Pre-Submission is an*dre neely and Melanie Sien Min Lyn’s ongoing artistic research project examining the development of high-tech borders in Europe and the material ramifications of the seemingly immaterial web of the internet. The work engages with the polished, smooth, seamless ways in which institutions of neoliberal power present themselves and explores how end-users have become part of this digital infrastructure of security and surveillance, by unknowingly training the algorithms used in this production of exclusion.
In Pre-Submission: Fully Fledged tight guard breeding HIDDEN CAMERA (LEAKED) (Part 1), the artists juxtapose common forms of entertainment media language to consider how everyday digital surveillance affects the political practice of soft-power. The work follows the speculative life of AVATAR, an AI-border guard used in different EU-funded border technology research, in a satirical takedown that uses pop culture and gaming to reflect on the fabricated erotics of policing, security and borders.
Pre-Submission: FRAMED (Part 2) posits the idea of “the butterfly effect” in Chaos theory in relation to the connection between personal telecommunication devices and wider systems of surveillance and control. Applying a hauntological lens to borders and migration, the work loosely borrows from dystopian sci-fi and horror fantasy to create a sensual and visual experience that considers the parallels between the rise of biometric surveillance, homonationalism, islamophobia and the widespread access to the networked home-computer.
Pre-Submission is a multimedia project spanning video, text and performance. Click here to read the accompanying texts for part 1 and part 2.
an*dre neely (‘93, PT) is an artist and writer working with performance, text and spatial practice. Their work explores the materiality of labour and collaboration, and how they manifest in the dichotomies of intimacy and surveillance / authority and affect, in both physical and digital spaces. Their readings and performances have shown at Ballhaus OST, Sophiensaele and Berlinische Galerie (DE), Artsadmin, The Yard Theatre, Buzzcut/Tramway Glasgow (UK), ArkDes/Moderna Museet, MDT (SE), Warehouse9 (DK) and Teatro da Politécnica (PT). They’ve published with Montez Press, SomethingOther, the Live Art Development Agency, Siobhan Davies Dance, and the Hebbel-am-Ufer Theater. an* is a recipient of a 23/24 Tanzpraxis Stipend, by the Berlin Senate for Culture. Parallel to their artistic practice, an* works as a dramaturg and facilitator and since 2023 is the Associate Producer for the MA Queer Performance, at Rose Bruford College (UK).
Melanie Sien Min Lyn is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of performance, video and new media. In her work, she examines visual culture, image production and forms of (self-)representations. A recurring theme in her practice is the materiality of neoliberal power. She considers her work a humorous intervention in serious business. In addition to her artistic practice, she works as a documentary filmmaker, art mediator and writer.
This work was co-commissioned by performance, possession + automation and performingborders with support from Arts and Humanities Research Council, Arts Council England and Necessity Fund