VGTV 5 - Van Gogh TV - Piazza Virtuale

Broadcast yourself webcast 2008
Karel Dudesek, Benjamin Heidersbergerr, Mike Hentz

Piazza Virtuale at documenta IX was one of the most successful artists' broadcasts ever created by the artists' media group Van Gogh TV. Broadcast internationally for 100 days over 3SAT (a satellite network shared by Austria, Germany and Switzerland), the programme allowed individuals to participate with their telephone keypads, as well as giving the artists extended time in which to develop new interactive systems. One important element of Piazza Virtuale allowed individuals to be broadcast live via "entry points" -- sculptures which individuals could speak into and at the TV audience, and hear an answer during the live programme from Kassel. Piazza Virtuale was also the public first use of ISDN in Europe. It was a democratic platform for participation, which led to it being criticised for not having stronger artistic controls.

The artists' media group Ponton European Media Art Lab was founded in 1986 and was active in Hamburg as a flexible and international collective of artists, technicians, programmers and curators. Van Gogh TV evolved from their mobile pirate TV broadcasts, and later became an R&D project group which continuously proposed visions about how to use mass media technology to approach the viewer (or user) as a participant in innovative artistic ways. Van Gogh TV is responsible for creating significant interactive communication projects for both television and Internet. Working between high tech prototypes and off-the-shelf consumer products, Van Gogh TV has encouraged participants to create the content of the work. Broadcast Yourself exhibition co-curator Kathy Rae Huffman was the European Piazzetta Coordinator for the Piazza Virtuale project.

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