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Hello, good evening, thank you for having
us here.
Great pleasure to be here.
We are meeting a meeting of the beatnik
artist group from Zurich.
My name is Carmen.
This is Dorma and we would like
to talk about our artistic work.
Work deals a lot with public spaces
and the possibilities of publics,
and our practice is very exploitive
and interventionist.
You could say one of our main artistic
practices is hacking.
We take hacking from computer
culture and transfer
it onto our or into our arts
practice.
But instead of trying to explain what
we do in theory, we'll show you two
of our works.
The first is called up recording.
It's an older work.
It's from 2007,
and we produced it in collaboration
with Voltaire, which is
another is the art space in Zurich.
It's not space
which is in the house where the other was
founded 100 years ago in Zurich.
And we started
out this work
from accurate curiosity
about opera
and opera
in general as an art form, but also
the Zurich Opera House
coming from digital
culture and the collaborative
practices of the internet.
Opera is a very strange art form.
It's very closed.
You need to be dressed in a certain way
to go there. You need to go there in
person.
There's no way of participating.
Otherwise the fees are quite
high, so you need some money also to get
in. And
this led
to this project.
So also to give you a little bit more of
a local context.
So 85 percent of all
the cultural budgets of the count
of the week goes directly to this house.
So the rest so the remaining
15 percent are shared by all other art
forms dance theater, museums,
fine art spaces, whatever.
I mean, like 50 percent, whereas 85
so.
And additionally, at the beginning of
the 80s in Zurich, yup,
you had started in front of the Opera
House. So there was a youth
demanding space for
self-organized youth culture and
a little bit of money.
So if you talk about opera and
everybody knows about those two
backgrounds, so they always resonate
somehow.
So we asked ourselves, how can we
open up this closed
system of the Zurich Opera House?
How can we become part of the opera
audience without actually going there?
In our research, we stumbled across
this very beautiful image.
It's it shows
the forgotten use of the telephone from
the outgoing 19th century.
So right after the telephone was
invented, companies started
to try to sell the media.
But they couldn't say, Well, you know,
buy yourself a phone and wait for a
while, and maybe somebody else will buy
one in your neighborhood and then you can
call each other.
So what they did was they
they connected whatever local
cultural institutions they had
up to the telephone network.
So you had something called
the auto phone or the
opera phone in in Paris.
And
this this was in place until
the radio was invented.
So basically the telephone was used as
a radio.
Up until the invention of the radio
you see here on the right,
the opera singer in front of her
microphones on the stage.
In the center, you see the telephone
switchboards and then
the family at home receiving
this opera transmission in front of the
telephone.
The telephone doesn't have
a receiver like we know it today.
It's more gramophone loudspeakers,
so it was really used.
This is sort of a wall telephone.
This was like one of the first uses of
live transmission of something, so it was
super strange for the people to
experience something which is not
happening in the same room.
We really like this, and we
sort of asked ourselves what would
happen if we would recreate the service
as a public service?
Nobody had asked for 100 years
later.
So instead of using these microphones,
we decided to install
box like audio box hidden microphones
inside your house.
And we had like an exhibition space
in the couple will tell which was
which would get the life out you
fit out of the opera.
And there we had a telephone
server running connecting like
local households in the.
Just like calling them.
So basically, there was like a random
generator scanning through the telephone
book of Zurich and just like randomly
picking one number and
saying, Hey, here's here's the
life opera.
You want to hear it.
Just stay connected, beep.
And here it is.
This is the auditorium of
the Opera House, and we
quickly found out it's not a good place
to place the box.
You need to place them behind the stage
so they stay there a lot longer.
So.
So this is a screenshot from a newspaper
on Swiss television
in the picture, you see the director of
the Zurich Opera House showing one of
those box. They found a
life on telly.
So they were expecting the box to be like
James Bond like devices, and
they were really, really surprised that
we just used like normal mobile
phones we could call in and they would
pick up automatically and give us like
something like light can hold your feet.
So they were not really happy about
those thing, about the thing about
this project going on.
So we received a really
harsh letter saying
we should immediately remove all the bugs
to give us two days, or they would
call the military service to
debug or I don't know what the word is,
but to debug the Opera House, and
we would have to pay the fee.
So the last letter also said
they would sue us for copyright
infringement, while at the same time
the opera singers
union wanted
to sue us for transmission fees.
Normally you have to pay something if you
broadcast and for
libel because of the
bad audio quality, so people could think,
Hey, within like this telephone
transmission, we sound so badly.
Nobody the people will think
we can't see.
So this was like this
were the affect.
This is the fog, what it looked
like when it was
not being unwrapped by the
director of the
and cheaply made like gaffer tape
and the external microphone for a little
bit better audio quality.
And it was taped so.
