9 March – 22 April 2005.

SPIO is a ‘self-surveilled’ system based on a robotic device designed for capturing and processing images from a different perspective.

An autonomous vacuum cleaner equipped with high sensibility and infra-red CCTV cameras scans the installation space through pre-defined movements and triggers sound and visual events.

In the UK, one of the most visible interactions of place and high-technology communications systems over the past 10 years has been the installation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV). Designed to improve the economic fortunes of public, commercial street systems, such technologies are so widespread that it has been estimated that the average UK urban resident is now monitored more than 300 times a day, making Britain the most visually surveilled nation on Earth.

Artists working in digital media are increasingly exploiting the subject of CCTV. Lucas Bambozzis SPIO, now installed at HTTP gallery, is an autonomous vacuum cleaner equipped with high sensibility and infrared CCTV cameras. SPIO scans the exhibition space through pre-defined movements and triggers sound and visual events in the ambient. The work is making an ironical comment on the self-surveyor apparatus, based on apparently innocent gadgets that will be filling our homes and habits more and more.- Tobi Maier

The CCTV cameras were installed in the robot.

Credits and technical details
Concept, creation and direction: Lucas Bambozzi
Music: Radboud Mens
Technical production in UK: Giles Pender for Furtherfield

Original Setup
Software development: Caio Barra Costa
Hardware and technical production: Fábio Seiji Massui

Originally presented at Emoção Art.Ficial 2.0 Itaú Cultural, São Paulo Brazil
Presented at Emoção Art.Ficial 2.0 Itaú Cultural, São Paulo Brazil – July to September 2004.

Curated by: Tobi Maier and Furtherfield