[spectre] Amodal Suspension @ YCAM

[Rafael Lozano-Hemmer]

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YAMAGUCHI CENTER FOR ARTS AND MEDIA (YCAM) WILL OPEN WITH "AMODAL
SUSPENSION", A NEW INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION BY RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER

>From the 1st to the 24th of November 2003, short text messages sent by
people over the Internet or by cell phone will be converted into patterns of
flashing lights in the sky, turning the Japanese city of Yamaguchi into a
giant communication switchboard. The piece will be located in the public
space around the new YCAM Center and will be accessible through address
http://www.amodal.net

PROJECT OVERVIEW

"Amodal Suspension" will be a large-scale interactive installation where
people may send short text messages to each other using a cell phone or web
browser connected to address www.amodal.net. However, rather than being sent
directly, the messages will be encoded as unique sequences of flashes and
sent to the sky with a network of robotically-controlled lights. The
signaling will be similar to Morse code or the flashing of fireflies, --the
lights will modulate their intensity to represent different Japanese and
Western characters. Each message, once encoded, will be "suspended" in the
sky of Yamaguchi, bouncing around the center of the city, relayed from one
searchlight to another. Each light sequence will continue to circulate until
somebody "catches" the message and reads it. To catch a text, participants
must again use the cell phone or computer programs provided at
www.amodal.net. To highlight the irony of globalization, the piece will use
an automatic translation engine between Japanese and English, --this will
produce inaccurate but charming results.

"Amodal Suspension" will create an interactive mesh of light over the city,
a floating cloud of data that can be written on and read. The piece will
provide a connective platform in which local residents and remote
participants from different regions and countries can establish ad hoc
relationships. While visualizing the traffic of information on an urban
scale, the piece is also intended as a deviation from the assumed
transparency of electronic communication.

"AMODAL SUSPENSION - RELATIONAL ARCHITECTURE 8"
PERIOD: November 1-24, 2003 every night from dusk to dawn
VENUE: YCAM and the central park of Yamaguchi-city
ACCESS: Computers, mobile phones and local access kiosks connected to the
web address www.amodal.net. Special ³Access Pods² will be installed in
several Art and Science centers around the world, these Pods will feature an
enhanced experience and documentation on the project.

AMODAL EVENTS

Amodal Suspension will open at 19:00 Japanese time (10:00 GMT) on November
1st, 2003 with a message sent by astronauts from the International Space
Station.

A symposium on the project will take place on the 2nd of November at 18:30,
featuring philosopher and author Brian Massumi, Cultural Studies theorist
Yoshitaka Mori, project curators Yukiko Shikata and Kazunao Abe and artist
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Three additional lectures will be presented at YCAM to frame the project:
local researcher Shimgo Hirano on fireflies, Prof. Akira Suzuki (Kobe Design
University) on "Soft Shelter: electronic networks in the city and hand-drawn
maps", and Dr. Jun Tanaka (University of Tokyo), on "Light as a symbol - On
the history of light in the city".

FOR MORE INFORMATION

The web site contains information and preliminary images
http://www.amodal.net

For information on YCAM
http://www.ycam.jp

For information on Lozano-Hemmer
http://www.lozano-hemmer.com

Inquiry
yumicota at ycam.jp


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