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 

Play chapter here

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!";

pragma

 

Play 1 excerpt

• here

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

CONSEIL D'ETAT 2016

Film 7 min 32"

Images from the Expo 1958 in Brussels exude faith in modernity, the future, and the possibilities of technology. The soundtrack is from the 1980s, when a series of attacks unsettled Belgium. Sound and image, fear and optimism collide.

SCREENING DATES

- FRONTDOC 2017, Aosta 6 - 11 November 2017, Official Competition Experimental (IT)
- Sarajevo Film Festival, Sarajevo 11 - 18 August 2017 Official Competition European Shorts (BA)
- Visite at Het Bos, Antwerp 13 August 2017 (BE)
- XX edition of the Guanajuato International Film Festival, Guanajuato July 21 - 30 2017 Official Competition Experimental Short Film (MX)
- WIELS, Brussels 27 MAY 2017 (BE)
- International Film Festival Rotterdam 25 JAN - 5 FEBR 2017 (NL)
- Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur |The Short Film Festival of Switzerland | 8 – 13 November 2016 Official Competition International (CH)
- FIAC,Hors les Murs, Films d'Artistes, FIDMARSEILLE 19 - 22 OCTOBER 2016 PARIS (FR)
- FIDMARSEILLE 12 - 18 JULY MARSEILLE 2016 (FR)

  

TRINITITE 2018

World Premiere FIDMarseille 13-07-2018 22h

AVEC SA MAIN DANS SA POCHE

Directed by Fanny Zaman & Dominik Daggelinckx

PITCH

Our national post war history (Belgium) is idiosyncratically marked in our own memory through a series of iconic images. The film deals with sound and image concerning awakening, emancipation, halt and decay but not necessarily chronological.

Duration 20'

Conseil d’Etat a short 7’32 screened at FIDMarseille 2016 is the first of a series. TRINITITE (released Summer 2018) is the second. Both films are pseudo didactic alternative school lectures dealing with obscure details in our national history. Conspiracy flavour, a neutral didactic voice, evidence brought to light by changing the context or by changing the score. 

TRINITITE 2018 '20 deals with Belgian post war history, with sound and image concerning awakening, emancipation, halt and decay.

The film reflects upon the coming of age of a country in sync with our own coming of age in the backdrop of the Cold War era.

The footage stems from national television reportages dealing with public interviews questioning class and gender at school, at work and in the private atmosphere, in the late sixties, early seventies. The national archive is rearranged and looked at from a contemporary point of view.

PREMIERE ALGORITHM 

Fanny Zaman 

BOZAR CINEMA DAYS 

SUN 1O.01.2016 8pm

BOZAR/Paleis voor Schone Kunsten 

Ravensteinstraat 23

1000 Brussel

​

WATCH TRAILER

​

ALGORITHM 2015 is the last chapter of a trilogy set in the world of finance.

The trilogy observes the growing abstraction of the economy where data is step by step taking over “real” trade. The chapters all focus on theatrical performativity of speech and gesture of the characters and their specific scenography.

ALGORITHM is an essayistic impression of a specific part of high finance. It is set high in the sky in a scenography of futuristic high tech buildings populated by sharp dressed characters speaking a mysterious language.

trope-editions

Flanders Image

review ALGORITHM

'In der Sektion “Futurs” bestach “Algorithm”. Das belgische Film Fanny Zamans scheint einerseits eine zynische Ode an die Hightech-Architektur. Monumentale, pharaonische Formen lassen alles menschliche Ansinnen an sich abprallen. Die Protagonisten dieser hermetischen Welt sprechen eine unzugängliche Sprache, folgen unkommunizierten Strategien und inkarnieren eine marionettenhafte Existenz. Einsichtiges oder nachvollziehbares Lebensglück ist hier undenkbar geworden. Organische Maschinen zelebrieren ihre Funktionalität in Endlosschlaufen der Sinnlosigkeit. Zamans ästhetisch beeindruckendes Werk zeigt eine Wüstenlandschaft anderen Typs, weniger durch Wassermangel charakterisiert als durch Isolationsperfektionismus. Will man von einem Trend sprechen: FID zeigte in diesem Jahr besonders deutlich: die Wüste wächst.'