So just like if we call it the mobile
phone, the display wouldn't
let up. So it's really like Martin, we
could produce it really fast.
Mm hmm.
This was the telephone machine at the
exhibition space in the water.
This was the only place where you could
listen to the work without
having to receive the call at home so
you could come here and listen in
on the opera while the
at the service was running.
So,
yeah, we produced
like a small film.
It's basically one call
showing a family receiving
this operatic strange opera telephone.
It's Sunday afternoon
in March 25th, and
yeah, we'll just listen in for a few
minutes to so you get a little bit of
context what it was about.
Just sort of playing, yes.
So it's a black screen with subtitles.
Can we have a more sound level?
No, alibi, we don't.
Yeah, hello, pretty hard,
is this album on the open terrified
is that's pretty little
hopeful. I mean, the TV.
I wanted to see it in.
Then you can see that life
is open house something
he can bitcoin for me, Tim Fontenot of
the Hoisington for staying open.
The rosenkavalier that we set
out to bring new stuff
to
the
shops.
So I thought,
but all of us sold us
too close to
call them
to the same tiles.
It's the same golfer, so I'm just going
to just buy the OPA.
They
should not listen to it.
So you don't seem tired of what they're
saying
to
me.
So,
you know, it's so, you know,
I was like, Yes,
I am commerce.
The guy
I sold the acoustic
spinoff to a little Cottage Grove.
I love that.
Let's bring this up
to us to the
meter. Is it
most likely until next year?
He's also going to be
in the house
after the first student after
that open House of Foodstuffs up to 15
years with new direction.
But this is really about him going to
number one.
We just had his uncle, Andrew Kraft,
wanted the company over his life,
so to speak. He gives us someone just to
open it, and then it can benefit
from the system.
It's great.
Key to
the case, because it
doesn't seem
like any kind of maneuver that
24.0 know Â£270
is not these days are numbered because
you think in
a way
that it
goes for another four minutes.
It's a beautiful piece.
And I like to try to find out which our
price playing.
So a kid will join in and they will
explain what the oil price is and
blah blah blah. And so they're really
excited, so it goes for about eight
minutes. It's on our website if you want
to check it.
Well, and as the woman,
as you saw before, and the woman already
explained so that the media picked
up heavily on the on the project
locally it
there was a big discussion about who owns
a publicly funded culture,
who has access.
And
yeah. And
it went back and forth for a while.
Also the legal battle between
the Opera House and us
and the people there.
And because the media also
sort of made it into this David
against Goliath story with
the small, poor artists
against this big subsidize
the Opera House.
They sort of accepted
the the work then as an enhancement
of their performance repertoire.
So it ran for
three months.
We re transmitted every
performance, every night
from the Opera House.
And so we re transmitted
about 100 hours of
opera to around
four and a half thousand households
in Zurich.
Wow.
Oh, good.
Well,
the second work we would like to talk
about is very recent work.
It's called delivery for Mr. Assange.
We produced it in January
this year, so about 11 months
ago and the starting
point for this work was our interest
in the circumstances under which
Julian Assange has been living at the
Ecuadorian Embassy in London
since seeking asylum
in June 2012.
The embassy was surrounded by British
police in August 2012,
around the time the embassy announced
that they granted they would grant
Julian Assange asylum.
And for us, this
this very strange
setting in the heart of London
in in the very touristic area
of western London
sort of became
the sign of a global diplomatic crisis
going on between the powers that be
and internet aficionados,
whatever transparency people
and with them, Julian Assange.
So normally you don't see this
kind of conflict at something which
shows itself in the media or on
the internet.
But in long run, it manifests
itself in this terrific career
west of London. So you pass
all those people when you get
nearby.
So they're are just like many tourists
and stuff, and suddenly you
are in front of this police barrier and
they have like strange police cars and
vans with strange antennas, won't
you? You, I don't know.
You kind of really feel the conflict
physically.
So it's
I would say it's a war zone.
So you enter there and you feel it, OK,
it's a war zone.
So we ask ourselves, how can we intervene
into this geopolitical situation
where both sides are not really moving
any more? Source it since months, they
are start places outside us, which is
inside.
So we ask ourselves which communication
channels into the
Ecuadorian embassy are still open
physically. Also, I mean, we knew
we can't just go there and walking
by ourselves.
So we started to analyze the situation.
And one question was what
happens if we introduce a bit
of normality into this
exceptional circumstances?
So we realized that the postal system
could be an interesting tool
to test the situation.
Sending a parcel is an everyday
act, basically.
So but what happens if you send a parcel
to Julian Assange?
So we basically
built a parcel and
we want a better feedback than just
going to the post office and posting it.
So we made the whole
thing to the parcel into the side of the
parcel.
