Jeff
Gompertz
Reciepent of THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT 2002 artist residency.
summary and capsule hotel proposal
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Summary Capsule 2002 is a two city internet work that will link a Capsule Hotel site in Tokyo and a reflective installation environment in NYC. A temporary population of 'inhabitants' assembled in each location will create an overlapping system of packets and compartments. Web-specific goals include enabling multi-user video conference behavior within the browser interface. |
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images: Fakeshop
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Capsule Hotel Proposal I first determined to build an internet project around the subject/site of the Capsule Hotel when I had the occasion to stay in one in 1995. My work has focused on the digital by-products of remote communication; the pixelations, data fragments, found objects and story lines inherent in the process of long-distance internet based communication.The 'Hotel' thus becomes a perfect metaphorical environment in which to investigate these occurances and themes. In December 2000 I set up a Hotel-like installation in NYC: http://fakeshop.com/installation/capsulehotel.html This year, I went back to Tokyo to collect video footage from actual hotel sites in preparation for a second installation that will take place in May of this year. It will be presented at The Kitchen NYC, and will be less elaborate in terms of physical construction, but more elaborate in terms of the incorporation of performance, site-specific video, and hopefully video-conference and remote collaborative elements. Eventually, my plan is to be able to orchestrate a two city internet work, that would link an actual hotel site and a reflective installation environment in NY. In preparation for this admittedly ambitious goal, I want to start with any kind of signal coming from Tokyo. At this point it could be a small entry point, such as a webcam in the hotel, or a live feed off the hotels own surveilance systems/cameras. I know this is not the simplest goal, but likewise I dont give up that it is impossible to accomplish. I am including below some documentation of previous installation work and an introductory statement about the Capsule Hotel Project. __________________________________________________________________ Portfolio/CV Graphics/Website: Installation
work: Proposals Current project: Some documentation
of the first version: & _______________________________________________________________________ Original Text Capsule Hotel: 'Capsule Hotel' is a participatory installation project inspired by an actual 'short stay' businessman's hotel in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo. As an initial metaphor, a parallel is drawn between the compartmental nature of a capsule hotels' physical structure, and the structure of online experience. In a chat room, or other multi- user social environment, while individuals are electronically interconnected, they are physically alone. In a capsule hotel, while individuals are physically connected by a common space, they are electronically and psychologically isolated. What if one starts to manipulate the particular components of these two inter-related environments? In this chat room structure, a 'doubled' environment will be set-up, a reflective unit in either Tokyo and/or New York which will serve to bridge or create new layers of distance, depending on ones interpretation. A camera and televison in each capsule will enable every inhabitant to receive and/or transmit into any other capsule hooked up to the local system. In addtion, internet connectivity will enable the linkage of the actual 'Capsule Hotel' in Tokyo to a 'reflective' installation in NYC. Selected compartments will be enhanced by internet hookup, enabling a 24/7 New York to Tokyo video-conference connection. An 'electronic cloud' of personal data will be allowed to roam freely between these two environments. A temporary population of 'inhabitants' will be assembled in each location, creating an overlapping system between participants and spaces. The circumstances of this 'doubled' environment will become the take-off point for an ongoing web-based narrative as well as a series of live performative actions. As the individual participants are networked together and their signals tele-communicated, the physical and the virtual will overlap in unexpected ways, forming an environment hooked up between two distant realities. For the time they inhabit the capsule hotel, the participants will have more in common with each other than they will with their respective worlds-at-large. _______________________________________________________________________
In the website, there is a remote point of entry into these various setups and site-specific installations. It exists as a window into these actions, and as evidence of ephemeral digital procedures. One of the ongoing concerns in Fakeshop performances is the transformation of the body through digital technologies. Bodies of performers, participants (local and remote), audience members, and virtual, computer-generated bodies, are all processed and re-processed in an investigation of networked subjectivity. Fakeshop core members are Jeff Gompertz, and Eugene Thacker. Recent Fakeshop
performances and exhibitions include: Electronic
Disturbance Theater (International) |
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