Creative Time: Consuming Places : Press

New York Times : August 5, 2002

New Public Art Uses the Internet for a Personal Touch
by Matthew Mirapaul

Two new works of Internet art are really out there. No, out there, in public, where anyone can see them.

This seems like an aesthetic zoning violation. Internet art often explores the digital medium's uncharted regions, but it does so from within the confines of the personal-computer screen. Internet artworks are wildly conceived, not conceived for the urban wilds.

But "Egoscopio," by the Brazilian artist Giselle Beiguelman, and "Telescape," by the British artists known as Greyworld, are the latest examples of Internet-based pieces created to be shown in public. "Egoscopio," which is scheduled to open today, will be displayed on two electronic billboards in a heavily trafficked avenue in São Paulo. "Telescape," a work for a pair of computer-enabled telescopes, is to open later in the month on Water Street in Brooklyn.

Although "Egoscopio" and "Telescape" are quite different in execution, they share some similarities. Both works are simultaneously online and off, blurring the boundary between the virtual and real worlds. They reside in a "cybrid" realm that is a combination of cyberspace and physical space. The works also play with the friction between the personal, almost intimate, way in which people access the Internet and the manifestly public way in which the pieces are being exhibited.

And, as is the case with most Internet art, online visitors can interact with the works and alter them from afar. This time, though, the results are a sort of digital graffiti, displayed for viewers who do not need to be online to experience them. Carol Stakenas, curator for Creative Time, the public-art organization that commissioned the Greyworld work, said: "Being able to send a message to a local public even though you're not there is provocative. It will be interesting to see how people use the system."

With "Egoscopio," the system is simple enough. For the next two weeks, Ms. Beiguelman (BAY-gull-man) is renting time on two commercial billboards in front of a shopping center on the Avenida Faria Lima, in the center of São Paulo's busy high-tech district. The 16-by-13-foot electronic panels are seen by an estimated 120,000 daily pedestrians.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, visitors to the online version of "Egoscopio" can submit the address of a Web page and within moments have that page appear on the large outdoor screens. The pages are displayed for 30 seconds every 3 minutes, alternating with advertisements for a bank, baked goods and television shows. A Webcam that is focused on the screens transmits images back to online viewers, while a second camera monitors reactions of passers-by. The site is desvirtual.com/egoscopio.

"Egoscopio" provides the obvious satisfaction of intermittently reclaiming a corner of the urban landscape from the clutches of commercialization. Ms. Beiguelman said, "It is an invasion of somebody else's property, a kind of hacking of the city structure."

Yet Ms. Beiguelman also is challenging the work's online visitors to decide whether they want to use the self-publishing capabilities of the Internet for art or for egocentric promotion, especially when the results will be writ large on oversized screens for all São Paulo to see. Public art often has the potential to reach a big audience, but the audience rarely has an opportunity to determine what is shown. With "Egoscopio" Internet visitors are given that chance and then must decide if they want to express themselves creatively or merely display advertisements for themselves.

Ms. Beiguelman will be filtering the submissions to exclude images of discrimination and child violence. Anything else is fair game, she says, including nudity. Ms. Beiguelman is not overly concerned with shocking the populace in Brazil, which may have more exposed flesh per capita than any other nation. Still, she felt compelled to tell the billboard company there would be "nothing you cannot see in a newsstand just behind the panel."

Greyworld's "Telescape" is equally open to online contributions, but it must be experienced in person, not on the Net. The work is part of Creative Time's annual summer public-art exhibition, held this year on Water Street in Brooklyn Heights, in the neighborhood known as Dumbo, under the Manhattan Bridge. Starting Aug. 15 the project can be viewed there from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday to Sunday, through Oct. 27.

"Telescape" is a pair of telescopes meant to be used like those found at scenic vistas around the world. As viewers swivel the telescope to survey the scenery, the coordinates are sent to a computer embedded in the base. When the lens is trained on certain architectural features, the computer triggers sound files that are played through the telescope's stereo speakers.

The Greyworld team is attaching its own audio clips to some coordinates, so that looking at a fire hydrant might produce a music snippet, while peering at an apartment window might yield a snatch of dramatic conversation from its imaginary inhabitants.

These are just sonic starting points. Visitors to the site, creativetime.org, will be able to send e-mail messages to specific coordinates, and software that converts the e-mail text into audible speech will allow Water Street viewers to hear the messages at each telescope. There also will be a phone number so callers can add their own voices to the street scene.

Andrew Shoben, Greyworld's founder, considers the telescopes to be a kind of musical instrument. "The pleasure for me will be making my own sound collage," he said. "I look quickly at the fire hydrant, then I move very fast to the top of the tower, then I glide across the building and I create this successive stream of audio."

The goal, Mr. Shoben said, is to help people rediscover locations that are overly familiar and thus have become invisible. "The act of looking through a telescope is saying, 'This is a special place,'" he said. "It may be something you've looked at a million times, but now you're actually seeing it."

But once Internet visitors start to submit their comments, not all the sounds are likely to be benign. This neighborhood, which has been known as artist oriented, has been under stress as developers start to consider its economic potential. Ms. Stakenas said the dialogue between supporters and opponents of development could create some sparks as "Telescape" viewers survey the scene.

The global reach of the Internet means that anyone can submit comments to the project. By sending an e-mail message for the artwork, an individual who has never been to Water Street can establish a personal presence there, affixing it to a precise spot. Again, the work is blurring the line between the virtual and the real. Mr. Shoben said, "A means of communication that's essentially ephemeral becomes more tangible."

Wireless technology is making the Internet more pervasive in the real world, so there are likely to be more cybrid works like "Egoscopio" and "Telescape." As digital artists work, they stare at the beige cabinetry of their computer monitors. Soon, many more will be thinking outside that box.

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