World Wide Hole

World Wide Hole

World Wide Holeworld wide hole is an opensource art project aimed at opening virtual holes all over the world. Imagine digging a tunnel through the earth and being able to look down in this hole and see someone else looking down at you from the other side of the earth. World wide hole makes this possible.

the goal of world wide hole is to create a network of openings all over the world. Each of the holes in the network will be able to connect to any other hole. A computer program will automate random connections which will change daily, connecting different locations together at dif-ferent times. The website www.worldwidehole,net will include a calen-dar showing a schedule of hole connections. In addition to random hole connections, 2 holes will be able to choose a specific date and time which they wish to be connected. In this way each hole acts as a window between different social and cultural reali-ties, creating the possibilities of communication cooperation and ex-change.

World wide hole uses Voip technology such as Skype and common hard-ware (laptop computer, lcd monitor, webcam, speakers) and is accesible to anyone with a highspeed internet connection. Instructions on how to build your own hole can be found on www.worldwidehole.net, as well as the possibility to order a custom made hole.

The first beta hole was opened between Paris and Londonin July 2006. The project will be presented at the Kunsthaus L6 in Freiburg, Germany during the exhibition Rewind <<>> Fast-forwardcurated by Silke Btizer.

www.worldwidehole.net

GreenScreen(extrActor)

GreenScreen(extrActor)

The Final Cut, Palais de Tokyo, Paris may 2005in collaboration with: Maxence Leborgne and Nico-las Mason, sposored by cityplantes.com

GreenScreen(extrActor) is a “bluescreen” made of living hydroponically grown grass. When a person stands in front of or on the greenscreen they are extracted from the green and can see themselves in different video spaces on a television screen. A remote control lets the user “surf” different video backgrounds.

Commonly used in film and tv studios around the world, bluescreen are used to extract people from their background to insert them into another context. According to certain sources the traditional blue color used was replaced with a bright green, due to the increasing number of actors wearing blue jeans.Today movies such as Star Wars are almost entirely filmed in front of greenscreens. Television also uses this technique to insert reporters “on the scene” of the news. A friend told me once that a news anchor was wearing a blue polka dotted tie, which created holes through to the background. Once as i was watching an interview with an iranian minister, at the end of the news reel, the reporter excused themselves, due to a bluescreen mixup the minister that you saw was not the cur-rent minister but a minister from the 1980s, please excuse us for this mix up. The absurdity of these realities is an absuridty that pleases me in the greenscreen. The green grass does not work as well as the traditional painted background, thus leaving artifacts and holes in the person being extracted. The technique, which is usually hidden from the viewer is here in plain site. The grass represents the idea of nature. The idea for the greenscreen came from a time we were running and jumping down a green graassy hill in california, i looked back at my friends and realized that the hill made a huge natural greenscreen. I later imagined making natural film studios by covering dirt surfaces with a particular species of abright green plant. The greenscreen is a proof of concept for this idea. As our human activity becomes more and more virtualized, we are extracted from the reality of nature. Greenscreen(ExtrActor) poses the question what is more real? the grass under your feet or the images of yourself on the tv screen?The grass is always greener, on the other side of the screen.

Natural GreenScreen

Summertime, Belleville, France, july 2005

Hole 1.0

Air Cambodia, Palais de Tokyo, Paris Febuary 2005 hole 1.0 is a virtual hole which is open through to the floor below. Looking down into the hole you could see visitors in the Palais de Tokyo’s hall. this idea lead to the project world wide hole.

hole 1.0

The only way to make it bigger is to share it

The World Maybee Fantastic

The Superhero that never was

Imaginea transparent world were everything has become invisible. Everything but us,humans all 6,137,000,000 of us would be visible,all in movement; whether it be the beating of a heart or the full body motion of a bun-gee jump, we are all visible. Everything else is not.Everything else includes your clothes, your bodily hair, your dog your cat, the chair you are sitting in the computer you are looking at the walls the streets the cars and buses, airplanes,mountains, rivers, oceans, water, earth, fire, air all invisible. We humans are the only visual markers in an invisible world,our world, earth, la terre mir, Gaia,and innomerable other names given to our home. Six billion of us right now at this very instance are positioned in space, and at this very instance each and every one of us is moving from an infine part of ourselves to our whole body in space,Six billion of us moving together with the turning of our planet on itself and its long movement around the sun. If we were as bright as stars we would form a vast constellation which would endlessly change, evolve new stars born as others die, stars in perpetual movement while others stand still. Millions of stars clustered together in some places in an other one surrounded by vast amounts of space.Imagine that in this transparent world we could be stars.Imagine that from any point in the worldyou could look down below your feet and see throught 12,756 km of earth and see a star, a million stars. If you continued to look around, you could actually see about 6,137,000,000 stars. 6,137,000,000 hu-man stars. 6,137,000,000 human hearts beating.Question: If you could hear all 6,137,000,000 human hearts beating at the same time,what would it sound like?

