Saturday, February 8, 2003
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Amsterdam time

On February 8, battling weather and technological glitches, an unencrypted video signal from a hidden camera surveilling a restaurant kitchen was captured using a 2.4 Ghz receiver and streamed wirelessly over the internet using a public wifi access point from an outside location in Amsterdam. The video is from the interior space. The audio are the sounds of the street as captured by the built in microphone of the ibook we used for the broadcast.

This stream was sent by Michelle Teran for the Maids in Cyberspace Festival organized by Studio XX in Montreal.

The wireless video signal and the wireless internet connection are both tantalizingly ephemeral. Prone to interference, the signal can be disrupted by other devices that transmit on the same frequency, by physical obstacles like buildings and also by the movement of my body through space. Because they transmit only over a small distance, they are tied to a physical location.

This camera was particularly unstable. On the evening that we broadcasted, there was only one position in space where the image became clear enough to view. When I shifted slightly, the image on the monitor would disappear once again. The whole performance became a very Zen experience of trying to find the delicate intersection between the two signals and then remaining motionless once that cross-section was located.

Where 'wirelessness' usually implies mobility, this situation is tied to a specific location in space. It requires you to stop, take a moment, capture and contemplate that junction.

Within this interstitial, or 'middle space', we experience two elements instead of just one. We observe the narrative of the hidden interior as it is visualized on the screen. At the same time, it's a cold Saturday night in the middle of Amsterdam. An entire scene of people, objects and events play themselves out in front of us.

**note: to view this stream please have quicktime transport protocol set to http, port 80