Behind the whole is a camera, which
takes a picture every 15 seconds,
10 to 15 seconds and uploads
the image to observer.
So we really had to
parcel with a live tracking
image system, and
we addressed it to Julian
Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy
in London, and
we basically just wanted to see
whether the parcel would reach him.
Would it be open or would it be
removed from this postal system?
In a sense, it was like
maybe a real world ping or
a trace route or
a system test.
We called it inserted into a highly
tense diplomatic crisis.
So.
So we also published this picture
showing the what it looks like
when it's scanned by an X-ray
machine.
So and we published it also
on the same website where the live feed
was. So we have like this strange
device here, something here and
a battery blob on this side.
The outcome of the experiment was totally
open equally for us, as for
anyone watching online.
This is something we really like about
art that it has this.
It holds this opportunity
for an intentional loss of control.
You create an intervention and
you just wait for some feedback.
In this case, it was waiting for
images here.
So this was the website where the
images arrived.
So every 15 seconds, 10 to 15
seconds would reload.
You would have a reload here.
And yeah, maybe we have to
say there was also like chips inside.
So we had like the cheapest position for
life.
And like this, this
image stream.
We tried to contextualize a bit
what was going on with these images so
you could watch the live feed on
comments or you could
have on the website.
You could see a stream of images we
posted with comments trying to figure
out what was happening to the parcel.
And we also posted these
images on Twitter.
The first image shows Douma
queuing up so you can see him in
the mirror bit there
at a post office in East London.
So we only tested the
British the Royal Mail System.
Not no borders there.
So, yeah, queuing up,
he's
next approaching the
counter.
The puzzle was accepted.
This was like the the first fear
we had that the person
at the Post Office would say, Oh, sorry,
this has a hole.
I'm not going to accept this,
but maybe they will take the whole or
something like, OK.
So and it made it's like behind
this glass thing and disappeared
in this bag.
It was just like was accepted.
So we received these red images
for quite a long time.
You would sit there and just like, you
know, it was a really slow stream, it's
like you felt like nineteen ninety five,
maybe, you know, every 15 seconds,
one picture.
And sometimes they were broken, so
they not good.
So, really, really slow.
And the person just sat there for a while
at this post office.
We assume in this back
and then it went dark.
Of course, we already got
very nervous.
Has somebody taped the camera?
Did they find it out?
We didn't know. I mean, like, still
black.
One hour later, still black, like
receiving one every 15 seconds.
But now the puzzle was moving or
being moved,
which we thought through the G.P.S.
locations.
And it's really like, OK, after three
hours of black images like, OK, wow,
these images of this image appeared
seem to we just had no light.
Everything was fine.
We are alive.
I mean, like, let's go on.
And we saw through the
DPS locations that we had arrived
at something called Mount Pleasant
Male Center in central London.
And suddenly, this view, like
what?
You know, for the first time, we left
like this box and we had like this wire
iStock view of something and you
wouldn't see normally.
So you post something, it disappears
and then it comes out again somewhere
else.
We also called this unmanned photography.
It's a bit like, I mean,
you always get very strange
images.
Try these
things.
It's nine o'clock people pushing
trolleys, workers.
It's still dark, and then we
will disappear in the green bank,
red, green
and people online started participating
also in this trying to find out
what was happening to the puzzle.
They helped us interpret still
locations images.
Then, after four hours into
the performance, all servers
went offline from the many
requests and
people started setting up mirrors,
studs, writing scripts
to get all the images from our server
because they were probably afraid that
they would go away will get
lost.
So it's, uh, I don't know, it's
round 11,
almost 12 hours.
When we when we look.
Since posting, we realized, OK, we are
on the way out of town.
It was really strange because I'm an
Islamist here shooting at someone sitting
here. The puzzle just passes and goes,
here, I'm like, What the fuck I'm like?
Where is it heading to?
So it wasn't
really sure it was moving fast.
Black, black, black for hours.
Uh, 11:00 p.m.
Is not moving anymore.
And here we arrived near
Heathrow Airport at
the Royal Jubilee Mail Center.
That's 22 kilometers west of
the city.
So then again,
you have people working
trolleys at 2:00
in the morning trolleys, dominant color,
yellow food, silent
observer
solely on the move again.
And then black again.
Well, black so
black since one hour 50 to the morning.
Five almost five o'clock in the morning.
They're moving back into the city at
5:30.
I think we're at South London, something
that we'll see in a moment.
Yes.
And the puzzle was always take
it out of the bag, which was really nice
for our work.
So, yeah, at around 9:00,
we were moving towards central London,
we were kind of not sure but optimistic
that maybe a post of postman
will take it and bring
it to us and.
So another post center at 10:00.
And then we started to move around, like
really near.
So I'll just like.
We started to move around really, really
near the Ecuadorian embassy.
