Videosphere: You Are Always On A Screen Somewhere...
Surveillance Installation + Video Archeaology Lab
MFA Thesis
(2023)
“Videosphere” is a term coined by critic and theorist Gene Youngblood in the book Expanded Cinema (1979)
At the time of writing, Videosphere was a conceptualization of a new video enviornment influenced by the dominance of broadcast television as means of mass connectivity. As new video technologies infiltrated homes and industries, video would shape architecutral and metal space globally. Video colonizes real space with its live signal which turns all spaces into live and observable places. While we observe video we are simultaneously observed by a surveillance system of physical and virtual cameras existing within and around the interfaces of video screens. Wherever video occupies we ineivably appear on a screen somewhere else...
To represent this idea of the video environment of the Videosphere as a global surveillance space created by an infinite number of video devices, I assembled an installation of analog and digital video technology. The apparatus comprised of cathode ray and LCD monitors, digital projections, tablets, and a virtual reality headset provide individual sites of interactivity for audience members who become particpants in a performance with video. These sites of video as historical and interactive objects also made the Videosphere a labratory akin to the uses of panoptic surveillance (Foucault). The reason for this “Video Archeology Lab” with different eras of technology was designed to show how the passage of electronic signals from one era to another reveals the purpose of video as an invisible medium meant to make all things totally observable. We become aware of a surveillance system by seeing ourselves in screens in the same enviornment that is simultaneously represented as video.
The spaces of physical and video signal are not truly seperate but indivisible as video has come to play an integral role as mass media and user interface. That the space outside and inside of video screens is equally observable. Yet as an installation with overt channels of observation the shock of so many cables, cameras, and lit screens fades out as interactivity between the audience and their transmitted appearance erase fearfulness of this raw surveillance system. There is not even a point at which a human observer can see and not be seen in the classical sense of private surveillance. Instead what we get is video watching and appearing with/within in itself, waiting to be activated and observed. The Videosphere operates openly.
At the time of writing, Videosphere was a conceptualization of a new video enviornment influenced by the dominance of broadcast television as means of mass connectivity. As new video technologies infiltrated homes and industries, video would shape architecutral and metal space globally. Video colonizes real space with its live signal which turns all spaces into live and observable places. While we observe video we are simultaneously observed by a surveillance system of physical and virtual cameras existing within and around the interfaces of video screens. Wherever video occupies we ineivably appear on a screen somewhere else...
To represent this idea of the video environment of the Videosphere as a global surveillance space created by an infinite number of video devices, I assembled an installation of analog and digital video technology. The apparatus comprised of cathode ray and LCD monitors, digital projections, tablets, and a virtual reality headset provide individual sites of interactivity for audience members who become particpants in a performance with video. These sites of video as historical and interactive objects also made the Videosphere a labratory akin to the uses of panoptic surveillance (Foucault). The reason for this “Video Archeology Lab” with different eras of technology was designed to show how the passage of electronic signals from one era to another reveals the purpose of video as an invisible medium meant to make all things totally observable. We become aware of a surveillance system by seeing ourselves in screens in the same enviornment that is simultaneously represented as video.
The spaces of physical and video signal are not truly seperate but indivisible as video has come to play an integral role as mass media and user interface. That the space outside and inside of video screens is equally observable. Yet as an installation with overt channels of observation the shock of so many cables, cameras, and lit screens fades out as interactivity between the audience and their transmitted appearance erase fearfulness of this raw surveillance system. There is not even a point at which a human observer can see and not be seen in the classical sense of private surveillance. Instead what we get is video watching and appearing with/within in itself, waiting to be activated and observed. The Videosphere operates openly.

Exhibition Site Plan
Room One: Self-Surveillance
When first entering Videosphere, audiences are met with stacks of analog video monitors. Instead of centralized observation, the studio monitors are turned in differenct directions while security cameras watch the monitors. These old technologies provoke a sense of surprise and bewilderment upon seeing so many screens that are now obsolete but were once the dominant way of seeing information. But video image as a box is an “other” object that attracts viewers to see what exactly is on screen. What they got was the room it self on multiple closed-circuit feeds. Within monitor screens is the presence of the monitors. And when the audience aproaches the monitors, the vieweres themselves appear on one screen, then turn and see themselves elsewhere. A game begins where invidivuals try to figure out which cameras are connected to which monitors and what monitors are displayed. Knowing the locations of overt or open surveillance can be resolved by using one’s own body to activate screens. Interactions with self-image and the screen serve to help the viewer understand dislocated space.

