ars electronica Linz, Austria 2007 : Goodby Privacy

3 pieces :
Calling the Glacier - A Mobile Elegy ***
&
Your Personal Message Sculpture
&
I Forgot I Never Remembered
An installation by Kalle Laar ***


Calling the Glacier is part of Overtures - an interdisciplinary art project about resources
In collaboration with artcircolo & Vodafone Group Research & Development Germany
With the help of the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) Vienna and the Commission for Glaciology of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich

Overtures presented the Environmental Office at ars electronica's second city and the Hydroformance, featured live by Oe1 radio ***

___Calling the Glacier - A Mobile Elegy

Calling the Glacier, second stage : A microphone has been placed above a small riverbed on top of the Pasterze glacier, the largest glacier of Austria and the Eastern Alps, located below Austia's highest peak, the Grossglockner. Dialing the number below connects you directly to the microphone.
call me - business cards 86 x 56 mm
In the meantime the glacier has shifted and changed its surface, and is covered by snow. The small gap and the creek have disappeared and on top of the glacier the only sound is made by the winds. The microphone has been placed inside a crevasse about 6 meters deep picking up occasional noises from inside the glacier. Whether the microphone will continue to work cannot be determined. The free phone number is still working.
___Your Personal Message Sculpture
Your Personal Message Sculpture. SMS-programmable lcd screen, MDF, piano finish (Klavierlack) 2000 x 760 x 760 mm
YPMS - banner. 1000 x 1800 mm banner text YPMS order website

The YPMS showed the daily updated scientific data arriving via sms from the Vernagt glacier.
For the duration of the festival the YPMS was reconstructed in Second Life, as part of the virtually recreated ars electronica main square next to the Parochial Church in Linz. Touching the sculpture with your avatar in Second Life would establish a telephone connection to the Pasterze glacier.
That would have also been the 'real' position of the sculpture, but due to extreme weather conditions it was placed in the entrance hall of the press center.
for the Calling the Glacier project go to www.callingtheglacier.org
for Your Personal Message Sculpture go to www.YPMS.org
___I Forgot I Never Remembered
A flat, 50-meter-long metal channel extends the entire length of the nave, through the entry portal and out into the square in front of the church. As a gutter, the loosely netted sheet-metal strip isn’t much good at transporting moisture, but, having been worked into a multi-channel resonating surface, it has a story all its own to tell.
I Forgot I Never Remembered. 30-channel soundinstallation.
55 meters of sheet roof gutter, river pebbles, 30 small loudspeakers, 6 dvd players, 15 stereo amplifiers
Fotos by Mila Pavan
Presse
West Magazin. September 2007, ART, Oktober 2007