a 'self-interacting' digital art work by Keith Piper presented as a single-screen projection.

The work charts the journey of an undefined yet conspicuous migrant through Europe and takes the viewer through the migrant’s thought processes while trying to stand proud in dealing with degradation, negation and displacement.  Coming from a background of forced or coerced displacement one of the recurrent needs for the migrant is to find and regain a sense of community.

One of the work’s central observations is how the migrant’s experiences in different European cities are almost interchangeable, and yet subtle differences also exist.  The images and text work to interact with each other to create the interchangeability yet allow differences to suggest themselves based on the changing text-visual configuration.  The date and time also set themselves to the actual date and time for the viewer (check your watch now) to add to the sense of such experiences occurring at this very minute, every minute.

According to Piper, "There is clearly a glaring gulf between the current political establishments rhetorical celebration of 'multiculturalism' and its blatant pandering to the base xenophobia which distorts the reception of those currently 'seeking Asylum'. It is the contradiction between these two bodies of rhetoric, which 'Stranger' will explore.”

Please note that this work, which was originally shown with Terminal Frontiers in 2002/3, has now been followed with a sequel work entitled "[delete as appropriate]: Local/Stranger", which will replace this work in the 2004/5 tour (see the 'new work" section).