Art + Science: INSECTA: Kurt Caviezel

Art + Science: INSECTA: Kurt Caviezel by Linda AlterwitzJanuary 7, 2021

©Kurt Caviezel

Kurt Caviezel is a photographer based in Zurich. For the past 20 years, he has been monitoring tens of thousands publicly accessible surveillance-cams located around the globe. He has accessed and collected a new kind of photography by building an archive of more than 5 million images taken from either downloads or screenshots of interesting imagery. Caviezel uses the world wide web as his camera.

The photographs from his series “Insect” captured on surveillance-cams merge art, science and technology. There’s an ominous, science fiction feeling to the work. Yet, what stands out is Caviezel’s unconventional approach to his work, offering viewers to reconsider a new kind of photography.

©Kurt Caviezel

The series of insects investigate the properties of the apparatus as a thing, as hardware, and the impact these properties have on the image.

More often than not, the lenses and sensor are mounted in their box high up onto a wall that is only accessible by means of cranes or ladders for men. They are exposed to all kinds of weather and wildlife.

Profiting from the situation, insects turn the boxes into their habitat. Spiders spin their webs in front of the lens, beetles crawl over the glass or take a short rest.

Needless to say, it was never the camera operators’ intention to photograph these animals. The animals and apparatus, however, couldn’t care less about the agenda of the operators. They create images and aesthetics that a photographer with his or her own camera cannot produce.

©Kurt Caviezel

Kurt Caviezel was born in 1964 in Switzerland and lives and works in Zurich. For 20 years he has been photographing and exploring the world by means of publicly accessible network cameras. He is the pioneer of a new kind of photography. Basically, he understands the web as a camera – as his camera. The screen of his computer is the viewfinder, the mouse the trigger and the net-cameras around the world are his lenses. He has exhibited his work widely in Germany, and internationally.