Unwarranted and Unregistered #2 (2013) is a video adaption of a multimedia installation. The installation features a high gloss cherry black van and projection sited within a gallery space. Visitors are invited to enter the dark interior and watch as the van journeys along the main road of Greytown in the Wairarapa.
The driverless vehicle tracks and marks out the small town as HUDs (heads up displays) appear on the front windscreen, registering and logging the passing cars, scanning the layout of buildings and identifying people on the street. As the journey progresses data onscreen increases until the sight of the landscape is lost altogether.
The film is accompanied by Jose Carreras’ operatic and orchestral rendition of E Hine E. E Hine E is a classic Māori waiata that was utilised by mainstream TV channels in the 1980s/90s to signal the end of transmission for the night (known as the Goodnight Kiwi).
Unwarranted and Unregistered#2 is part of an on going research project that examines the expansion of surveillance culture within New Zealand in relation to the social effects of these changes within local community. This film was shown in an exhibition at Eyebeam in New York as part of an event titled Prism Breakup (2013). The event consisted of a series of talks and workshops focused on strategies for resistance to ubiquitous surveillance.
