Being There
Being There is a web-based art project by the Swedish artists Anders Weberg and Robert Willim. It is an attempt to twist the authenticity hunt of tourism and the experience economy. We offer six audiovisual excursions that disclose the nervous system that is underlying tourist experiences. Tourism is growing in many parts of the world. Curious people, with bags and cameras, are in search of various exciting experiences. Places of interest are visited and documented. An important ingredient of the tourism industry is the concept of authenticity and the lure of the unique. But the question is: What would be the most authentic experience? Attractive places are targets for more than travel agencies.
This art project twists the authenticity hunt. We offer a number of audiovisual excursions beneath the gloss of the tourism rhetoric. Six films, imagining six places. It is an attempt to disclose the nervous system that is underlying tourist experiences. The places we have chosen are high density, they are tourist magnets and global hotspots. They are places associated with pleasure, but also with terror. With the shortfilms coupled to the different places we want to examine the tension between pleasure and fear.
The films are made solely from clips out of tourist movies and similar material. The clips have been twisted into a surreal atmosphere. And the sounds accompanying the visuals is based on manipulations of one or two sounds that are often used to give stereotypical associations to the various places, e.g. demo sounds from sample libraries. The audiovisual whole express an evocative imaginary geography.
Download the films, save them in your media player and take them with you when you visit the different places. And remember, don’t leave luggage unattended.
