Towards the PNEUMAtic circUS @ OCTO
19.11.2012
19.11.2012
Towards the PNEUMAtic circUS @ OCTO
A special project of networked art will take place at transmediale 2013 BWPWAP. The festival will host the first ever networked art project with pneumatic post: PNEUMAtic circUS, an interaction at distance between a wide network of international networkers and the visitors, activists and artists present at transmediale. Over a hundred international mail artists have been invited by the Italian mail artist Vittore Baroni to contribute texts and pneumatic post capsules to be used by visitors of the transmediale festival for small actions and performances at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.
Berlin is one of very few cities in the world that for a long time offered a public service of Pneumatic Tube Transport, with messages dispatched in small cylindrical containers propelled by compressed air through a network of tubes. The local Rohrpost, that reached a total lenght of 400 kilometres, was created in 1865 and has remained operative until 1963 (in West Berlin) and 1980 (in the East). As a tribute to the original Rohrpost, a functioning pneumatic mini-network will be set up by the Telekommunisten collective inside the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, a project already introduced during the resource event 002. Connecting different rooms and spaces of the HKW with the ramifications of an octopus-like installation, the P7C-1 INTERTUBULAR OCTOSOCIAL PNEUMATICAL POSTAL NETWORK (in short, OCTO) will be the official miscommunication platform of transmediale 2013.
The OCTO network will be used to activate various kinds of communication & projects between different areas of the festival, but will also host the PNEUMAtic circus, a project curated by Vittore Baroni.
As Vittore Baroni points out, a social network is a small mediatic “circus” where the “I” becomes “US” (circUS). When you register to be part of a social network, you sign a small Faustian pact with the devil: you will probably gain something from the experience, but you will also lose some of your time and with it a piece of your soul (or PNEUMA), while Big Brother keeps a watchful eye on your activities.
In a creative clash of innovative and obsolete technology, PNEUMAtic circUS is a living kinetic sculpture, a do-it-yourself prototype and parody of a corporate social network, a (usually) virtual experience turned physical through 3D messages that travel in hand-made cylindrical containers and real live action: a challenge for all involved to expose themselves in the “circUS rings” (which will be the specific areas of the installation dedicated to the extemporary interventions).
First hand-made capSOULe artworks have been arriving at transmediale headquarters boosting the excitement and anticipation of the PNEUMAtic circUS.
We look forward to your PNEUMAtic spontaneous intervention at transmediale 2013!
Artwork & Photo Credits: Vittore Baroni
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