Matthew Biederman

Situational Compliance (2025)

In this audio-visual interactive work, a system plays a game of Simon Says leveraging artificial intelligence and computer vision as a means to reflect on larger issues of public surveillance. The methods and technical aspects of the installation are exposed as a means of understanding this system and in turn, public surveillance systems and their capabilities.

This installation playfully examines the dynamics of surveillance and compliance within a society increasingly analyzed by technology. As players follow commands generated by the system, they traverse the tension between agency and external control. As they perform each pose, it represents both a moment of creativity and simultaneously the negation of identity in a digitally mediated environment. The computer vision system echoes the omnipresence of public surveillance, capturing the physical movements as compliance or non-compliance.

The installation challenges participants to reflect on their own behaviors in the face of an ever-watchful eye. The work is a commentary on the human tendency to conform, often unthinkingly, to authoritative signals. This interactive experience invites an inquiry into the nature of freedom and the mechanisms of social control. It prompts participants to consider how technology can both liberate and constrain, revealing the complexities of human interaction within a landscape increasingly defined by the intertwining of artificial intelligence and surveillance

Audio + Additional Programming: Lucas Paris

Created with the support of Mois MUlti (Quebec City), MUTEK (Montreal), and CALQ