition of CODE. The project is organized by IMPAKT in collaboration with the Berlin School of Machines, Making & Make Believe (Berlin) and this year also two Belgian organizations: Werktank (Leuven) and Privacy Salon/Privacytopia (Brussels).

It will be presented at the ARS Electronica festival Linz September 7th - 11th 2022.

With Michaëla Stubbers

Within the project ATLAS OF ID we developed a survey webgame.

The goal is to alter our future possibilities by filling in this survey. Your options are a typical 3 varying between yes, no or maybe.

Translating reality into data assumes that machines can read and comprehend it. Can machines translate reality’s full flavor? Or are the translations, more interestingly of a totally different alien order?

“Play the game NOW and alter your future possibilities FOREVER” is a survey text webgame that poses statements wrapped like questions and vise versa like:

• We make forecasts about people just as we make forecasts about the weather.

"We make it real!"

case “Yes":

text = "Excellent choice. Consumer thrust is good for business.";

       

case "No?":

text = "We do!";

case "Maybe":

text = "Really! We do!";

• Play webgame (best with Firefox)

pragma

 

Watch clip

• here and 
• here

THE FUTURE IS CODED

The first version of THE FUTURE IS CODED (videogame 20 min.) will be presented at the exhibition Differences which opens on Thursday September 9, 18:00 > 23:00 on the occasion of Brussels Gallery Weekend and will remain open that weekend Friday September 10 till Sunday September 12, 11:00 > 19:00.

 

Afterwards, the exhibition will be open from September 16 till October 3, from Thursday till Sunday, 11:00 > 18:00.

Gosset Site, Building A (first floor) 
Rue Gabrielle Petitstraat 4-6, 1080 Brussels 

Play short version here

THE FUTURE IS CODED refers to a future that's already present here and now but remains somehow inaccessible to us. It's an old philosophical idea that past, present and future exists simultaneously. If the future exists, it could be accessed like a space or a room. 

In Chris Marker's science fiction film La Jetée 1962 we hear the voice-over saying: 'The future was better protected than the past. After more, painful tries, he (the protagonist) eventually caught some waves of the world to come.'

Since ancient history we've tried accessing the future through mediators. Noise and randomness (chance) are media that are used worldwide to access the future in so called divination techniques. Noise mediates via articulating hidden layers to our conscious mind.

The future is like a wall of noise. We carve our path through time, sifting meaning from noise.

Shoshana Zuboff writes in her book Surveillance Capitalism about big data companies that harvest rich predictive data in the waste materials of our online behavior. The rich data companies are after are in the extra data, in the noise. They use them to forecast our future behavior.

The NOISESCAPES I create in the work are screens of noise depicting settings for a possible future. The videogame is about discovering and experiencing a particular set-up built from layers of noise.

'Invisible lines appear at bottom left, creating what feels like tremors. They resonate outward from the initial mark and become increasingly vague and indiscernible until a point where their origins are all but obscured.'

Pragma is the first character that appears in THE FUTURE IS CODED. She is a multiple and thus so forms a small group with herself.

She navigates in cross correlation with you and reflects what singular action does executed as a group.

'Picking up rhythmic, high-pitched beats, the pebbles vibrate against the body.'

THE FUTURE IS CODED is developed in the context of Ars Electronica FutureLab, Linz Austria of March 2021 supported by Vlaanderen Department CJM.

 

PRAGMA, A MULTIPLE IN CROSS CORRELATION.
Illustrated Book in progress.

(Introduction page)
I am in acoustic space. Gently pulsating bells are dotting the surface as far as I can see. The idea of color is entirely lacking, but I know it's there because of the elaborate geometry. 

In the back of my head lives a memory of something, something from here. I'm trapped in this universe. One in which there are no stars, no nights, and no tides. Yet, there are just the miniature bells, glowing in a sea of grey darkness. Light rains down on me, low and vibrant in the interior. Once I pass through the border, I will see it. For the first time in years, I know that there is something else out there. The sky is hazy and dark, with grey clouds and dark water. I know what they are: they are memories. Over the course of the next five years, they’ll fade until they are indistinguishable from the surrounding sky.

A sea of orange color, generated by billions of microscopic creatures, rises up from the depth. It's an intense color, like nothing I've ever seen before. Life is scattered almost everywhere like a fine dust. I blank my mind and relax my body. The tunnel will take me to the next spot. The creatures inside me show the gooey orange gunk that comes out of my body. I like this. “I will return here”.

 

Play short version 

• here and 
• here and 
• here.

THE AIRSHIP

The work (in development) is inspired by the dystopian short story "The Machine stops" written in 1909 by E.M. Forster

This story describes a world in which most of the human population has lost the ability to live on the surface of the earth. 

Each individual now lives isolated underground in a standard room, where all physical and spiritual needs are fulfilled by the almighty, global machine.

Fanny Zaman & Dominik Daggelinckx

watch EXERPT

screenings ALGORITHM

LE BAL (FR), Paris 2018
27.03.2018 20h
In program In The Meantime - The Cadastre of our Lives

SPOUTNIK CINEMA (CH) Zurich 2017

JEU. 9 FÉVR. 2017   20H30

SAM. 18 FÉVR. 2017   20H30

LE FESTIVAL SIGNES DE NUIT (FR) 2017
Compétition Internationale, Cinéma Trangressif # 7 Paris

BELGIAN PREMIERE BOZAR CINEMA DAYS JANUARY 2016

BOZAR/Paleis voor Schone Kunsten Brussel

JIHLAVA IDFF (CZ) OCTOBER 2015

WORLDPREMIERE FIDMARSEILLE (FR) JULY 2015

watch trailer

The acceleration and abstraction of trading (from commodities to financial products to sets of data) here takes a major leap as we examine algorithmic trading and the people who perform this type of work. In the end, nothing gets explained and we remain on the outside looking in. Algorithm is an essay impression of a specific area of high finance, set high in the sky in futuristic buildings populated by sharply-dressed characters speaking a mysterious language.  

Director Fanny Zaman Cast (voice cast) Dianne Weller Photography Dominik Daggelinckx Editing Fanny Zaman Sound Geert Vanbever Music Lea Petrasso, Dianne Weller Running time film 38'

Release format DCP Other available formats Blu-ray Aspect ratio 16:9 Sound format stereo Colour Colour Available in  2D