- Kurze Geschichte der Globalisierungsproteste
- Martin Jaeggi über Temporary Discomfort I bis III
- Zu Temporary Discomfort IV
- Zu Temporary Discomfort V
- Das WEF als digitales Mosaik


About the Disconituous Panoramas of Part IV of Temporary Discomfort , 2003

Part 1 Pulver gut (Good powder snow)

Whereas TD I - III utilises a range of different traditional photographic cameras, TD IV makes use of a new technology that was originally intended not for creative photographic purposes but for surveillance and control functions: Three interactive network cameras were mounted near or within the security area of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, 23-28 January 2003. The cameras overlooked the Congress Center and the surrounding Kurpark and Congress Hotel, creating a triangle of private surveillance around the
summit.

One of the network cameras, Position A, was specially programmed to generate a wall-to-wall live panorama in Zurich over the entire period of the summit. Visitors could watch the panorama as it grew little by little every day. (this progammation was develpped in collaboration with an engineer specially for my purposes). From 23-28 January, the camera recorded single images onto a server every morning from 6am to 9am (3-4 rows with 62 images each). The images were then simultaneously downloaded in Zurich, each printed out on A3 paper and put onto a wall in the Kunstraum Walcheturm. The resulting final panorama was composed of 1446 single shots covering an angle of 170 degrees horizontally and 40 degrees vertically. The x-axis of the panorama covered a period of two hours while the y-axis extends over six days, the duration of the Forum.* It had the dimensions 20 x 4.6m. The panorama in geneva is a 7m to 2.6 metres is dimension and is a derivative of the one mentionend above. (see exhibitions)

The panorama deals with the paradox of pretending to show everything while in fact leaving out most of what was occurring over the period the territory was under surveillance. In essence a panoramic view suggests control and possession by the eye. But here in this context, the camera is focused on the security operations of a world summit. It puts the agents of surveillance under surveillance themselves and places them within the totality of the urban scenery in a state of emergency. Due to the scheduled anti-globalisation protests, a further reference is made to historic battle panoramas in which a single picture shows events that occurred over the duration of a political/historical event. To mention two such examples: the Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne or the Murten Panorama in Switzerland.


Part 2 Hotspots 2003 DVD

In addition, the cameras were also programmed to record a shot every ten minutes of some potentially interesting spots within the panoramas or of the area around the Congress Center. This is the raw material that will be processed and combined to create silent video sequences, located somewhere between video and photography, an analogy to the Hotspot serie in TD I and the Personnel sequences in TD III.