Archiving Power, 2018/2024
"Past events, it is argued,have no objective existence, but survive only in written record and in human memories.The past is whatever the recordsand the memories agree upon. And since the Party is in full control of all records and in equally full control of the minds of its members, it follows that the past is whatever the Party chooses to make it."
George Orwell, 1984
Participating as a data collector within a totalitarian system could represent an affirmation of faith in communism and the belief that the GDR offered a legitimate alternative to the West. While some individuals were coerced or pressured into collaboration, others participated willingly, motivated by personal conviction, loyalty or career advancement.
Surveillance, eavesdropping and informing on others became embedded within everyday life in the GDR. The Stasi depended not only on its official structures but also on a wider network of cooperation, suspicion and silence. This system of observation and control created an atmosphere of fear and mistrust that affected relationships, communities and individual lives.
For this work, I began with a formerly secret, coded list of names connected to the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). I digitally overlaid and edited selected pages, inverting them so that white numbers and letters appear in columns on a black background. Interrupted by vertical gaps, the images resemble fragmented or redacted data streams, creating a visual language of concealment, absence and control.
Within these lists, I discovered surnames such as Fuchs, Ehrlich, Richter, Adler and Frei. Detached from their original context, these names appear almost poetic. Yet they carry a double meaning: they evoke both individual identity and the language of power. Their meanings — fox, honest, judge, free — reveal tensions between personal qualities, social roles and ideological structures.
By embedding these names within the images, I aim to reveal the anonymous scale of the surveillance apparatus while recovering fragments of individual identity. The installation invites viewers to read between the personal and the institutional, and to reflect on the complex relationship between complicity, resistance, memory and responsibility.
The installation consists of twelve image pairs created from these names. Presented as diptychs in two rows, the arrangement reflects the bureaucratic order of the archive while allowing new relationships and tensions to emerge between the words. Familiar terms shift in meaning when placed within the historical context of surveillance and control.
Accompanying the installation is a slideshow of 170 images drawn from the same source material, presented over ten minutes with sound. Together, the installation and slideshow form a layered reflection on surveillance, silence and the mechanisms through which power records, classifies and shapes memory.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mow51vburkly2lb/Archiving%20Power-hevcmp4.mp4?dl=0
George Orwell, 1984
Participating as a data collector within a totalitarian system could represent an affirmation of faith in communism and the belief that the GDR offered a legitimate alternative to the West. While some individuals were coerced or pressured into collaboration, others participated willingly, motivated by personal conviction, loyalty or career advancement.
Surveillance, eavesdropping and informing on others became embedded within everyday life in the GDR. The Stasi depended not only on its official structures but also on a wider network of cooperation, suspicion and silence. This system of observation and control created an atmosphere of fear and mistrust that affected relationships, communities and individual lives.
For this work, I began with a formerly secret, coded list of names connected to the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). I digitally overlaid and edited selected pages, inverting them so that white numbers and letters appear in columns on a black background. Interrupted by vertical gaps, the images resemble fragmented or redacted data streams, creating a visual language of concealment, absence and control.
Within these lists, I discovered surnames such as Fuchs, Ehrlich, Richter, Adler and Frei. Detached from their original context, these names appear almost poetic. Yet they carry a double meaning: they evoke both individual identity and the language of power. Their meanings — fox, honest, judge, free — reveal tensions between personal qualities, social roles and ideological structures.
By embedding these names within the images, I aim to reveal the anonymous scale of the surveillance apparatus while recovering fragments of individual identity. The installation invites viewers to read between the personal and the institutional, and to reflect on the complex relationship between complicity, resistance, memory and responsibility.
The installation consists of twelve image pairs created from these names. Presented as diptychs in two rows, the arrangement reflects the bureaucratic order of the archive while allowing new relationships and tensions to emerge between the words. Familiar terms shift in meaning when placed within the historical context of surveillance and control.
Accompanying the installation is a slideshow of 170 images drawn from the same source material, presented over ten minutes with sound. Together, the installation and slideshow form a layered reflection on surveillance, silence and the mechanisms through which power records, classifies and shapes memory.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mow51vburkly2lb/Archiving%20Power-hevcmp4.mp4?dl=0
