THE CREATURE

COMMISSION ME TO MAKE A VIDEO PORTRAIT OF YOU!


The principle of The Creature is that anybody interested can commission me to make an art video about their online presence. The first work in this series has been commissioned by the Haus Der Elektronischen Kunste museum in Basel, CH, for their program Net Encounters and will be a portrait of the museum's curator Boris Magrini.

If you are interested in commissioning a work about you from this series, please write me at: contact[at]laurenhuret[dot]com.


What's The Creature about?
Price List
FAQ

What's The Creature about?

Since the beginning of social media, I have been intrigued by peoples' online behavior. How people share bits of their lives, how they deal with self-representation, how they promote themselves, etc. I can’t help thinking every time I post something online that I am doing something wrong. This is partly due to a distrust of Surveillance Capitalism and to fear of judgment, but mostly because I feel that sharing select aspects of my life can be misleading (sometimes intentionally), risky and or totally uninteresting. Nonetheless, I continue to share and post and I often feel obliged to as an artist. Despite my skepticism, I find this phenomenon utterly fascinating, especially the shear volume of information and images that people willingly put into the public space (or rather the imposter of public space) that is the Internet.

In a performative lecture I did back in 2017, I compared the act of sharing bits of one's life online to an act of diffracting or disassembling, spreading fragments of one's soul and being, like clues of their existence on Earth. As a somewhat fervent media critic, who prefers to observe things through a more occult lens, I see these fragments of self (at anyone and everyone’s disposal) like tiny spectres, floating ghosts of the sharer, stored and disconnected from them forever.

The metaphor I used during this lecture was that of Dr. Frankenstein's creature. In the story, the creature is pieced together from various human bodies, a collage/assemblage whose fragments constitute a new being. To my mind, the dissemination of personal data is a kind of undoing and dislocating of the self, almost the inverse of Dr. Frankenstein's approach, or the step prior to his intervention — the creation of base elements from which a new self might be formed. The ensemble of these fragments and bytes strewn across different platforms come back together to constitute what some call the "digital identity." But for me, it’s much more than that. It is a stretched-out "augmented" self, it is the online creature self ("creature" in the sense that it has been "created"). By giving other people, even strangers, access to select parts and representations of ourselves, together we create simulacra of our personas. As we observe the fragments of others, we act to reassemble them, becoming subjective participants in the creation of these simulacra. We might even feel like we know somebody without ever having met them.

Taking these thoughts and feelings as a starting point, I have decided to collect and gather your fragments and reassemble them on demand. I will be like Dr. Frankenstein, but with a private detective touch. I will scrape together the digital traces and hints you have left behind and sculpt them into a likeness of your creature self.

To make it simple, you, as an art patron, have the possibility to commission me to make artwork about your online presence. This is an information-age portrait in the era of mass-sharing. It is the record produced by an investigation that I will conduct about you, an archive in time of your online self. No private information from our correspondence or prior exchanges (e.g. your contact info) will figure in the artwork, only what is found online. As if we were total strangers.

As an artist, I will attempt to understand who you are, following your track and my instincts to create a video portrait of you. The final piece will therefore also reflect my own subjectivity and who I imagine you to be. It will be influenced by my mood — sometimes prophetic and dramatic, sometimes light and fun, other times weird and absurd. You’re the model, I am the painter.

If you are interested, please write me at: contact[at]laurenhuret[dot]com

Price List

1. A TINY CREATURE - 500
   - 2 to 4 days of research, writing and editing
   - Duration: between 2 and 6 minutes
2. A MODEST CREATURE - 1'000
   - 4 to 6 days of research, writing and editing
   - Duration: between 6 and 10 minutes
3. AN IMPRESSIVE CREATURE - 1'500
   - 6 to 8 days of research, writing and editing
   - Duration: between 10 and 14 minutes
4. A MASSIVE CREATURE - 2'000
   - 8 to 10 days of research, writing and editing
   - Duration: between 14 and 20 minutes

