In the calm of the summer quiet, i thought I'd mention an interesting afternoons' seminar spent at the LSE last month. (http://www.proboscis.org.uk/prps/prps.html for detailed information)
Looking at artists use of technology which blurs private/public space distinctions, three projects were presented. Rachel Bakers "PLATFROM" -yes that is the right spelling- investigated ways in which the act of taking a train can involve us in a series of separated discourses: that of the driver, the cinematic memory narrative of the train from Hitchcock movies, and the dispersed sense of nationality that changes on the route from Kings Cross to the north.The mechanism for colliding these divergent perceptions is a series of text messages, triggered by specific place and times on the route. Ben Hooker and Shona Kitchen presented "Hard Shoulders Soft Verges" an investigation of non-place and architectural planning utopianism.Online results are animated visualisations of "Edgetown", an everywhere and nowhere composite of the spaces produced between the automobile the industrial estate and the ideal home. If JG Ballard had designed an autopia it would look something like this. Natalie Jeremijenko presented "Feral Robot Sniffer Dogs", proof that over-cute toy dogs have been quietly waiting for more interesting tasks than wagging tails flashing eyes and walking backwards.Hacking into their Sony software, she has given the dogs new skills and extra sense organs. A series of ecodogs is in production which will be able to sniff out radioactive elements, formaldehyde, and a variety of other environmental toxins. Hardened up with heavy-duty wheels and extended battery life, they will be released onto a toxic waste dump in New York State.Fetch! On second thoughts, don't... Impure practice, straddling the real the virtual and the absurd. So is everyone enjoying their holidays? regards from Gair ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
