Exhibition view
WORDSWORDSWORDS
Galerie Sofie van de Velde, Antwerp
14.5. - 15.8.2017

AMERICAN TYPEWRITER #4
2012
film installation (Super8, looped)
variable dimensions

In the 18th century, the survey, filing and systematization of personal data was the pre-condition for the development of the human sciences (psychology, sociology, etc.). Combined with photographic images this data also allowed the establishment of the first criminal identification system invented by the French criminalist Alphonse Bertillon in 1884 which was soon adopted by the English and American police.
For his video installation "American Typewriter #4" Ploeger uses this still unchanged, standardized method to categorize the personal data (name, height, weight, eye color, etc.) of several inmates. The closed circuit installation of endless film loops of data evokes a kind of cinematic panopticum in which the confinement of the prisoners' bodies silently resonates.