Manu Luksch
Born 1970 in Vienna. Lives in London and Vienna.
Manu Luksch is a founder of ambientTV.NET, a crucible for independent, interdisciplinary projects ranging from installation through documentary, dance and gastronomy, to sound and video composition and live manipulation, as well as a founding member of arts production company Ambient Information Systems, is an artist filmmaker who works outside the frame. The moving image, and in particular the evolution of film in the digital or networked age, has been a core theme of her works. Characteristic is the blurring of boundaries between linear and hypertextual narrative, directed work and multiple authorship, and post-produced and self-generative pieces. Expanding the idea of the viewing environment is also of importance; recent works have been shown on electronic billboards in public urban spaces and open air cinemas in remote rural places.
Through her films, telematic performances and interdisciplinary works, Manu Luksch explores her preoccupation with the effects of emerging technologies on: daily life, social relations, and urban and political structures. Particular zones of focus are the borders of public space, the weave of the urban fabric, surveillance and the gaze, security and identity systems.
One of her recent projects, FACELESS, is a science fiction fairy tale compiled from surveillance video footage recovered under data protection legislation. The film treats CCTV images as ‘legal readymades’, and its scenario derives from the legal properties of the image. The voice over was narrated by Tilda Swinton. FACELESS is included in the Collection Centre Pompidou.