'In de sectie "Futurs" belicht de film van de Belgische Fanny Zaman een enerzijds cynische ode aan de high-tech architectuur. Monumentale Faraonische vormen laten alles wat enigszins menselijk is van zich afketsen. De protagonisten van deze hermetische wereld spreken een ontoegankelijke taal, volgen onverklaarbare strategieën en incarneren een marionet-achtig bestaan. Inzichtelijk of begrijpelijk levensgeluk is hier ondenkbaar geworden. Organische machines vieren hun functionaliteit en hijgen zich naar het einde der zinneloosheid toe. Zamans esthetisch indrukwekkende werk presenteert een woestenij van een (andere) welbepaalde orde. Niet zo zeer door dit door de mangel te halen maar eerder door het toepassen van isolatie-perfectionisme. Wil men van een trend spreken: FID zegt dit jaar bijzonder duidelijk: De woestenij deint uit.'

in INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF FILM AND FESTIVAL REVIEWS by DIETER WIECZOREK

ALGORITHM 2015

• Screening BOZAR CINEMA DAYS 10.01.2016 8 pm

• Selection JIHLAVA IDFF (CZ) 2015
  

• Selection FIDMarseille (FR) 2015

• Sélection Officielle DOCM VISIONS DU REEL (CH) 2015

WATCH TRAILER 1'35

ALGORITHM

ALGORITHM

video work in development
production year 2015

6th edition 3 & 4 July 2014 projects
 

With the support of the Flemisch Audiovisual Fund

Book and DVD release: INHABITING THE SURFACE FANNY ZAMAN 2013

Launch Wednesday 21.08.2013, 18:00 in WIELS

limited edition: 300

Buy in WIELS bookshop or order from tropeeditions(at)gmail(dot)com

Exhibition: INHABITING THE SURFACE

Former artist in residency Fanny Zaman presents her new film entitled Local (Draft Version), alongside a series of photographs from her earlier film DplusOne.

Premiered at FIDMarseille 2012, DplusOne is a portrait of a newly installed electronic trade system set in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). The camera closes in on the traders slowly observing people, interiors, comments and gestures up to the point where details start to reveal alternative layers, noise and complexity. DplusOne portrays the economic subsurface of this particular set and engenders an ambivalent image.

Local (Draft Version) is like an extension of DplusOne, except that the film is more staged and fictionalized, and focuses on another character, the local. Based on conversations with market maker Elie Ayache, the film moves from reality to fiction.

On the occasion of her exhibition, the artist will launch her new publication which includes a booklet and a dvd with the 2 films DplusOne 2012 and Local (Draft Version) 2013.

Opening Wednesday 21.08.2013, 18:00.

22.08 - 8.09.2013

WIELS

Contemporary Art Centre

Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354
1190 Brussels
T +32 (0)2 340 00 53

LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION)

LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) was made in de context of the WIELS recidency program and presented as a videoinstallation looped in 15 min.
LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) is like an extension of DPLUSONE, except more staged and fictionalized, and with a main focus on the principal character, the local. LOCAL (DRAFT VERSION) moves from reality to fiction and is based on earlier conversations with market maker Elie Ayache (writer of The Blank Swan, The End of Probability, 2010). The actor is a non-professional typecasted for his personality. Acting and being becomes ambiguous. Fiction moves to reality.

The video work tries to escape time and place by introducing little shifts, little twists.

The character defends his position through philosophy namely that of Deleuze and Meillassoux.

photo Dominik Daggelinckx

DplusOne "the random movement of particles suspended in a fluid

DplusOne was screened at FIDMarseille 2012

DplusOne preview 

research and presentation WIELS residency 2012

What do we observe?

