Not You, Not Here

Kinetic sculptures, Internet linkage, video, audio, Macintosh computer.
Sound design by Chris Peck.
2000.


In this artwork, two remote places are linked via internet, providing a video, audio, and data connection that attempts to make some aspects of the faraway place present to viewers. As we consider the simultaneity of remote co-existences on the planet, we may be jostled into a new view of our own existence.

In addition to the computers which communicate live moving images and sound, others read environmental sensors (for wind, rain, temperature, light) and transfer that information to the other site, where it drives kinetic sculptures and a computer-orchestrated natural sound environment. The sculptures and sound translate aspects of the remote space into subjective correlatives that can be experienced directly, while projected numbers display the changing features of the remote place.

In the photos above, one sees visitors to the piece turning a control disc, onto which an eye is projected; the disc controls the position of the camera in the remote location, and the eye looks left or right to provide visual feedback on that position, while the image on the large screen in front also changes.

The piece was realized in June 2000 as a connection between the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA, and the Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Hamburg, Germany. Future instantiations of the artwork may link other places, including a natural site and a gallery space.