Sunsettings, 2023
Zentralwäscherei, Zürich, CH
Sunsettings is both an installation and a zine, accessible on a solar-powered server, that explores the history of solar theories in relation to their latest development in our connected world. From Eratosthenes to software used in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) for geolocating images, Sunsettings offers an interdisciplinary exploration of the sun's role in information and knowledge production. Produced on the occasion of Volumes Zürich 2023.
Customs - Home Screens, 2023
The Wrong Biennale, online
Customs is an image bank curated since 2020 through a unique, hands-on method. The artist collects personal data from luggage tags on trains between France and Switzerland, engaging passengers in conversations that often lead to the exchange of multimedia content. For The Wrong Biennale, she selected images based on passengers' stories of returning home. These images are presented as a photo novel on the pavilion’s website, where visitors can download them as home screen wallpapers under a CC-BY NC 4.0 license. berenice-serra.com/home-screens/
Publication Tactique, 2023
Published by Laboratoire Modulaire - ésam
This publication documents the research conducted by Bérénice Serra between 2018 and 2021 on the topic of Tactical Publishing. It includes texts by socio-anthropologist Jean-Paul Fourmentraux, socio-anthropologist specializing in digital culture and media hacktivism; Valérie Perrin, director of Espace multimédia Gantner; and Luc Brou, coordinator of Oblique/s and HACNUM network. Graphic design Charlotte Willaume. berenice-serra.com/publication-tactique/
Customs, 2020-2022
Database, image bank, suitcases, performance
Customs is an image bank curated since 2020 through a unique protocol. Personal data, including names, first names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, is manually collected outside of digital channels. This information is gathered from luggage tags attached to suitcases left on trains that the artist regularly travels on between France and Switzerland.
Through this method, passengers are approached and invited to initiate a conversation that may lead to the exchange of multimedia content: videos, images, and sometimes even audio recordings. Customized artifacts are then produced with the images each time the work is shown in an art context.
Pupilles, 2022
Perfomance, Le Bel Ordinaire, Pau, FR
'Pupilles' is lecture performance and the conclusion of a four-year research project conducted at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. The performance questions the modes of conception, production, and exchange of cultural forms in the digital age, with a particular emphasis on the notion of publication.
Metametaprogram, 2022
thingsnonthings.space
Metametaprogram is an interactive narrative inspired by Vilém Flusser’s The Non-Thing 1 and The Non-Thing 2, published as part of the series 'A throw of the dice' curated by Delphine Chapuis Schmitz for the project 'There's something wrong with my hands. Oh yes, they're not holding you.'
Tradescantia, 2021
Self-hosted website, ESP32, chlorophyll prints
Tradescantia was developed as a way of reflecting on self-hosting web-based artworks and plant-based digital data storage.
This project has two components: a webpage hosted on a ESP32 (microcontroller) and a QR code which was printed with solar energy using photosynthesis. The ink is 100% chlorophyll. Image: NØ SCHOOL and Cookie Collective.
SWIPE wallpaper, 2021
Katsigras Museum, Larissa, GR
The SWIPE wallpaper serves as an expressive surface, transforming the wall into a space for leaving encoded messages. Throughout the exhibition, the pattern grows, evolves, and becomes a reflection of visitors' thoughts. Based on the SWIPE writing system, the installation encourages drawing on the walls and learning a digital writing system with pen and paper. This site-specific installation adapts to the country where it is displayed, with the keyboard grid varying accordingly.
SWIPE writing copybook, 2020
Writing copybook designed with HTML + CSS
The SWIPE writing copybook offers a learning method for a writing system inspired by the principles of gestural input. The writing system in question regards the traces created through the use of a virtual keyboard as a distinctive writing method. The web-to-print writing copybook includes practical and poetic exercises aimed at facilitating the learning of this writing system outside its digital environment.
