The Permanent Observers, Shaotong He

The Permanent Observers

2017 - 2023

Resin, surveillance video

„The Permanent Observers“ is a series of documentary shot by surveillance cameras in public spaces. The first season includes nine episodes, each of them has different duration, which were all produced in Stuttgart.

The starting point and ending of each film was set by holding a clapperboard in front of an operating surveillance camera in public space at the given times. The video footage within this period of time would be considered as a film directed by me. Hereby, while the position of the camera remains unchanged, the cameraman has been granted with full freedom to decide the focal length, shooting angle, and filter of the camera etc..

Due to the Data Privacy Principles of Baden-Württemberg, the “director” himself doesn‘t have access to most of the film footages. Which means that seven episodes of nine couldn‘t be shown to the public. Instead, the documentation videos, photography, objects and documents of the producing process of those films can be viewed.

E01 - Air Theatre (the making of)

This episode was shot by an unknown cameraman with surveillance camera. It has recorded all the happenings on Löwentorbrücke overpass in Stuttgart from 17:50, March 15th, 2017 to 17:49 March 17th, 2017.

E02 - 30sec Delay (the making of)

This episode documents all happenings at Schlossplatz from January 24th 2018 to the present moment.

This film is live broadcast online at: https://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/webcam- stuttgart-wetter. The film could be freely viewed via browser.

The special feature of the film was recorded with iPhone. At 29 seconds past 13:33, a bus was pulling out from Schlossplatz bus station ( the moment when the bus started off from 0 km/h). As suggested by the 2018 time schedule that came into effect on December 10th 2017, bus No.42 was supposed to depart at 13:33 on Wednesday, January 24th 2018. If the bus was as punctual as the “German” standard, the delay of the film would be around 30 seconds.

E03 - Who Are Dropping Shit at the Backdoor on Busy Workdays (the making of)

This episode was shot at the backdoor of the L-Bank at Börsenplatz in Stuttgart during two busy workdays from 10:30, February 13th 2018 to 10:29, February 15th 2018, in an attempt to find out which of those pigeons have added up white dots on the glass eaves.

E04 - Plaza of German Unity-No Exit (the making of)

This episode has documented the happenings at the vehicle entrance of Platz der deutschen Einheit for 72 hours since 12:00, February 6th, 2018.

Berlin Wall stood for 28 years plus 2 months and 27 days, and it is exactly the same amount of time from the day that Berlin Wall collapsed to February 5th, 2018.

E05 - Who Watch the Fire-watchmen (the making of)

This episode has documented the working daily of No.2 fire station at the West District of Stuttgart from 11:30, February 9th, 2018 to 11:39, February 12th, 2018.

E06 I - Sticker Collector (the making of)

E06 II - Graffiti Collector (the making of)

These two episodes have attempted to capture the potential appearance of new stickers to the left side of the exit of the Schlossstraße parking building in Stuttgart from 17:38, February 21st, 2018 to 17:37, February 25th, 2018. And the possible appearance of graffiti makes to the right side of the exit from 17:39, February 21st, 2018 to 17:38, February 25th, 2018.

E07 - From Off-hours Till Dawn (the making of)

The episode has documented what happened at the backdoor of Stuttgart Taxation Bureau from 18:00 on Friday, February 23rd 2018 (the time when street lamps were turned on) to 7:11 on Monday, February 26th 2018 (the time when street lamps were turned off).

E08 - The Last Workday of February Is The First Day of March (the making of)

The episode has documented what happened in carriage No. 3350, the last train of subway line 5 on February 28th, 2018, when it departed the stop of Killesberg at 00:49, March 1st, 2018 towards the direction of Vaihinger Straße.