Introduction 3/4

Susan Collins embarks on a debate of her artistic practice by researching its imaginative and illusionary parameters. As shared and inhabited environments, 'each of them questions the role of the viewer in the realisation of the work-as subject and object, observer and observed.' She introduces the role of space, time, and even light as uncontrollable, determining factors in a site-specific and open configuration. She relates her work to early 'trompe l'oeil' aesthetics, which can be seen as 'a collage of the illusionist space into real space, and the networked narrative environment then creating a space in between time and over distance'.

The thread of the imaginary is picked up by Andrea Zapp to discuss a transient and ephemeral content that is shaped by installation projects which set up an evident fade for a documentary yet fictitious user representation, ultimately linking it to Zizek's 'phantasmatic room'. She analyses the 'onsite' functionality and actual 'gestalt' of such a space, relating it to the remote 'online' influence to achieve 'an open-ended multi-channelled formation that addresses diverse forms of viewer existence'.

Paul Sermon reinforces this idea, highlighting the 'split dynamic' of the viewer's equally performing and observing role within a telematic environment. He says, 'as an artist I am both designer of the environment and therefore director of the narrative, which I determine through the social and political context that I choose to play out in these telepresent encounters.' The telepresent interactive screen surface becomes a sensitive stimulus to research more psychological aspects, such as the 'double consciousness' as a reciprocal concept in an immersive communication and installation space.
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