In relation to readings:
These readings were about telepresence in art or being able to control a piece of art (or parts of it) and participate in it from a distant location. It allows one to be able to experience a work from multiple points of view and from different perspectives (their own perspective as well as the robot’s). It raises issues about voyeurism and surveillance and how we determine identity.
With this in mind, I particularly was interested in Eduardo Kac’s work, Rara Avis, 1996, which is mentioned in Paul’s book, Digital Art.
This work by Kac is a large aviary with many small live birds (zebra finches) and a large red macaw that is actually a robot. The macaw has cameras as eyes. When a person came into the room, they saw an aviary with the large fake bird among the many tiny living ones and were then confronted with a headset. When the viewer put the headset on, they were able to see what the macaw was “seeing.” What the user usually faced was an image of them looking back at the macaw (themselves). Also, with the headset, when the viewer moved their head, it also moved the bird’s head.
I find this concept of being in two places at once very fascinating. When I was younger, I constantly imagined what it could be like to switch places with someone and to see the world how they would see it. This artwork allows someone to “see” from the bird’s perspective, to be inside the cage, looking back out. This work could also be accessed by remote users using the internet. With it’s telepresence, someone far away could see what the bird could see, move its head, and also, using a microphone, could make the bird make noises.
The large macaw was very different from the tiny living birds it shared its space with, raising questions of identity. It also showed how new communications technology, such as the internet, can cross boundaries and allow one to be “present” in many different places at once.
Other works by Kac also interest me, such as Time Capsule (1997),
where, he implanted a microchip into his leg that was a memory card that contained several old sepia-toned family photos.
That one seems like commentary about our past. There is also the glowing GPF Bunny (2000), but I think that is discussed in later readings about biotechnology and bio-art. So, I will talk about that one in a later blog.
