A classroom experiment, a movie, and a glimpse into the world of today’s urban teenagers.

Anne Cleary & Denis Connolly make films about how people interact with the city and suburban environment. They were artists in residence on South Dublin County Council’s public art programme, In Context 3, for two years and made around 26 films in collaboration with groups and individuals across the county.

The Observer Effect is a film they made with a group of transition year students from Collinstown Park Community College.

The students had discussions with the artists about the issues of living in a community, moving around the city or suburbs and what that means to an adolescent today. Then they were taught to use a professional video camera and asked to film their daily journeys, with complete freedom to film whatever they wanted to observe. The “Observer Effect” is a scientific phenomenon that occurs when individuals alter their performance or behaviour due to the awareness that they are being observed. Have the teenagers in this film altered their behaviour because they are being observed on film?

The Observer Effect.

19’50”. Digital Video. 2008

Film credits

Artists: Anne Cleary & Denis Connolly

Coordinator: Fiona Delaney

Collinstown Community College

Teacher: Marie O’Connell

Students: April Gallagher, Conor Miley, Kenneth Dunne, Robbie Smith, Paul Hughes, Sean Price, Stacey McKenna.