synchroni//city a 24 hours worldwide telepresence experience

synchroni//city a 24 hours worldwide telepresence experience
Fábio Carvalho | Rio de Janeiro | Brasil
www.fabiocarvalho.art.br
On may 21st 2003 (my birthday), I've carried out a telepresence project, using the web as a path to reach several cities, taking snapshots of each city, on every hour, during the whole 24 hours of that day, using webcams I've found on websites.
I was trapped in my own house (I couldn't leave the house for 24 hours; I couldn't even sleep), and yet, I could travel and reach (through the webcams) every single spot in the whole wide world I'd like to.
The cities were chosen according to one (or more) of the following criteria:
• Rio de Janeiro and Prague were chosen because the first is where I was born and live, and the later is the home of the INOUT Festival (this video was originaly created for that Art Festival);
• A city to which I'm somehow affectively related;
• A landmark in nowadays world;
• A landmark in history;
• A city that could supply a reliable webcam, so the project won't fail. In order to be able to carry this project through its end, I had to be sure that the webcams I would pick would be up and working during the whole day.
The main idea of this project was to make people aware that most of the time we don't even bother to what's happening close to us, and yet, the whole world is changing and a lot of things are happening synchronously while we are dealing with our lives.
Further, this project intends to bring to discussion the sense of "time", that we are so fond of, taking for granted what's arbitrary and artificial. Schedules, timetables, deadlines, clocks, and all that time-measuring and time-controlling stuff is so present in our lives, and yet, the world is still spinning on its old pace.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Fábio Carvalho
• arte
• contemporânea
• contemporary
• art
• video-art