FACELESS
FACELESS
It dares its audience to question their own culpability in this all too real state of affairs – The Guardian
In an eerily familiar city, a calendar reform has dispensed with the past and the future, leaving citizens faceless, without memory or anticipation. Unimaginable happiness abounds – until a woman recovers her face…
FACELESS uses CCTV images obtained under the terms of the UK Data Protection Act as ‘legal readymades’, as instructed by the artist’s MANIFESTO for CCTV Filmmakers . Legislation requires that the privacy of other persons be protected when data is released – for CCTV recordings, this is typically done by obscuring their faces – hence, the faceless world.
Stream anytime on Vimeo On Demand 
The work resists the sensational for the everyday and becomes all the more miraculous because of it. – Art Life
A novel way of avoiding the costs of creating a movie – by making her film entirely from images of real life captured by CCTV cameras. – BBC NEWS
A wonderful metaphor for contemporary life: as we shuffle through cities each day, brushing up against fellow citizens, many of us feel simply faceless. – ThinkingShift
It dares its audience to question their own culpability in this all too real state of affairs. – The Guardian
Les règles du Manifesto for CCTV Filmmakers s’adressent à des cinéastes d’un nouveau genre qui ne tournent pas avec leur propre caméra mais utilisent les enregistrements des CCTV omniprésentes. – La Libération
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◪ CREW
concept & realisation: MANU LUKSCH
voice: TILDA SWINTON
choreography: THE BALLET BOYZ soundtrack: MUKUL piano music: RUPERT HUBER
produced by AMOUR FOU and AMBIENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
[AT/UK 2007; 50 min]
◪ FACELESS in publications <here>
◪ FACELESS in the press <here> TV <here> Japanese TV <here>
◪ DVD available at <londonartwords>. All Regions. English with subtitles: Bulgarian, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish. 50min
◪ research: LUKSCH, M; PATEL, M. FACELESS: Chasing the data shadow. Filmmakers’ close-up encounter of the Data Protection Act. Ars Electronica: Goodbye Privacy. Stocker & Schöpf, 2007 <here>
◪ MANIFESTO for CCTV Filmmakers <poster pdf>
◪ Wikipedia and further links
◪ related art works
THE SPECTRAL CHILDREN (15min, four screens, 2005. request preview link)
MAPPING CCTV (3 min, 2009)
THE EYE – EDITION OF SILKSCREEN PRINTS. Based on film stills (2008)
ANONYMISE (2003) original documents provided by a data controller in compliance with the Data Protection Act (1998)
