Dear Steve
Video (2010) by Herman Asselberghs (BE). [Work distributed by V2_Agency]
still: Herman Asselberghs, Dear Steve, 2010
Dear Steve is a video letter addressed to Steve Jobs in which a new MacBook Pro is meticulously dismantled, allowing us a look inside this complex device that for most cultural workers is almost as familiar as a pet. This machine that is often deemed miraculous for modern-day work efficiency looks bare, naked and dysfunctional in its dismantled state, yet it remains a fascinating object.
In his laptop autopsy, Herman Asselberghs combines the dismantling performance with an ideological critique, voiced through the reading of the letter. Rather than directing the viewer toward a specific point of view, Dear Steve presents a subjective cartography of the contemporary globalized world, and of the state of mind in which contemporary society finds itself. The final image in Dear Steve – an overhead shot of all of the laptop’s components arranged on a table – could be seen as a kind of new world map.
Performer: Stan Wannet
Image and editing: Fairuz
Text: Herman Asselberghs
Producer: V2_Lab
Coproducer/Codistributor: Auguste Orts,www.augusteorts.be
Video, color, 16:9, sound (Dutch spoken, English subtitles), 45'. An English spoken version is also available.
Contact us for more information on pricing and for the technical requirements of the work.
Detailed information is available on installation, space requirements and shipping.
http://www.augusteorts.be/projects/project/48
Video excerpt
Dear Steve by Herman Asselberghs from V2_ on Vimeo.
