Random Portraits

by Annette Finnsdottir and Darren Copeland
Created for Annualgeneralmeeting, Copenhagen, November, 2007.

How to be defined in places of transit and impermanence – when you are within easy reach and immediate access at all times – and how to be defined by being connected to somone far way while disconnected to the place where you are – which space do our bodies relate to?

In the beginng of October 2006 the only thing Canadian sound artist Darren Copeland and Danish media artist Annette Finnsdottir knew about each other was their mobile phone numbers. And they were invited by AGM to do portraits of the other prompted by 7 eventscores that drew from the following questions:

Where are you? Step into the nearest room.
Where are you? Is there something nearby to eat?
Where are you? Are you with somone? If not - get in contact.
Where are you? Pick up your work where you last left it.
Where are you? Stop what you are doing to relax.
Where are you? If you are outside then go in. Or if you are inside then go out.
Where are you? Play a game with something or with somebody.
Where are you? Find a place to hide.
Where are you? Find the most beautiful thing around you?
Where are you? Find something that is moving and document its progress over one minute.
Where are you? Focus on something that is static.
Where are you? Find the highest or most important vantage point.

The mobile-telephone with its built-in camera and audio-recorder offers new possibilites to look at ourselves and our surroundings and maybe also offers a possibility for a new artistic media language.