Ornitorrinco in Eden

Ornitorrinco

1994

Webot diagram — Remote participants move through the Chicago environment in the body of the telerobot Ornitorrinco.

links — "Ornitorrinco in Eden", by Eduardo Kac and Ed Bennett, bridged the placeless space of the Internet with physical spaces in Seattle (WA), Chicago (IL), and Lexington (KY). The piece consisted of these three nodes of active participation and multiple nodes of observation worldwide.

point of view — Via the Internet, they saw the remote installation through Ornitorrinco's eye.

After numerous successful experiments throughout the year, "Ornitorrinco in Eden" was presented publicly on the Internet on October 23, 1994, in a networked telepresence event. There were two public telepresence stations: one in Seattle and one in Lexington (KY). Ornitorrinco was in an environment in the Art and Technology Department at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. All three environments (Seattle, Lexington, Chicago) were linked via a three-way conference call (for real time motion control). Anonymous participants in Lexington and Seattle shared Ornitorrinco's body. All three environments were also connected to the Internet via CU-SeeMe. A CU-SeeMe Reflector setup in Lexington retransmitted Ornitorrinco's constantly changing point of view worldwide. Viewers from several American cities and many countries (including Finland, Canada, Germany, and Ireland) came on-line and were able to experience the space in Chicago from the point of view of Ornitorrinco.

For more information, see: E. Kac, "Ornitorrinco and Rara Avis: Telepresence Art on the Internet," Leonardo, Vol. 29, N. 5, 1996, pp. 389-400, with a technical appendix by Ed Bennett.