Alien Staff, 1993

The instrument consists of an electronic staff, equipped with a small monitor and a loudspeaker at the upper end. At the bottom there is a transparent cylinder called ‘Xenolog Section’, containing samples and images of the life journey of the person carrying the staff: letters, visas, work permits, etc. Wodiczko designed it so the immigrant could hold the instrument in a public space, with the monitor at the level of his head. On the screen we see an image of his face and through the loudspeaker we hear the story of his journey. This attracts the attention of passers-by who approach the immigrant, thus reducing the usual distance between a foreigner and an indigenous person and establishing a dialogue normally vetoed by cultural prejudices.

The first model of Alien Staff was presented and tested in Barcelona in June 1992, in the context of Wodiczko’s first retrospective exhibition in Europe, Instruments, Projections, Vehicles, at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies. Later on, it was developed and applied to various other cities. A second model was constructed, with a few variations, in Brooklyn during the summer, autumn and winter of 1992–93. Later still, it was used by different immigrants in Paris, Marseille, Stockholm, Warsaw and Rotterdam. The Alien Staff in the MACBA Collection records two life stories: ‘Rencontre autour du bâton de l’étranger’ and ‘L’histoire de Patricia Pereda racontée par elle-même pour le bâton de l’étranger et filmé à Paris en juin 1993’.

Alien Staff is at once a portable communication tool and a cultural network for immigrant individuals and groups. In the words of the artist: ‘It is an instrument that gives the immigrant the possibility of “addressing” directly anyone who is attracted by the symbolic form of the equipment and the contents of the programme being “transmitted”.’ The shape of the electronic staff and the gesture of the person carrying it evoke the staff of Moses and the Biblical shepherds, but also a bourgeois walking stick from the seventeenth century. The small monitor, its position at the level of the eyes, and its proximity to the face of the user, are important aspects in the design. Exploiting the codes of ethnography and science fiction, Alien Staff demonstrates that changes in perception can produce more respectful attitudes towards others and encourage dialogue among individuals.