[spectre] Turbulence Commission: "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" by Carmin Karasic, Rolf van Gelder and Rob Coshow

[Turbulence]

Turbulence Commission: "Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" by Carmin
Karasic, Rolf van Gelder and Rob Coshow, with special thanks to the HP
mscapers team, Brett Stalbaum, and Jo Rhodes
http://turbulence.org/works/HyperMonument/

Designed for HP iPAQ 6900 series smartphones, "Handheld Histories as
Hyper-Monuments" uses GPS and mobile technologies to address historic bias
in Boston's public monuments. The artwork gathers non-official stories to
socially construct hyper-monuments that exist as digital doubles, augmenting
specific historic monuments. For example, imagine you are near the Old South
Church in Boston, MA, USA. The smartphone sounds church bells to get your
attention. It then displays an easily identifiable image of the Old South
Church circa 2007, followed by images of the church that take you back in
time. Finally you see the location as it was in its natural, wild state. You
can send text, image and audio content to the website from the monument
location via any internet enabled device. Or use any internet browser to
view and add histories to the hyper-monuments.

HHHM requires HP mediascapes locative media software to create content rich
hotspots on GPS aware maps. Once the HHHM mediascape is installed on a
handheld device, a GPS fix is required to automatically display the
hyper-monument. WiFi internet connectivity is best for viewing and
contributing to the hyper-monument via the handheld's browser.

HHHM is part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival (http://bostoncyberarts.org/).
Pick up a smartphone at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery
(http://www.judirotenberg.com/), 130 Newbury Street, Boston from April
21-28, 2007, Tues-Sat 10am-6pm.

"Handheld Histories as Hyper-Monuments" is a 2007 commission of New Radio
and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It
was made possible with funding from the LEF Foundation.

BIOGRAPHIES

One November morning in 1994, CARMIN KARASIC was listening to digital
artists on NPR when she realized she was a digital artist trapped in a
Fidelity Technical Project Manager's body. This simple realization changed
her life. A multimedia artist focused on Internet Art, she is also an
Assistant Director of Boston Cyberarts, and on the faculty of Lesley
University. Her work can be seen online in several e-zines, websites, and
galleries, such as CAGE. She has exhibited in the Boston area at the
DeCordova Museum, MIT List Center, the Attleboro Museum, Computer Museum,
New England School of Art and Design, The Art Institute of Boston, and The
Brodigan Gallery; in NY at the Studio Museum, Harlem; Brooks Gallery at
Cooper Union, and the New York Hall of Science; and Austria, Canada, Japan,
and Germany. Carmin has been awarded a Mudge Fellowship from the Groton
School and a duPont Fellowship from the Art Institute of Boston. 

ROLF VAN GELDER is an artist and web developer. Self-taught, he has been
creating visual art since the early 80s and collaborating with Carmin
Karasic since the 1990s. They created "d{s}eduction dialogue" for the 2001
Boston Cyberarts Festival and "Virtual Quilt" (2002) for the DeCordova
Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA, USA (with Clara Wainwright). In 1995
Rolf founded one of the first on-line art galleries, CAGE - Cyber Art
Gallery Eindhoven (http://www.cage.nl). His work has been exhibited in over
50 exhibitions in the U.S.A., Canada, Austria, Portugal, Italy, Sweden,
Germany, UK, Spain and the Netherlands.

ROB COSHOW is an artist/photographer who recently graduated Magna Cum Laude
from the Art Institute of Boston. Trained in classic wet-lab photography as
well as digital and new media, Rob has honed his experimental approach to
create works that bridge multiple disciplines. In 2006, he exhibited his
"Crab Cake" robots at Axiom Gallery, and collaborated with Jeff Warmouth,
Roland Smart and other Boston artists to create "Art Show Down" at Art
Interactive. He has received various honors for his photography and
illustrious reviews for his new media work.


Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director
New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org
New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856
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