re: floating tank. first, i got it all wrong. and second, i whimped out…
iso-phone is a floating tank, and it has nothing to do with a think tank, which gerfried stocker had reported during the opening press conference of the festival. it was probably wordplay on his part. the other thing is that the communication is not between the two people in the two separate tanks, another stocker invention. to have the two tanks communicate with eachother would have been too awkward, said james auger, one of the projects developpers from MIT europe. so this is how it goes: person in tank a is isolated except for a mobile phone line through which they can speak with a person of their choice. person in tank b speaks via a small headphone/speaker system to whoever happens to be outside on the plaza. one person who went into tank b told me afterwards, that it had been quite an awkward experience.
so me, i whimped out. but with style… as i said earlier i had actually a date for saturday to go into floating tank a. but i had huge resistance. a mixture of my various neurosi, if this is in fact the plural form of the word… neurosis —> neurosi ??? anywhich, luckily i got a call. they had to cancel because of technical problems. so i guess i was saved by the bell. in this case the phone bell.
right after visiting the floating tank project on hauptplatz i went to get ice cream. two flavors. they had poppy flavor. so i said i’d like heroin and cocaine. the guy did not find this funny. i still do.
after a few rather busy days, with conferences, exhibits, openings and parties, the sunday was more relaxed. more sunday-like. as far as presentations the winners of this years prix ars electronica spoke about their projects. which i did not go to. arrogant me says, quite generally, artists speaking about their own work is more than boring. should be illegal. in the evening there was a longish (2 1/2 hours!) talk by itsuo sakane about the history of interaction between art and technology. or maybe it was in fact a NA (= Namedroppers Anonymous) meeting.
technology has always such a problem…
itsuo sakane, 05.09.2004 ars electronica
please check my moblog for images…