Telectroscopic Connections

A post by Varnelis mentioned a couple of interesting ideas of crossing space, both virtually and physically through various modern forms of communication. Three items come from his post:

1. Chatroulette—a site that pairs you with a random person somewhere on the Internet so that you have a webcam conversation... which to me just seems weird...

2. Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz's 'Hole in Space,', in which: "the artists turned two walls, one at Los Angeles’s Century City Shopping Center and another at New York’s Lincoln Center, into two-way audiovisual portals. Video cameras transmitted images from each site to the other where they were beamed, full size onto walls. Microphones and speakers facilitated audio transmissions." [video below]



3. AUDC's unrealized installation 'Windows on the World' : "...a formulary for a new urbanism that alleviates boredom with the city and encourages communication in public, rather than private settings. It facilitates open, spontaneous, and democratic exchanges between groups while requiring no special skills to operate. Participants share both their differences and similarities through direct interaction, replacing the myth of global hegemony and projected stereotypes with personal experience."


:: image via AUDC

This brought to mind a fourth, the Telectroscope, a modern version of a 'steampunk' art installation by Paul St. George in 2009, based on historical idea that 'connected' NYC to London through a underground transatlantic 'tunnel' that offers the ability for "...people can simultaneously interact with others who are many miles and hours away." More info is also found via the Telectroscope Blog along with a bevy of press that accompanied the installation.


:: image via The Fire Wire

The instantaneous communication, as shown in these proposals with a bit of artistic license in the storyline, may have seemed outlandish in 1890, or even 1980, but is relatively commonplace now - through the increasing quality and reach of web-based communications aided with fiber-optic infrastructure that literally 'flattens' the world by allowing for instantaneous communication in many forms across the globe.




:: image via Telepresence Options

The locations in major centers of New York and London, across the Atlantic reminds one of the previous infrastructures and outlandish proposals in place to connect these areas through seemingly impossible physical barriers, which has now been augmented with a more direct (if not equally as problematic) form of satellite linkages.


:: London - image via Oddity Central


:: New York - images via Telepresence Options

The beauty of these installation is the public-ness and interactivity of the media - versus our typically private personal communications. The image view of offers the view, with no sound, of people on the other side, and stories abound in the ability of family members to connect across the ocean (with the aid of some visual aids). Years after the initial 'Hole in Space' it seems the novelty is still present.


:: image via Orbiter Forum