Ornitorrinco in the Sahara

Ornitorrinco

1996

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"Ornitorrinco in the Sahara", a dialogical telepresence event created for the St. Petersburg Biennale, in Russia. This event's topology was based on the use of two separate phone lines. One phone line connected the Museum of St. Petersburg History, in St. Petersburg, to the Art and Technology Department at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). A second line connected SAIC to the Aldo Castillo Gallery, in Chicago (October 5, 1996). Participants from St. Petersburg found themselves on Ornitorrinco's body at SAIC. Participants from the Aldo Castillo Gallery found themselves on a human body contained by the Telepresence Garment at SAIC. Remote participants negotiated their mutual presence in a third space via telerobotic (from St. Petersburg) and telehuman (from Aldo Castillo Gallery) bodies.

An article by Eduardo Kac about "Ornitorrinco in the Sahara" can be found here (originally published in Leonardo Electronic Almanac - Volume 4, Number 11, November 1996, MIT Press).