The networked, interactive installation MULTINODE_METAGAME of the Chilean artists Catalina Ossa Holmgren and Enrique Rivera Gallardo deals with the emergence of new forms of communication with the help of computer technology. Their starting point is the cybersyn project (1971–1973) of the Chilean Allende government. Under the direction of the British cybernetics expert, Stafford Beer, a cybernet was created with which the economy was to be planned, controlled and steered in real-time. For the installation MULTINODE_METAGAME, the interface design of the former control room was reconstructed into which all information would run. The history of this project and its significance for the communication forms of the internet, were presented across the three temporal levels “Past”, “Present” and “Future”. If the user selects the installation “Past”, he would receive information via the cybersyn project. With the selection “Present”, he can communicate with other users of this installation via a video stream in real-time. In the area “Future”, the user can extend the installation with his own knowledge, which is made publicly available via the website www.cybersyn.cl (Text: Claudia Becker)
or-am was founded by Catalina Ossa Holmgren (*1982 in Santiago, Chile) and Enrique Rivera Gallardo (*1977 in Santiago, Chile). It was created with the objective of sustaining a basis for the development of investigations and works in diverse platforms and techniques. The two artists concentrate their activities on the convergence of art and science. Their work is based on the construction of nonlinear narrative work, which demonstrates connections between pioneering initiatives and new experimentation, through theoretical investigation and interdisciplinary development.
Concept and production: Catalina Ossa Holmgren, Enrique Rivera Gallardo
Systems programming: Ariel Bustamante, integrated circles
Interactive 3d programming: Joachim Tesch
Website programming: Felix Bach
Sponsors (in alphabetical order): British Council Santiago, Chile Centro de Documentación de las Artes del Centro Cultural Palacio la Mondeda, Chile Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y de las Artes de Chile, Fondart 2007 Syncho Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile, Corfo Dirección de Asuntos Culturales del Ministerio de Relaciones Culturales de Chile, Dirac Intergrated Circles, England Liverpool John Moore University, England State Academy of Design Karlsruhe, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Images courtesy of the Stafford Beer Collection of the Liverpool John Moore Unitversity, England
or-am (Catalina Ossa Holmgren, Enrique Rivera Gallardo), MULTINODE_METAGAME, 2007, interactive user installation, 1 fiberglass chair with ashtray, hexagonal space with brown carpet, 1 touchscreen, 1 webcam, 1 microphone, 2 loudspeakers, 80 slides, 2 19’’ monitors, loaned by the artists