SWIPE, 2019
Writing system, transliteration app
Swype/Swiftkey is a virtual keyboard designed for touchscreen smartphones and tablets, enabling users to input text by sliding their finger from the initial to the final letter of a word. Employing a predictive text system, this keyboard can achieve a writing speed of 50 words per minute. The SWIPE project introduces a transliteration app that emphasizes the correlation between writing speed and language enrichment through graphic writing, recording the symbols generated with the Swype/Swiftkey keyboard. Each word consequently generates a unique symbol. Development: Bérénice Serra and Jacques-Daniel Pillon. Exhibition views were featured at Le Shadok in Strasbourg and exhibition Valis at Ars Electronica 2019.
RESIDENCE display, 2019
Website, headsets, A0 print, catalog
RESIDENCE is both a protocol and a tool for implementing digital interventions within the Google Street View platform. It hijacks the Street View app for smartphones, enabling any user to augment the online visual cartography. By downloading existing 360-degree views or creating new ones, artists are invited to modify, enhance, and distort the visual cartography. The website compiles these contributions, providing open access to the project's catalog. Within the display, headsets allow visitors to experience RESIDENCE in an immersive manner. Exhibition views were featured at Biennale Némo in Paris 2019 and Art Mobile in Montluçon 2018.
RESIDENCE catalog, 2019
Booklet, open access, 44 pages
RESIDENCE, created by Bérénice Serra, is a digital exhibition format accessible to everyone. Following the model of artistic residencies, RESIDENCE invites unique works in an online residency program, accessible 24/7. The inaugural catalog, produced in collaboration with Stereo Buro, was printed in March 2019, with 500 copies. berenice-serra.com/residence
RESIDENCE, 2018
Google Street View interventions, website, toolkit
RESIDENCE allows anyone to download, modify and upload 360 views inside Google Street View. It relies on the Street View app for smartphone, which allows any user to augment the online visual cartography. This tool, initially released to skirt the responsibility of the American company towards the published contents - by applying a copyright on the images taken by the users — opens a creative breach in its use. The photos are not subject to any moderation by Google and will only be removed if an "undesirable content" is reported by other users. Embracing the opportunities for detour given by the very functioning of the publication tool, this project includes the participation of Marion Balac, Raphaël Fabre, Arzhel Prioul, Seitoung, Bérénice Serra, Julien Toulze and Mathieu Tremblin. The works are visible online by all users of Google Street View. berenice-serra.com/residence
PUBLIC newspaper, 2017
Collection of portraits, newspaper, 289x380mm
The free newspaper displays portraits from the PUBLIC project. The goal is to rethink how the collected user-generated images can circulate and be distributed. By being placed in public spaces, the newspaper raises issues related to the history of portraiture, particularly in the context of facial recognition algorithms. Collection: FRAC Normandie Rouen, acquisition 2021.
Galerie, 2016
Performance, offline exhibition
Galerie was performed on October 22, 2016 at the FNAC store — Champs-Élysées in Paris. The perfomance consisted in the staging of a group exhibition hijacking smartphones in electronics stores, employing a strategy of retail poisoning. The collaborative effort included the contributions of Julien Nédelec, Benoît Pype, Eric Watier, Guillaume Viaud, Selma Lepart, and Michaël Sellam. Watch the video
PUBLIC, 2014-2017
Collection of anonymous portraits
In electronics stores all over the world, smartphones are on display for potential buyers. Affixed to the furniture, these arranged and tilted objects cease to be merely "mobile" or "personal." Despite their fixed positions, all the core functionalities inherent to smartphones remain operational: note-taking, calendar, contacts, camera, clock, etc. Certain visitors activate the camera during their exploration, typically using the front-facing one by default. And, once a shot is taken, the image is automatically stored in the phone's image gallery without any manual intervention. Since 2014, the PUBLIC project has been dedicated to collecting the portraits captured on these phones.
Petipeu étalon, 2014
Sculpture, cast silver
Today, all scales can be measured between the index and the thumb, using the pinch-to-zoom gesture. But, before the rise of digital tools, the only measure fitting between the index finger and the thumb was a qualitative one expressed as "just a little bit." This sculpture establishes a unique measure for the gesture commonly associated with this expression, presenting it as a standard made of silver. Exhibition view feature at Biennale Internationale du Design Saint-Etienne 2015. Finalist of the Marc Charras — Creation & Invention Prize.