Now imagine yourself, one of these 6,137,000,000 hearts beating in your chest ,in this transparent world you are translucid and you can see your own heart beating inside you, as well as every other human heart you cross paths with everyday, everywhere you go,even in a crowd or packed together in the subway, every heart and human is visible. Imagine a transparent world, of translucid we,go outside,look around, keep imagining...

Humanography

Personal People Computer

I-con_eat

i-con-eat

Benjamin Lee Martin: of me with you Which is the role of the artist at the era of information? Benjamin Lee Martin makes a use “low tech” of the data-processing universe. By its humanistic thought, it pulsates of the life and the emotions in sup-posedly “cold” the cyber-machine. All the stake of its creations lies in an exploration at the margins of this universe which one says désin-carné and normalized, there or the lines of code are not written yet, where that bug, where the absurdity reveals the faults of the worship dedicated in the virtual world. Where our lives, our dreams and our phantasms are written and are recorded without our knowledge. While declaring: “What I prefer is people” (what I prefer, they is people), it affirms well the position of the computer in its work: a simple vector, and certainly not a finality in oneself. “Act without media”: without be-ing a luddite, Benjamin Lee Martin however invites to exceed contem-porary fascination for the médiasphère, in order to restore a commu-nication interhumaine based on the exchange of ideas. Its nebula of Web sites - all equipped with the termination” .be “, as “to exist” - af-firms the pressing need for seizing again traceability of our existences on Internet. Benjamin Lee Martin answers the definition of the artist by Bernard Stiegler: “an operator of transindividuation of pre-individual available”. The diagrams and formulas poético-mathematics in which it connects “I” and “U” (of “I” and of “you”) make of him a spearhead of flows transindividuels. All the stake of its work is in the capacity to act like a hyphen between I and, aiming us at an Co-individuation. With a relearning of knowledge-being-together. Pascal Beausse

Benjamin Lee Martin : de moi à toi

Quel est le rôle de l’artiste à l’ère de l’information ? Benjamin Lee Mar-tin fait un usage “low tech” de l’univers informatique. Par sa pensée humaniste, il pulse de la vie et des émotions dans la soi-disant “froide” cyber-machine. Tout l’enjeu de ses créations réside dans une explora-tion aux marges de cet univers que l’on dit désincarné et normé, là ou les lignes de code ne sont pas encore écrites, là où ça bogue, là où l’absurde révèle les failles du culte voué au monde virtuel. Là où nos vies, nos rêves et nos fantasmes s’écrivent et s’enregistrent à notre insu.En déclarant : “What I prefer is people” (ce que je préfère, c’est les gens), il affirme bien la position de l’ordinateur dans son travail : un simple vecteur, et certainement pas une finalité en soi. “Act without media” : sans être un luddite, Benjamin Lee Martin invite pourtant à dépasser la fascination contemporaine pour la médiasphère, afin de rétablir une communication interhumaine basée sur l’échange d’idées. Sa nébuleuse de sites Web - tous dotés de la terminaison “.be”, comme “exister” - affirme l’impérieuse nécessité de se ressaisir de la traçabili-té de nos existences sur Internet.Benjamin Lee Martin répond à la définition de l’artiste par Bernard Stiegler : “un opérateur de transindividuation du pré-individuel dis-ponible”. Les diagrammes et formules poético-mathématiques dans lesquels il relie des “i” et des “u” (des “je” et des “tu”) font de lui un fer de lance des flux transindividuels. Tout l’enjeu de son travail se situe dans la capacité à agir comme un trait d’union entre je et nous, visant à une co-individuation. À un réapprentissage du savoir-être-ensemble.

Pascal Beausse