Sanctum Exhibit

At the Henry Art Museum, there was an exhibit viewed outside, called the Sanctum.  The way the Sanctum works is that anyone viewing the project must stand within 12 feet of the Henry facade and look directly at the screens.  The system will include the viewers by determining age and gender of the viewers and matching that information with Facebook posts and past videos.  This is a communicative art installation that gathers captured images of people viewing the project to produce cinematic stories or a sequence of connected events from social media that matches data of the viewers.  With Sanctum, they are looking to examine the narrative potential of social media and raise questions about differing imperatives rising in our culture.  At the same time they want to promote and embrace more electronic media while still valuing traditional beliefs of privacy.  Concerning issues of privacy, the cameras are hidden and it's capturing videos of people without their permission.  Also, people walking by can see what other people are saying on the screen.  But at the same time, viewers are able to see themselves on the screen and have the feeling of security of not being completely alone.