Pixelsumo is a blog about interaction, with an emphasis on play, installation, video game culture, playgrounds and toys. Written by Chris O'Shea.
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Posted May 23rd 2008 under Installations
“Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel will finally be completed. Immediately afterwards, an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope will be installed at both ends which will miraculously allow people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.”
So the story goes for the Telectroscope, an installation by artist Paul St George.
“Some years ago an artist by the name of Paul St George happened upon a packet of dusty papers in a trunk in his grandmother’s attic. On further inspection he discovered that they had been the property of his great-grandfather, an eccentric Victorian engineer, Alexander Stanhope St George.”
This tunnel would allow you to see all the way to New York from London without having to go anywhere.
Photos by Billy Abbott
Of course the device doesn’t quite work like that & obviously uses a video camera, broadband link & screen, but that doesn’t matter. Its about the magic & wonder for the public. Its about making a connection with a stranger on the other side of the world & the unexpected behavior of the people using it.
[update] “In each Telectroscope is a Sony EX1 camera, the visual from which was encoded using Breeze Technologies Ice Blue capture cards and converted in to a MPEG 2 stream to be delivered across the Tiscali Virtual Private Network to the opposite projector (Sanyo XT-10) .” -> Twofourdigital (thanks Adam)
Photo by boncey
In London it costs £1 to look down the ‘tunnel’, although free in New York, the payment action is a continuation of the experience.
Brought to us by the excellent Artichoke. Budget around £400,000 (government grants and private sponsorship).
Available to go and see in London and New York until June 15 2008.
More photos on Flickr
Photo by AntonioA
Comments
(May 23rd 2008)
hmmm nice, but i like the much older Hole in Space even better :)
http://www.ecafe.com/getty/HIS/
i’d say that the best part about this recent work is it’s fantasy/jules verne style…
(May 23rd 2008)
How is this any different from “Hole-In-Space”, the iconic telematic work from 1980 that linked NY with LA?
http://www.ecafe.com/getty/HIS/
It seems like it’s exactly the same project, without all of the technical difficulties that would have needed to be overcome in 1980. I wonder how the artist could have gotten so much funding for the project, and especially when Hole-In-Space was free to participate in, unlike with Telectroscope.
(May 23rd 2008)
A much more useful chord tunnel:
http://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda-weehawken_burrito_tunnel.htm
(May 24th 2008)
Nice, will have to go and check it out - I’m sure Chris Speed was involved in a project similar to this back in the day? Or at least I definately remember him showing us something similar but it was based around shop windows?
(June 1st 2008)
There was a similar project by Maurice Benayoun too, around the mid 90s.
“le tunnel sous l’atlantique”
It’s the kind of idea one should expect to see implemented again and again… at least until it will be so common to view anybody anywhere, that nobody see the point anymore.
(June 3rd 2008)
@nick houf: youre posing the right question here, with the “entrance fee”. plus, the beauty of hole in space was the element of surprise, not like queueing in order to take a look to nyc… hm.