From the archive: Stephen Soreff, Flying eye, 1981

Locussolus: Stephen Soreff, Flying eye, 1981

'A flying eye is designed to make your life better' according to the voice over in the video Flying Eye that Stephen Soreff made in 1981 in collaboration with de Appel arts centre. The artist takes the viewer to 1991 in a fictional instruction film. We see a future in which a flying eye can be remote controlled through a satellite, and the images the eye records, are broadcasted to a television screen.

It was possible to fly over the Sahara and explore mountains long before the existence of Google Maps. You could even race another flying eye. The viewer becomes pilot and cameraman at the same time. With this futuristic vista Soreff shows a remarkable insight in present-day interactivity and democratization that television and new media have brought us. His flying eye anticipates a world in which GPS, drones and satelites have become common elements in our lives.

The Flying Eye project was a collaboration with Rene Coelho of Montevideo (now: LIMA), de Appel arts centre and Stephen Soreff. It was broadcasted on Mokum TV.

LocusSolus

is a space for staging de Appel arts centre’s living past and lively present. Unravelling and dynamic, in black and white or full-colour HD, LocusSolus shows the fundaments of de Appel arts centre, her surroundings, the now and everything thereafter, to deepen and intensify her future.

LocusSolus is located in the souterrain of de Appel arts centre and open during opening hours of the exhibitions.