The setting is the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. ECX is the current centre of control of this new installed Ethiopian market system. Ethiopia today ranks n°5 in the world list of emerging countries by producing primary physical goods (commodities).

Stories, rumours and attitudes

In Ethiopia we started a series of observations, encounters and dialogues with people connected in some way or another with the new founded ECX and the Ethiopian economy. We were looking for relations between macro statements (about a country, a population, a group) and micro experience.

The project challenges our self-awareness and our (in)capacity to critically evaluate the things we perceive.

What do we observe?

Economics.

Macro-statements and micro-reality.
If Ethiopia ranks n°5 in the world list «emerging countries forecast 2011» we have to conclude that this forecast is a primarily a macro-statement from an economical perspective. How is this condition of acceleration reflected in the country? How does this macro-statement relate to the country’s current micro-reality? A whole scaled down to snatches.

What do we observe?

#01 photo (Dominik Daggelinckx) taken at Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia December 2010

We are in the spaces of the ECX in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We see trade on the trading floor of the exchange. We see a carpeted, octagonal space with buyers in kacki and sellers in green. The images are uniform. There is action both in foreground and background. The images are both equal and in constant change.

The project drifts on an observation of details and a constant inversion between foreground and background, between subject and context.

What do we observe?

The interview:
Bharat Kulkarni, Senior manager trading operations, explains the ECX model.
It’s a didactic presentation of an economic model (a macro-model). The attention drifts towards the rhetoric of the presentation, his vocabulary, his choice of words, his accent, the speed of speech.

What do we observe?

The research has a wide scope. By observing the footage already taken, links are created to possible other topics, areas and disciplines to find interesting matches.

ONOMATOPEE
Mai 29 between 3-6 pm
Onomatopee office & projectspace
Bleekstraat 23
5611 VB Eindhoven
The Netherlands
FoAM
June 3
FoAM vzw
Koolmijnenkaai 30-34
1080 Brussels
Belgium

Screening by the WIELS artists-in-residency at Cinéma Galeries

Cinéma Galeries (Galerie de la Reine 28 Koninginnegalerij / 1000 Brussels) and WIELS launch from January 2013 onwards a monthly program of films and videos made or selected by the artists in residency in contemporary art centre.

07.02.2013 / 8pm

FANNY ZAMAN

DplusOne (2012)
31 min
D plus one is a portrait of a newly installed electronic trade system set in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), for coffee, sesame, maize and beans is in its initial stage. It is a central system set-up according to international standards (i.e. linear, rational, logical, clean and technical). The camera settles itself amongst the traders slowly observing people, interior, comments and gestures until details reveal alternative layers, noise and complexity.

Song Mountain Area, THE CENTRE DIRECTION (2010)
37 min
This Film presents a portrait of a mountain. The mountain is situated in the Chinese district Dengfeng in the centre of Henan province. The mountain base is inhabited and the surrounding area is mainly a mining district. This combination of activities, this coalition of dust and bodies, is it coincidental, collateral or merely a minor detail in the eternal realms of Chinese cosmology?

The City of Illusions

©2011, Fanny Zaman

audio/video piece
11:11 min.


In 1991 the Empire collapsed. In the video piece we hear the documented confession (from 2011) of a former civilian of the Soviet Empire talking about “something”, which is not revealed to the viewer. The images we do see are few, looped and slowed down, all shot in Moscow 2001. Does a body still possess information of a former time period and how does it disclose? By erasing the subject (of the confession) from the confession we tried to reproduce speaking bodies. We tried to disclose only the essential information stored in the body.

The samples taken at an interval of 10 years: the collapsing (1991), the images (2001) and the confession (2011) set out the psychological process of unfolding. The elements are placed in position and put in a state of latency. By doing this they become very open screens for projection.