Adad Hannah asks the viewer to interact directly with a different sort of surveillance camera. In Still, a live-feed camera displays an image of the viewer on a large screen in real time. This display method, however, only works when the subject stands still. The minute she moves, the image disappears and the viewer is plunged into darkness. Still essentially traps its viewers in a cage composed of their own narcissism. The screen also darkens every time an additional viewer walks into the room. If this viewer does not know what is going on, the others might advise her to “just stand still and you’ll see.” This piece thus also depends on the social interaction between the different viewers, and involves an element of peer pressure, since the departure of one viewer plunges the others into darkness. If they all adhere to an unwritten social contract and stay still, however, they share a temporary group portrait.
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