Originally published in Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Volume 7,Number 10. Uploaded December 2, 1999. ISSN#1071-4391
Machiko Kusahara
When Eduardo Kac showed his piece "Teleporting an Unkown State"at SIGGRAPH 96, the public might have wondered how one could transfer sunlightvia the Internet. If enough amount of light were not provided, the youngplant, which was planted in the total darkness in the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery,would die.
In this project any participant from all over the world can capturethe "photons" using one's own web camera and "send the photons"via Internet. The signals will be transferred immediately to the computerat the exhibition site thus giving power to a projector hanging on topof the young plant. It was only the participants' collaborative will thatwould keep the plant alive and growing. This plant grew from a seed withoutknowing the outer world and real sunlight.
"Teleporting an Unknown State" can be compared to Ken Goldberg's"Telegarden" in the sense that it involved a real plant, andthat visitors from the network shared the responsibility in taking careof it. However, there is something very different in "Teleportingan Unknown State ". It is an element that can be associated with thelatter part of the title, "Unknown State". While non-materialelements such as photons and the network are the medium or vehicle forsuch physical phenomenon as people sending enough light to a plant, weobserve a strong desire for committment toward physical entity and theinvolvement of one's own body.
It might be deeply related to the fact that Kac was born and grew upin Brazil and then moved to US. Certain similarity can be observed withStelarc who was born in Australia and lived in Japan for a while beforehe started using eletronic technology in his performances. Confrontationwith different cultures inevitably brings a concern toward one's identityincluding the role of physical body. Also, artists such as Kac or Stelarcwould say that they do not fully belive in the Utopia of cyberspace. Inappreciating the works of Kac, we cannot leave the real and physical worldwith our own bodies, plants and animals.
Looking from the point of view of telerobotics, no mechanical or kineticoutput was realized by participants via the Net in "Teleporting anUnknown State". Yet, the nature of physical (in this case optic) interactionit involves and the clever way to transmit such physical interaction overthe Net can be regarded as another possibility in telerobotic art. However,among projects by Kac who is known as "telepresence artist",works such as "Ornitorrinco" and "Rara Avis" are moredirectly related to the notion of telerobotics.
The "Ornitorrinco" project started in 1989 and was developedwith Ed Bennett. It was shown in many different configurations until 1996.In this project, participants could move around remotely on the body ofa small robot using a live video conferencing connection. "Ornitorrincoin Eden" took place in 1994, and was, together with Goldberg's "MercuryProject" (1994), the first telerobotic artwork on the Internet. Themain issue in the Ornitorrinco project was the participants' experienceand the process itself in real time over real space. The robot reactedto each input from participants rather than being programmed for certaingoal or action, realizing "democracy" in the multi-user environment,according to Kac. Again, such awareness of democracy and real time/spaceshows Kac's basic attitude toward technology, interactive art, and society.
In "Rara Avis" (1996), a visitor walks into a triangular roomand finds a birdcage in front of him/her. There is a group of monochromebirds in the cage and a colorful large telerobot macaw. There is a VR headseton the pedestal. When the visitor wears the headset, one discovers thathe/she is seeing through the eyes of the electronic macaw. The visitorwould recognize oneself on the Head-Mounted Display screen through therobot-bird's eyes, seen from inside the cage. As the viewer moves his orher head the same movement takes place with the macaw's head thus causingchange of the view on HMD.
Here, the identity of the viewer and its position is trapped in an endlessloop involving inside and outside, freedom and captivity, seeing and beingseen, to manipulate and to be manipulated. The fence divides the free spacethat opens to the outer world (remember, the room is triangle shaped) fromthe captured state inside the cage that leads to a narrow end. The configurationof the space is metaphorical both in psychological and social aspect. Froman epistemological point of view, telerobotic technology places the viewerboth inside and outside the cage. It is said that we receive approximately90% of the information we get from outside through our visual system. Andour cognition is formed based on the input we get. Then, the consciousnessof the viewer, in this case, should be floating in the cage, while his/herbody remains outside the cage.
The work brings up questions about the reality of our life through contradictions,as is shown in the contrast between monochrome real birds and the colorfulartificial (robot) bird in the cage. In our daily life we take it for grantedthat we live in a single, real world, with a single body and conscisouness-- but is our condition really that secure?
With the advent of the Internet, virtually living in another community(or another space) is becoming our everyday life. Having another 'self'in another world as an avatar is also possible. But then, where do we live-- where are our bodies? Is the reality of life attached to the space onebelongs with the physical body, or to the space one's consciousness belongto? Or do we belong to different spaces at the same time in a loop of switchingrealities? With his life belonging to different cultures in the real world,Kac visualizes the problems we will face in the near future with the layeredmetaphors in his work. Rara Avis is a work that can really be read in multidimensionalways.
Machiko Kusahara is a Tokyo-based electronic art critic and exhibitionscurator. She is committee member of several organizations, including: InterCommunicationCenter (ICC), Tokyo; Ars Electronica Interactive Category Jury (1987-89);Japanese Ministry of Culture's Media Art Festival (planning committee andjury); UNESCO Web Prize jury (1988-89); Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography(collection committee). She teaches at the Kobe University. Her writingson electronic art have appeared in many books, journals, and magazinesworldwide.
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