A public artpiece proposal by Daniel Sauter
Department of Design | Media Arts
University of California Los Angeles

This proposal prepared for the Captivate Network flat-pannel TV screen technology will describe a public artpiece for high-rise office tower elevators.
Developing concepts for embeded cinema, I'll describe the piece, itÕs impact on the building where it is installed and the installation setup.

The piece I SEE is about the elevator, a well-known everyday-life vehicle, as a stage. It uses the flat-panel TV screens as medium for a public performance artpiece.
For 20 seconds people become a fatal community stuck in 10 x 6 feet shell. Depending on the constellation of people using the elevator as a public space, it potentially becomes on the one hand a protected place for private conversation, on the other hand an inconvenient space where all conversation dies. People are trapped in this spacial situaiton for a certain time period, interrupted by an unpredictable number of interruptions.
Using the elevator as a stage, the piece trys to shift this unpleasant condition of being trapped in a box, and to redifine this space as performative and entertaining place.

On the flat-panel TV screen you can see individuals in an elevator (Fig. 1) looking on a definite point (in fact the flat-panel screen itself). Exactly in this moment, one realizes the similarity of the current situation.
An interplay between the audience on the screen and the real audience begins. Are this people looking at me as well? Who are these people? Where does this picture come from?
These questions initiate a process of awareness about the situation Ð Òwill I be performed on this screen as well? ... if yes, how do I look like right now? ... sould I move, turn around or dance?Ó The spectator becomes performer, the interplay between the individual and the interactive installation begins.

In fact, this is a recorded video from a previous ride. A comuter system controls a randomized time delay between recording and broadcasting - consequently the particular time of the broadcast is inpredictable.

Of course this process of becoming aware to the situation is already recorded and will be the start point for another ride in the elevator and another audience. It is a closed circuit, stimulating itself.

Awareness of technology is the central topic of this piece. It increases word of mouth awareness about this technology.