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June 14, 2006

SpacePlace

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Art in the Age of Orbitization - Gotchi Universe

SpacePlace is in Net vernacular, a 'Mashup,' a collection of data configured by Philip Pocock that is based on Web2.0 applications and strategies and that contains information from different spheres of artistic production relating to notions of orbit. The database of the project comprises contents from fields such as fine art, architecture, science fiction, film, music, digital arts or media. Currently, more than 400 entries on Orbit Art, ranging from, for example, projects by artists such as Marina Abramovic, Nam June Paik, Woody Vasulka or Arthur Woods, can be accessed in this constantly growing data pool, open to all SpacePlace member entries.

Both via the project's website and via mobile phones, users can navigate the database or upload texts and images to this universe and thus collectively create its contents and structure.

The ZKMax functions as display and space of interaction as the current status of the SpacePlace project is made visible and audible on two large projections screens: One screen serves as a forum for interaction offering the possibility to explore the data pool as well as to add new information via many mobile phones with free public access Bluetooth protocol. The second projection syncs with selections made by the public on the first projection, and plays them as an «Audio Wobble Movie:» images and video 'wobbling' fluidly to the sound of incoming RSS newsfeeds from webblogs and Net sources concerning science and art in outer space.

The soundtrack, the result of text-to-speech synthesis of online information, is narrated by an artificial computer-generated voice, over an added track of the 'sounds of space,' a radio feed that 'listens' to what scientists are studying with radio telescopes in real time. This audio controls the generation and spacial distortion of still photo and video sequences retrieved from the data pool by guests in ZKMax. The visitors experience the terrestrial simulation of an orbital artwork. This Bluetooth interface is local to ZKMax, yet simulates a sort of 'ground station' of inquiry into Space Art by guests acting as orbitants.

Posted by jo at June 14, 2006 05:41 PM

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