Telepresent Element

This project is currently a working interface of a ‘virtual telerobot’ - virtual in the sense that the robot exists only on screen, and not in the physical environment. I have named the project Telepresent Element - its aim is to create a context whereby the viewer experiences an aspect of a particular remote environment through the images displayed on a screen. Telepresent Element measures the outdoor wind speed and relays the information to a central computer. Software running on the machine interprets this information and uses it to control the speed of a digital, animatronic whirligig. The whirligig, as an iconic garden ornament, was chosen for this project not only for its beautifully coloured and slightly comedic kinematic potential, but also to highlight their role in the development in some forms of kinetic art and wind-powered sculpture.

Exactly where whirligigs originated isn’t clear, although some weathervanes date back to 1600 BC, with the first known visual representation of a European whirligig being illustrated in a medieval tapestry that depicts children playing with a whirligig consisting of a hobbyhorse on one end of a stick and a four blade propeller at the other end 19. By the 1900’s the construction of whirligigs had become an art form and what had begun as the simple turning of propellers in the wind had progressed into fully realised kinetic sculptures that produce motion and sound.

Telepresent Element makes a connection between scientific instruments (motion sensors and accelerometers etc), natural forces (such as the wind), and contemporary art. The characterisation of the whirligig on screen acts as a metaphor for a door or bridge between two separate locations. It is more concerned with the notion of perception and simulations of telepresence rather than scientific investigation - the scientific apparatus used in collecting the data is in this case applied as a means of understanding the multiplex of emotions of being simultaneously present and absent.

Telepresent Art: A Brief Study

**Excerpt from my Masters Journal Jan 2011**

An important example in the development of telepresent art is Gene Coopers Thundervolt, 1994, where real time recordings of lightning strikes in the United States were relayed to a central computer that was, in turn, wired to Coopers body. Once registered, the strikes were translated into electrical signals that caused muscles in his body to twitch.

Masaki Fujihata’s Light on the Net, 1996, is another significant telepresent art work. In this piece a grid-like web interface represents forty-nine light bulbs in the lobby of the Gifu Softopia Center, Japan. Viewers on the web can click the bulbs to turn the physical light on/off.

In 1997, Austro-Hungarian artist collective Association Creation developed Bump, where two footbridges were connected - one in Linz and the second in Budapest. When a person stepped onto the bridge in Linz, the corresponding board on the bridge in Budapest would rise and vice versa.

Nancy Patterson’s Stockmarket Skirt, 1998, is a telepresent media work that utilizes a webcam to capture and display real-time images of a skirt which raises its hemline according to fluctuations in the stock market. Stockmarket Skirt partakes in the myth that skirt length is an economic indicator - the better the economy, the shorter the skirt.

Above the sky in Mexico City, Rafael Lozano-Hemmers Vectorial Elevation, 1999/2000 enables viewers to control lights and influence the patterns that they create above the Central Square. This artwork effectively bridges the gap between the very public space of the town square and the public domain of the internet.

Another telepresent work that bridges the public spaces of the internet and physical places is Eduardo Kac’s series of installations titled Ornitorrinco. The structure of this work is fashioned by a wireless telerobot, telephone lines and remote/physical spaces. The viewers become participants as they navigate the distant environment by pressing the buttons on a telephone’s numeric keypad. The remote spaces in the Ornitorrinco series were always built to the scale of the robot, a process that Kac says “invited viewers to abandon the human scale temporarily and to look at a new world from a perspective other than their own”

Many of these examples make use of the internet, but it is important to note that the web did not herald the advent of telepresence, though its use was demonstrated by artists such as Ken Goldberg, Eric Paulos, and Eduardo Kac of how to exploit the internet within a more expansive context and engage a greater number of participants. For me, however, the significance of the internet in telepresent art relates not only to the interface which allows control by a remote agency, but also references the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes in his book Leviathan (1651) on a single, self-organising system and artificial intelligence. The interesting point to note about artworks such as Masaki Fujihata’s Light on the Net and Rafael Lozano-Hemmers Vectorial Elevation, is not just about enabling individuals to control robots in remote places, but more about Hobbes’ therories - taking the result of the individuals actions and considering them as one. If we were to ignore the fact that telerobots are controlled by separate clients sitting at workstations in various locations across the globe, then we could perhaps suggest that such robots are controlled solely by one sovereign intelligence - the internet.

Telepresence and Interactive Net Art:

**Excerpt from my Masters Journal Jan 2011**

“The shortest distance between two points is no longer a straight line, as it was in the age of the locomotive and the telegraph. Today, in the age of satellites and fiberoptics, the shortest distance between two points is real time”
- Eduardo Kac

It is impossible to calculate the number of machines on the internet. Research suggests that nearly 30% of the world’s population has access to connected computing with at least 58% of European and 77% of North American citizens having a permanent connection. Add to that the number of educational establishments and enterprise facilities such as cyber cafes, and handheld/mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones, then the quantity could well run into the billions. Yet, what does this global network of inter-connectivity represent to individuals? For many, the internet can be a medium for entertainment, or an avenue for research, or perhaps a gallery in the public domain in which to display their images. For artists however, the internet provides a unique opportunity to integrate their work with the remote interactivity of others, moving from continent to continent with the simple click of a mouse. It allows artists to create hybridised works that go far beyond the web page, art that combines the interactivity of users in cyberspace with that of robots - connecting them to the world wide web and other such networks that act as vehicles for their telepresence. Artists that explore this technology scrutinise the perception of distance, examining the connection of being present in one space, yet making a contribution and exercising physical control in another.