Dries Depoorter

Media artist and digital creative Dries Depoorter studied electronics for six years at the VTI Waremgem before making the switch in 2009 to media arts at the KASK School of Arts Ghent, where he graduated in 2015. In 2013, Depoorter presented his first interactive media installations to an international audience at Amsterdam's Flemish Art Centre De Brakke Grond. In 2014, he took part in the IDFA DocLab. Expositions soon followed with the Amsterdam Fiber Festival, Creative Coding Amsterdam, Bozar, Retune Festival, Trailerpark I/O, Dutch Design Week, the van Abbe Museum, New Technological Award/Zebrastraat and the Yami-ichi Black Market, a flea market featuring ‘internet-ish’ items imported from Japan.

The work of Dries Depoorter focuses on Internet’s place within society and the impact it has on the fields of privacy, identity – both online and off – and surveillance. One example of this is Seattle Crime Cams, a video installation in which real-time surveillance is combined with the sound of live police radio.

 ’Seattle Crime Cams registers the location of emergency 911-telephone calls in Seattle (this is real-time data made available by the Seattle police),’ explains Depoorter. ‘After the location of the caller – and the possible crime scene – has been established, the installation automatically searches for the nearest public online traffic camera in the vicinity. In the meantime, the police radio can be heard live through the speakers.’ [source: The Creators project]

Film Coalition

Dries Depoorter is part of the Film Coalition formed by EYE, the  Netherlands Film Academy, the Binger Filmlab and IDFA. This year, the Coalition will be coaching two talented participants.  Sibs Shongwe-La Mer is also part of the Film Coalition. The Coalition prizes Depoorter's unusual talent for putting together readily accessible images and real-time video streams, which focus the attention on privacy issues in public spaces through the use of media (including social media).