as Quartet in Transit (Jack Michielsen & Teresa Tam)
Holidays are over. Feelings of vacation ebb away and regular life seems especially dreary. Everyday life returns to its mundane habits. Winter is around for a while longer and tax season is approaching. What remains from vacation are the photos taken and kept, captured moments, genuine or not, does not matter as much as having proof of performing being somewhere else. In vacation photos, we impose ourselves into landscapes, scenarios and body languages that tries to convince everyone that we look happy and have escaped routine. Though why go somewhere when you can fake it? To ease into the renewed daily grind, Trial Mode Instant Vacations (TMI Vacations) is a chance to imagine what it means to travel and be someone else. It is (will be) a new year and perhaps there are desires for a better future despite the antagonistic present day.
TMI Vacations is a greenscreen photo platform for people to be imposed into imaginary visas that depict imaginary scenarios as a tourist. The visa applicant is required to answer short questions that indicate what kind of traveler they are and what they’re intent is for traveling. Their answers would determine what kind of visa they will acquire. This project is an iteration of Stand-in Tourism.
A 4×6 photocard and digital copy is given to the visa applicant to keep and share, if they want.
Quartet in Transit (Q.i.T.) is a new media collective that examines the effects of digital interfaces with human bodies. We are interested in how human interactions with digital technology can reframe and re-imagine life. Past projects include Recover-Only-Memories for NEXT2015, Stand-in Tourism in IKGLIVE2, and Trial Mode Instant Vacations in EMMEDIA Particle + Wave Festival. Currently, Q.i.T. consists of Jack Michielsen and Teresa Tam.
Blank visa:
Samples of visas applied for:
Photos by Aran Wilkinson-Blanc