FAQ

1. Q : If I, as a buyer, commission a video artwork from this project, The Creature, what would I get?
   A : You would get an unique video artwork made by Lauren Huret, based on what the artist gathers online about you, but not only : she will implement her own subjective view about you and will try to re-construct who she thinks you are. The final result cannot be predicted, it will depend upon what is available online about you and the artist’s mood and inspiration in the moment.
2. Q : How do I go about commissioning a Creature video?
   A : You can start by sending an e-mail stating you’re interested to acquire/commission a video artwork of The Creature. Please include your first and last name, so the artist can begin online research. If the artist cannot find sufficient information and content, she reserves the right to refuse the commission. If the artist is up for it, she will reply to you with payment procedures and a contract. She will also ask you few questions that you will be free to answer or not. Then she will start the investigation process.
3. Q : What will the format and length of the video artwork be? And how will I receive it?
   A : The format will be an .mp4 video file, in HD (1080 x 1920 px). It can be in vertical or horizontal format, depending on the material found. The length will also depend upon the quantity of material found. When editing of the video is completed, the artist will ask for your mailing address. The video will then be shipped to you on a custom USB stick, in a unique package, accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity. If the client prefers, the video can be sent via online transfer.
4. Q : How long it will take for me to receive the artwork?
   A : The artist will try her best to complete it within 3 months. If the process exceeds this time, she will keep you updated on her progress.
5. Q : If I commission a video about me, will the artist have the right to exhibit it (online or in a gallery, museum or off-space)?
   A : Because you will have bought the artwork and it will be unique to you, you will have the right to decide if you want it to be exhibited or not. It is typical for video works to be sold as editions, meaning that a limited number of copies are sold. In this case there will be two , one unique copy for you (or edition) and one artist’s copy. The artist's copy is for her private archive. If you decide that you want your video to remain private, she will agree to never exhibit the work, but she will keep this one copy for her records.
6. Q : How can I keep/archive the video artwork for a really long time?
   A : Video formats change relatively frequently, but there are many ways to preserve a video artwork. The artist offers to discuss the different possibilites according to your ideal scenario, technical means and knowledge of video conservation processes.
7. Q : What can I do if I don’t like the final result?
   A : The commissioned video will investigate your online presence and self-representation. It is probable that the final result will shake you a bit. You may even feel a sense of discomfort by the compilation of what the artist finds (but you might also love it!). It’s one thing to put personal information online, but it’s a totally different thing to see how other people perceive and treat it. Prepare yourself to be a little surprised or weirded out. If you really don't like the piece, it will be yours to decide what to do with and whether or not to share, but once it is done, it will not be possible for the artist to reimburse you. It is up to you if you want to give the artist the right to exhibit the artwork, if not, nobody will ever see it except for you and her.
8. Q : What am I paying for?
   A : You are commissioning an unique artwork which makes you an art patron. The price of the artwork goes to cover artist's labor put into the creative process of investigation, writting, editing, music composing, post-production, etc.. This can add up to many hours of work. This financial exchange supports the artist directly, allowing her to continue her practice. Although less tangible, it is important to consider that the price and value of the artwork factor in the years of prior artistic experience—experiments, research, successes, faliures, findings, developments and education—that contribute to the artist's position and skills.
   
   Once you become an art patron and commission this artwork, you become the artwork. In commissioned religious paintings from the Renaissance era, it was very common to include a representation of the patron in the painting, usually in a low corner, or as a face hidden in a crowd. Should you decide that the artist has the right to exhibit your Creature portrait, there is a chance that you will be remembered as a patron in a larger art historical context.
9. Q : Can I make prints or stills from the video?
   A : Theoretically, no. But this matter can be discussed with the artist. If you want to print stills with the intent to sell them, this would be illegal, in the sense that intellectual property still belongs to the artist, even if a copy of the work is owned by you. You’ll find more details about this in the contract you will sign with the artist. In the case of making a screen capture of the video to post on social media, the artist will be open to discuss this if proper credit is given.
10. Q : Once I have my video, how can I display it?
    A : You can show it anywhere anytime! In your home on a flat screen, online with proper credits, on your phone. If a museum requests to exhibit it, you will be free to accept or refuse depending on what you decided and agreed upon with the artist. You will be the owner of an original video artwork, so enjoy it!

The Creature (Boris Magrini), video still, 2021