blablabLAB is a Barcelona-based project group that explores various subjects including urbanism, technology as DIY. and hyper consumerism. Their latest work, Be Your Own Souvenir is a participatory public artwork which reflects the group’s various interests in a delightful manner. Originally a street performance, Be Your Own Souvenir drew an enthusiastic response from audiences when performed at night during Ars Electronica in 2011. Created with rare, high-end equipment but retaining a low-tech air reflecting manual labor, the work is certainly unique. The artists encourage viewers to focus on the lively atmosphere by simplifying the work process rather than dazzling them with high-tech gadgetry.
In the creation of this work, blablabLAB uses a system that measures the audience with 3D scanners and using a 3D printer prints the ‘image,’ which is then given to the audience members as a souvenir. The process requires the intensive participation of the audience since they have to perform as a human statue to complete the work together with the artist who takes the role of a close-range operator. The message of Be Your Own Souvenir which motivates people to participate and ‘become’ a souvenir voluntarily is simple but strong. It disturbs the dichotomies of art-technology, performer-spectator, and native-tourist, thus asking viewers to break from their usual roles. Essentially, the audience becomes the creator as well as the consumer through the invitation to become a human statue in front of passersby. They are also objects gazed at by the eyes of the 3D cameras, while simultaneously becoming active observers witnessing how their figures take the fo rm of a sculpture. The artist breaks away from the illusion of Pygmalion—the archetypical sculptural form—and becomes a magician capable of masterfully handling high-tech equipment. The viewer, who has come to the exhibition to ‘view,’ becomes the ‘viewed,’ and thus returns home with an unexpected souvenir in the form of a unique experience.
