A delegation from Transmediale 2012 [1] came over to my place last
night to discuss the latest Telekommunisten artwork, R15N [2]. In
addition to various organizational and technical details that we need to
work out in preparation for the not-to-be-missed upcoming Transmediale,
we talked about the artistic qualities of R15N and the Miscommunication
Technologies series in general, which includes works such as deadSwap
[3] and Thimbl [4].
R15N in some ways represents the purest example of a miscommunication
technology so far in the series, not only is it a broadcast model, thus
fulfilling the Telekomunisten slogan "The Revolution is Calling," but it
really combines many of the core characteristics common to the work of
Telekommunisten.
Like Thimbl, it is an economic fiction [5], a platform that for the
most part is free to use, yet does not in anyway monetize user data or
interaction. Like deadSwap, the system depends on the diligence and
competency of the users [6] and their willingness to co-operate with
random people, who are likely to be completely unknown to each other.
Without such diligence and co-operation of the users, the system breaks
down into nothing more than a telephonic game of broken telephone.
R15N will be the Official Miscommunication Platform of Transmediale
2012.
Our hope is that the system will serve to create engagement and a
greater sense of community at this years Transmediale. The installation
side of R15N is minimal. Some signage and two retro phones under desk
lamps, along with a phone booth in which to access the website will
represent the work in the physical space of the festivals, but the main
purpose of these is to get visitors to register to the system.
Only once the user is registered is the artwork really experienced.
The system is extremely miscommunicative, failed calls and missed calls
and occasional poor call quality seem bewildering at first, and the R15N
experience begins quite mysteriously and somewhat awkwardly, as users
get dropped into the network and begin to be connected with strangers,
with whom they are ment to interact. But very quickly the experience
starts to feel normal as users acclimatize to it's quirks and begin to
lose inhibitions.
Very quickly, the system becomes a highly efficient way to broadcast
information, as despite the somewhat unmanageable communication flow
happening on the system, the very cooperation and engagement such a
miscommunicative platform requires amplifies the message on channels
outside the system, as users share their experience with the people
around them and people connected to them on other mediums. By building
community though the shared experience of the system, R15N becomes a
catalyst for the exogenous propagation of information as well.
Technically, this style of broadcast is similar to what is known as the
"Random Phone Call" broadcast model [7], a theoretical model which
proves that a given message can saturate a network very quickly by
simply connecting random nodes together.
Historically, it works like a randomized, ad-hoc version of the old
"phone tree" method of pushing information out to a large community.
Phone trees where used by many communities, from schools to church
groups to the military [8], when they needed to notify a large number of
people quickly. Setting up and maintaining a phone tree was one of the
essential tasks of activist groups and political campaigns.
Artistically, we have given the system a retro identity, harkening back
to the early days of computer networks and telecommunication platforms
and the utopian visions of a new society these new platforms inspired.
Both playing on the related nostalgia, but also as a parody of modern
corporate web platforms today, who peddle centralized and captured
implementations of use cases that have been around for decades as
somehow revolutionary and innovative because they have managed to
squeeze out more powerful open alternatives by way of exclusive access
to finance capital.
Economically, such a system is extremely accessible, since all calls
are initiated by the system and incoming calls are free in most
countries, the system is free to use for most people, even for people
who have no calling credit on their mobile phones. Nothing more than a
working telephone is required to participate.
The system is currently in beta stage, and thus usually inactive,
however registration is open and everyone is free to sign up now. Be a
part of the R15N community. Don't miss out on important information!
Register Today!
I'll be at Cafe Buchhandlung [9] tonight at 9pm as usual, please come
by.
[1] http://transmediale.de
[2] http://r15n.net
[3] http://deadswap.net
[4] http://thimbl.net
[5] http://wp.me/p24fqL-Z
[6] http://deadswap.net/HandBook
[7] http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~tfried/paper/2011STOC.pdf
[8]
http://www.state.nj.us/military//familysupport/family_readiness/telephone_tree.html
[9] http://bit.ly/buchhandlung
--
Dmyri Kleiner
Venture Communist
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