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Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)
Luc Courchesne, «Portrait One», 1990
CD-ROM-Version (1995) | Screenshot | Photograph: ZKM | © Luc Courchesne
 


 
Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)Luc Courchesne «Portrait One» | CD-ROM-Version (1995)
Montreal | Canada | 305*245*67 cm (W*H*D) | Monitor, semi-transparent mirror, Apple Macintosh SE/30, laserdisc player, video/audio on laserdisc, speakers, amplifier, trackball, 1 user, monitor on a rostrum with an arch-shaped gateway, HyperCard | Concept: Luc Courchesne | Photograph: Jason Levy | Camera: Jason Levy | Participants: Paule Ducharme (script, cast) | Software: Holger Jost, Volker Kuchelmeister, Sylvia Molina Muro (Interface Design) | Programming: Courchesne, Henry See, Fortner Anderson | Edition / Production: Luc Courchesne / Canada Council | Archive / Collection: ZKM, Karlsruhe
 

 Luc Courchesne
«Portrait One»

«It is true that I am unreachable – and that you cannot change me. But look at the people around you: Are they so different from me? Are they reachable?» The one saying this is Marie, a young lady who lives in the ‹world behind the mirror›. We can face her, flirt a little, and make eye contact. Of course ‹Marie› as she appears to us is not real, she is not even a reflection of herself, but has been created through electronic-analog picture transmissions. She is in a virtual surrounding in which we, Marie's admirers, and Marie herself, act as icons in a symbolic sequence. For Marie, the computer, which brings her to virtual life, and the person involved – a human individual–are nothing other than this: a symbolic system, in which triggered actions, reactions, and interactions are resolved as in an experiment.