Speakers’ Corners

W()RDS ON WORKS Words on Works ~re short statements about new artworks in which art and technology coexist or merge. Words o~ Works arepu~lzshed regularly on the ISAST online database F.A.S. 1'. (Fine Art Science and Technology) and In the ISAST online newsletter F.A. S.7:News. In the spirit of Leonardo, the information they contain is what the artists themselves have chosen to say about their own work. THE ODYSSEY Fortner Anderson, Dromos Editions, 4083 Clark, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2W IX\. E-mail: fortner@well.sf.ca.us The Odysseyis a collaborative computer program written as a Hypercard application for the Apple Macintosh computer (Mac Plus, SE or II). The Odysseywill travel for 4 months, 15 March-14july 1989. During its travels, all who encounter The Odyssey are asked to contribute texts, sounds or images to its collection of data. Contributors pass their work on to others so that the journey may continue . After 14july 1989, all copies of The Odysseywill ask to be returned home. Upon their return, we hope to compile a modern-day Domesday book; an electronic picture of the time from the material we will have received. SPEAKERS' CORNERS Benoit Maubrey, Die Audio Gruppe, Schulstr. 35, 100 Berlin 65, Germany Tel: 30462-2954 Since 1983, I have been creating electronic Speakers' Corners. These are outdoor sculptures that people can call up and talk through. The callers, using any ordinary telephone, can dial a special number and be automatically connected to these outdoor sculptures. The sculptures are usually integrated into preexisting structures on site and equipped with a public address system that enables the callers to express themselves directly to the public. These electronically active sculptures exist in a public space and are accessible to the public on a 24-hour basis. My goal is to create, via telephone , an open forum for spontaneous oral communication. Section Editor: Judy Malloy C> 19911SAST Pergamon Press pic.Printed inGreat Brttain. 0024-094X/91$3.00+0.00 HUGE UTERUS Lutz Bacher, 1592 Euclid Ave., Berkeley, CA 94708, U.SA Huge Uterus (1989) includes the ~ hour real-time video record of the recent operation on my uterus. During the video/operation, the surgeon writes exploratory notes such as that used here for the title: "Huge uterus ... with many tumors ... no cancer ... the tissue is healthy except for tumors ... remove tumors ... the uterus is an organ that heals well naturally". The other image/narrative component of this installation is a visualization /preparation-for-the-operation sound tape that plays on an autoreverse tape player with detachable remote speakers: "As the anaesthetic begins to make you even more relaxed , external words and sounds simply serve as a background murmur interpreted as signals to relax. They're not recorded. You will not respond to them. You are very relaxed and very calm". These tapes play on equipment that is configured as body/monitor/ hookup. All of the apparatus (monitor , decks, speakers, wires) are visible in the actual installation. The video cassette recorder and audio tape decks are mounted on adjoining walls; their electrical wiring hangs free and visible and is connected to the video monitors and speakers, which are placed on the floor side-byside in front of their decks. The video monitor lies on its back on the floor. Huge Uterus was exhibited in the Bay Area Conceptualism exhibition (Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, Fall 1989), at the Simon Watson Gallery (New York City,jan-Feb 1990) and at LAC.E. (Los Angeles, CA, Feb-Apr 1990). ELEGBA'S STRATAGEM Collis Davis, Dept. of Photography and Cinema, Haskett Hall, 156 West 19th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210-1183, U.S.A. E-mail: davis.14@osu.edu Elegba's Stratagem employs the computer as a tool for the design and presentation of branching narrative ideas and viewer mediation. The basic equipment configuration consists of a personal computer (PC), three videodisc players that are controlled by the computer (via an interface card), a graphics overlay card that allows text and graphics originating from the PC to be combined with motion video from the videodisc players and a speech-recognition card for viewer input. The authoring system used creates the interactive...