Like Bruce Nauman’s Video Corridor, this room was effective in turning the screen into an object of curiosity which invites interactivity. All people present become incidental performers for screens whose cameras are merely surveilling surveillancy technology. The presence of a surveillance system is evident not only because of wires, cables, hums, and CCTV equipment but that the observation space is what is being observed and that surveillance is represented in its own private feed. What is creepy occurence of private video feeds made public turns surveillance into an aproachable activity.
Whether the auddience members perform with their own image with sways and repeating motions or just watching the physcial and screen activity, nowhere can someone see Videosphere and not be seen by it.
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Room Two
Black Partition Room
Videosphere VR
In a room which was concealed by the white sheet projection and black plastic strips is where the supposed final point of observation. In a
Pre-Production
Raw Build Images
Center For The Arts 278 Production Studio
Center For The Arts 271 Graduate Studio

Hours & Location
1270 Niagara Street Buffalo, NY 14213
2nd Floor Adjoined by Buffalo String Works
Opening Reception - Friday April 28th 6PM-9PM
Saturday April 29th 2PM-5PM
Sunday April 30th Closed
Friday May 5th 4PM-6PM
Saturday May 6th 6PM-9PM
Sunday May 7th 5PM-8M
*May 1st through 4th by Appointment Only macherno@buffalo.edu
Thesis Commitee Faculty Members
Associate Professor Mark Shepard (Chair)
Assitant Professor Jason Gesitweidt
Professor Dave Pape
Assitant Professor Sama Waham
Sponsers
Breeser Development Group LLC
Dept. of Media Study - University at Buffalo
UB Graduate Student Association
Saturday April 29th 2PM-5PM
Sunday April 30th Closed
Friday May 5th 4PM-6PM
Saturday May 6th 6PM-9PM
Sunday May 7th 5PM-8M
*May 1st through 4th by Appointment Only macherno@buffalo.edu
Thesis Commitee Faculty Members
Associate Professor Mark Shepard (Chair)
Assitant Professor Jason Gesitweidt
Professor Dave Pape
Assitant Professor Sama Waham
Sponsers
Breeser Development Group LLC
Dept. of Media Study - University at Buffalo
UB Graduate Student Association
Exhibition Artist Statement
But is the installation a point of surveillance or interactivity? By arranging cameras and screens people will always appear on a screen in which we see ourselves and others and the contents of one screen looked at becomes the content of another screen. However this installation is not about just human beings apearing on a screen. This Videosphere is about being seen with video. It is a system arranged to be a self-surveillance of videos presence. The live images beg to viewed, interacted, and recorded not by users, viewers, or operators. In this performative space everyone is an interactor. And as for surveillance video, there is no point in which someone can privately view the exihibit without being seen themselves. Instead we should be aware that our dependence upon video as interface means that we are always appearing on screens without exact knowledge of when, where, and whom. Videosphere, is about video self-communicating through modulations. The only information in the actual exhibit is whatever can be interacted with.
Special Thanks:
Laura Maloney
Bill Breeser
Matthew Schery
Ellen Chernoff
Ian Hunter
Mitch
Bill Breeser
Matthew Schery
Ellen Chernoff
Ian Hunter
Mitch
Carl Lee
Mike Bouqard
Alex Reid
Paige Sarlin
Elaine Schwartz
Mike Bouqard
Alex Reid
Paige Sarlin
Elaine Schwartz
Mark Shepard
Jason Gesitweidt
Dave Pape
Sama Waham
Famous Clark
Cort Lippe
Jason Gesitweidt
Dave Pape
Sama Waham
Famous Clark
Cort Lippe
Olurotimi Akanbi
András Blazsek
Tim Georger
Jesse Rodkin
Lewuga Benson
András Blazsek
Tim Georger
Jesse Rodkin
Lewuga Benson
Alex Casetti
Bello Bello
Walker Tufts
Kelsey Rupe
Rachel Galet
Ana Lavatelli
Bello Bello
Walker Tufts
Kelsey Rupe
Rachel Galet
Ana Lavatelli
Bill Sack
Bernard Dolecki
Jon Bolt
Salem Browning
Matt Kenyon
Peer Bode
Bernard Dolecki
Jon Bolt
Salem Browning
Matt Kenyon
Peer Bode
About Me ︎ Curriculum Vitae
Project Index︎︎︎
2023
Videosphere: You’re Always On A Screen Somewhere...
Brown Bunny
Inertia
2022
MAX Jitter Programming
FxR Versus AhR
Async Rolling
Always On
Enframing Rey
The Vidiot
Computer Home Entertainment
2021
Machine Learning: ATM
Pursuing Earth
THE LIBERTARIAN
Wiley World Wide Weather
ReWind Compressor
Discarding Earth
Being A Passenger
2020
Can(t) See Me Now!
ColorPress Brush
White Ball Flux Brush
THE APP
2019
PATS
2018
Ice Cream Drone
2015
Vanilla ISIS
2017
Invisible Foci
2014
Digital Synthesis Illustration
2013
Rood World
Synthesis Ilustration
2011
Verse
Master (Series)
Video Being
2010
Dance Aches
Bangalor
︎ macherno@buffalo.edu
︎ videoarchaeology
︎ michaelchenoff
︎ michaelchernoff
︎ videosignified
︎ michaelchernoff
︎ Videosphere
©2010-2023 Michael Chernoff