There’s always a lot happening at Vienna’s Praterstern. Since May 2002, »fluc « - a mixture, unique in Vienna, of a club, a bar and a venue for art and electronic music – has been in existence there. »fluc« is a bar where, on mild summer evenings, you can enjoy good music and pleasant company at a location that is in the midst of a centre of urban life, yet off the beaten track.
In September 2003, there was an object to be seen there that seemed more like a spaceship than that which it really was: an extremely unusual exhibition platform. Made of silvery metal, it was elongated in form, and looked like an outsized telescope that had been pressed flat at the sides. Inside, there was a technically sophisticated apparatus that you could use - just by moving a hand, without any cable or mouse - to navigate through a virtual space projected onto a 140 x 250 cm screen. At the same time, you heard a sound installation created by the sound artists Christof Cargnelli and Peter Szely or the group [dy’na:mo], which mixed noises and sounds from the Praterstern using a computer, and played them into the interior.
The silver thing is called »iTube«. It is transportable, and forms part of the art project »friend-ship« by Oliver Irschitz and Gerald Nestler. Oliver Irschitz designed it, and is also responsible for the technical equipment inside. Gerald Nestler acts as the artistic leader of the project, designs concepts for the acoustic background in the iTube, and organises and coordinates art projects and exhibitions. The huge telescope has been put into action twice so far: the first time at Cebit 2002 in Hanover, and then in the autumn of 2003 in front of »fluc« in the Praterstern. Further landings of the »friend-ship« are being planned.
»friend-ship« is an interface between media art and art projects on the internet, and real, or even urban space. The iTube serves to make accessible virtual art projects that combine technological and social aspects, and to present them in appropriate venues. Its shape alone makes it eminently suitable for this purpose: its telescope-like, tapering members draw visitors into its depths, and focuses their attention strongly on the projection of a virtual world on the back wall, through which they can navigate by means of a cursor.
The idea of interactivity is something that succeeds very well in connection with »friend-ship« anyway. When the iTube was first presented at Cebit 2002, the project »C_bite« was launched, in which parts of a virtual tour of the expo were able to be processed on the internet. This functioned in constant contact with the real situation: every half an hour, material recorded live at the expo was put onto the internet, made available for use to selected artists and, transformed by them, played at the expo again. In this way, influence could be exerted on »C_bite« from everywhere, in constant interaction with events at the venue itself.
»C_bite« was also on display at the Praterstern as one of two media projects. The other, »NEWYORKEXITNEWYORK« by Priam Givord and Martin Lenclos, showed a 3-D projection of New York based on 6000 photos, through which visitors could move in a similar way to a computer game. Unfortunately, so far, iTube is an exhibition tool that, in reality, can only be used by one person. Every other user disturbs the first. Perhaps the interactivity can one day be extended to become interaction between several players?
It was also a shame that the ambitious »friend-ship« at the Praterstern showed what it can be used for, but that these possibilities were left unused with regard to the place where it was set up. Noises from the Praterstern could be heard, but no one could influence them, as would have befitted true interactivity. And the images came from somewhere completely different.
friend~ship at fluc, fluc, Praterstern, Vienna, 19-21 September 2003
Translated by Timothy Jones