Connecting Cities symposium

Jeremy Bailey - Master/Slave Invigilator System

Anonymous, Lycra-clad 'slaves' are roaming the streets of Brussels, while Bailey's face appears in real time, on screens attached to their heads. Bailey, meanwhile, acts as a 'distributed presence', providing supervision via a digital link. It's an unsettling prospect, not least for Bailey himself who can only see and guide guests around each city on a reciprocal data stream.

The representation of these servantile invigilators as anonymous, androgynous and glamorous visions of the future is admittedly GaGa-esque. Driven by the motives and aspirations of Bailey's alter ego 'The Famous New Media Artist Jeremy Bailey' – a title the artist views as paradoxical.
Master/Slave... is destined to be a memorable folly to ignite ongoing thought and debate into the past, present and future of art development and consumption. Ultimately, Bailey wants to tell people about art and to ask questions.

About Jeremy Bailey

Award-winning Toronto-based artist Jeremy Bailey is renowned for his use of augmented reality technologies and computer vision graphics to produce stimulating works of trans-media and live performance. Bailey makes use of an over-embellished middle class, white-male ego, to subvert, criticize and poke fun of the dominant hierarchies often associated with new media arts and its technologies.

Bailey has exhibited internationally, both in solo and group shows, and as part of extensive residencies, including FACT, Liverpool; Shargorod, Ukraine and MQ; Vienna. Recent projects include performances for Transmediale, the Stedelijk Museum, FACT, Tate Liverpool and Rhizome at the New Museum in New York.