And we moved very slowly,
so we thought maybe we are on the
delivery route now, maybe it's
the stop and go movement of a van
always stopping to take
out stuff.
We could see other mail, but we wouldn't.
We could never see
the van itself, so we weren't really
sure.
So around this time, a BBC I'll take
a tackle went up and
also went down again.
So it was like immediately
reaction on it.
And
yeah, 12 o'clock still like like
really moving nearer the embassy,
getting nearer
and.
Somewhere in around twelve, thirty eight,
so we're waiting since two hours
basically to be delivered to.
People online were writing, Hey, beatnik,
when will this possibly be delivered,
because I really need to get some work
done
more hurry up and make.
No one is working in my office.
Parcel already ruined my morning
and slow, and I've been watching
this for 24 hours.
I'm exhausted.
So then we were all so exhausted.
I'm going to sleep for night the night
before to get this thing done.
So then
we started seeing houses, so we
were quite sure we were in a van
and
then he the hand
and the when.
Now it's nearly
empty, so I'm like, it's about us,
no, no.
Then the post comes and we were like,
Oh my God, we're being taken back to
that delivery center.
Then at around two o'clock, we received
strange images and I'm like, location
would now say we are in front of the
Ecuadorian embassy, so it's just about to
pass to to pass this
police border. But yeah,
and we didn't really know
what, yeah, what was going on here.
This is something like a full delivery
folder or delivery lists some
things from inside.
Maybe.
But yes,
we think we are in front of the embassy
now. Images still black waiting
for delivery.
Still, nothing happening.
Diplomatic crisis?
Or is the postman just like you?
Took a lunch break?
Come on for hours and then
at two o'clock?
You don't see it really well.
So it's really about small changes in
the image. But here we could
see something like a floor
and the floor is
like a
wooden, like a wooden floor that was
clear. We went, We are somewhere
inside and we're not outside anymore.
We are somewhere inside.
And we still we
assumed we have been delivered to the
embassy, and
now we've got confirmation at
2:50.
So WikiLeaks is writing on
Twitter. Mitnick packages arrived as now
with embassy security and we're like,
Yeah, we made it inside the embassy.
Royal Mail has delivered the parcel.
WikiLeaks confirms parcel
is still in total darkness.
We are waiting.
You know, I don't know.
Still nothing for 90 minutes
to parcel transmitted over 9000 images,
most of them black.
Somebody immediately wrote that
this is not true.
Ten thousand images and only 34
percent are black.
We're like, OK, I mean,
do you do you do the analysis
for us?
So it went on
for some
hours again, and then we would see at
4:30. We'll see like strange images
like this. We weren't sure.
I mean, are we on the sofa placed on
a sofa bed?
Three time would get critical when
we had like 30 hours.
Twenty six hours passed, so
it's about four or five hours left.
Maybe less. We don't know.
And then at 6:00, this pick.
And everybody was like, Wow.
And it looks
really official, you know?
So we got this tweet from a journalist
from South America saying she knows
this is inside the embassy.
She was there.
And this is the waiting room.
And yeah.
But it went up again, like how far
come on? So somebody switched off,
switched on the lights and switched off
again, the camera took two or three
pictures and this still
back. The suspense is mounting
some movement. So we had like these
strange colors, just like some minutes
later.
Like what the fuck is happening now?
Red color stripes.
Something fluffy?
Mm hmm.
What is it to?
And we thought it was a dog, but it was a
cat. Yeah, well, Twitter was
going, It's a cat.
You're like, the next.
Is it the dog barking?
It's a living.
It's a cat.
Like, we just didn't see the messages
because we were heavy uploading the stuff
like many of you to Twitter because our
website was kind of not accessible
anymore.
So or it might be a cat.
So the question has Julian Assange taken
over? Is he playing with us?
So then we received this message.
It's this finger on the wall like,
Hello, Julian. Yes, we are here.
Back to Black Tiger.
Well, hello, world.
So you know the term.
Large print pages
like handwritten messages.
It was a tour
around Ecuador, I would say, welcome to
Ecuador
and
welcome to Ecuador.
I was.
And
then he went to.
Justice is.
I am flood free,
Bradley Manning.
Bring other little
human rights activists from Bahrain
who is in prison free on a Qatar,
one of the founders of The Pirate Bay,
who was imprisoned free Jeremy Hammond's
free Rudolf Elmer, which is a Swiss
whistleblower, free
unknowns, justice for Aaron
Swartz, justice for Elseworlds,
Trans-Pacific transparency for the state,
privacy for the rest of us, postal art
is contagious.
Thank you, Ecuador.
Thank you to all our supporters.
Keep fighting.
2013 we win.
Find out if.
And back to back.
Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much for that.
Sadly, we've already run of time, so
there will be no Q&A right now.