ELASTIC FAX: A FAXFILM TRILOGY

ELASTIC FAX I (1991)

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Frames from Elastic Fax I, 1991, 5min56sec

Elastic Fax I, created by Eduardo Kac, was realized at the Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1991. Artists worldwide were invited to transmit sequences of images to form a self-editing faxfilm. Sequences were added automatically and edited into the film in the order received. The entire 30-meter (99 feet) roll of thermal fax paper was used uncut and displayed in one piece on a wall at the Museum. As viewers walked by this telematic scroll, they became a moving projector, thus animating the faxfim strip.

ELASTIC FAX II (1994)

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Elastic Fax II exhibited on a flat screen, 1994, 25sec

Elastic Fax II was realized in 1994 between the Intenet, the telephone network, and the Center for Contemporary Art, at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, as part of Kac's solo show "Dialogues".

Artists around the world were invited through the Internet to transmit sequential images, to form by chance the sequences of a self-organizing fax movie. The fax machine was placed above eye level, to create the feeling of a large projector as the images went by. It also created the feeling of a waterfall, with the images forming wavy patters as they hit the floor. As the piece evolved, viewers could explore the sequential images in any order by handling them. This project started as a process, with images arriving throughout the show. Once the fax roll was used up, the fax machine was turned off, and the piece became an installation. At the end of the show, the images were scanned in the order received, compiled into a movie, and placed back here, on the Internet, where the project started.

ELASTIC FAX III (2005)

Elastic Fax III was realized by participants moving through the city of São Paulo and sending sequential faxes directly from their cell phones to a fax machine in the gallery.

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Eduardo Kac and Mario Ramiro, Elastic Fax III, 2005, black and white, silent, 29sec.

The video shows Elastic Fax III projected in a loop on a building in Alto de Pinheiros, São Paulo, on September 6, 2020, as part of the show “Never together but at the same time”, organized by Galeria O Quarto, São Paulo. Projection and documentation: Sue-Elie Andrade-Dé.

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