Data, please!
by Jana De Troyer and Steffen Reichelt
2021
interactive browser-based installation - 4 minutes
Our online behaviour is subject to marketing mechanisms. Clicks, likes, watch time, etc. are
transformed into algorithms and constantly monitored and updated in order to maintain personalised
content and user engagement. The retrieved information is then monetized through targeted
advertising. Meanwhile, most people’s webcam usage has risen exponentially. We open our cameras
through video conferences, live streams, and the capture of our daily lives in "stories". Intimate
personal details like our living rooms and facial expressions are shared with our online community,
but we easily lose sight of the processing chain our images travel through from one device to the
next.
Actively accessing this feed could provide cooperatives with a wealth of new information ready to be
fed to their algorithms. Could this be the next step in the growth of the hungry data machines? And
where do we, as individuals, draw the line?
In a playful way, De Troyer and Reichelt explore the possibility of webcam-based user tracking with
the interactive audiovisual installation Data, please! They invite the visitors to engage with their
body data in the digital space.
Data, please! was produced for BROWSER2021, an online festival for web-based music, and later
adapted for the exhibition of My Behavioral Surplus in the Wagenhallen in Stuttgart (Summer 2021).
Jana De Troyer
Composer-Performer Jana De Troyer positions herself at the dynamic borders between styles and
disciplines. She deftly switches between her roles of composer, free improviser, instrumentalist,
human, media artist and programmer. Coming from a background as a contemporary saxophonist, De
Troyer has always been curious about further exploring and fusing various modes of expression. This
“Experimentierfreude” has brought about a myriad of creative collaborations with composers,
musicians and artists from other disciplines such as visual arts, dance and coding.
Her compositional output consists of both instrumental and electronic music, as well as interactive
installations, web art and audiovisual works. She has developed works for knitting guitar quartet
(Fashionista’s), kissers (DU-O), a window cleaner (Putzzwang), distracted visitors ( ||: Focus |
Distraction :|| ), robotic insects (Inneres Insektenballett), and more. At the core of her work is a
deep sonic exploration of non-musical concepts, which often leads to the integration of
interdisciplinary means.
De Troyer has been artist in residence at EMS Stockholm (2023), subnet Salzburg (2022), Künstlerhaus
Lauenburg (2022) and Künstlerstadt Kalbe (2017). She has master degrees in Saxophone Performance
(MHL Lübeck, 2018) and in Contemporary Performance and Composition (HfMT Hamburg, CNSMD Lyon, EMTA
Tallinn, KMH Stockholm, 2020). She has performed on stages such as Blurred Edges (2021, 2022),
Ultima Festival (2018), Taichung Jazz Festival (2017), Whatever Works! (2019), Provinzlärm (2022,
2023), Marathon 3000 (2021) and The Art of Improvisation (2021). Her works have been part of
festivals such as My Behavioral Surplus (2021), BROWSER (2021), IDKF (2022), Performing Media
Festival (2022), Sonopol (2021) and Blurred Edges (2021).
