As if we were alone!
New Spaces in the Public Sphere

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The creative encounter with new communications technologies and the impact they’re having on life, culture, and how we behave in the situations that confront us in daily life constituted the point of departure for artistic duo Empfangshalle’s vision of a film & installation project whose subject matter is a common feature of social life in societies all around the world. Corbinian Böhm and Michael Gruber understand their art as communication and a process of interaction with the public. Accordingly, Empfangshalle visited metropolises worldwide (including Barcelona, Hongkong, Guangzhou and Berlin) to do research on the behavior of cell phone users. Their sculptural interventions and actions/performances staged to achieve specific effects and reactions visualize the new spaces and gestures engendered while cell phone users are on the line.

There are many examples of how we create mobile “private spheres” for ourselves to communicate without disruption: there's the caller who’s completely withdrawn inside himself, his eyes fixed to the ground as he makes his rounds on an uncharted path; and then there’s the one seated in the bus with his hand cupped over his mouth in a futile attempt to prevent others from overhearing an urgent discussion of his relationship problems; or the business talker hurriedly fleeing the dead zone to re-establish crystal-clear communication ...

Having come to the realization that “Whoever uses his cell phone in public disassociates himself from his surroundings via real or virtual spaces,” the artists formulated and constructed for their pioneering short film the initial prototypes of “mobile telephoning spaces” that will be offered in conjunction with a worldwide telephone service. The result is a “documentary fiction” that conveys viewers into a borderline realm between certainty and illusion, into a domain in which fact and fiction blend.

Translated from German by Mel Greenwald

Director: Thomas Adebahr
Idea, Concept, Execution and Production: Empfangshalle
Camera: Stephan Horst
Equipment and Postproduction: Vis:A:Vis Filmproduktion
Editing: Lisa Hammelehle, Ron Wilson, Markus Wollschläger
Music: by Regina Dannhof (The Starseeds), produced by Major Key Productions, Markus Moser, Ny
Curator: Serafine A. I. Lindemann / Artcircolo
Service: Anita Edenhofer, Matthias Numberger
Couple: Sarah Baumann, Karsten Mielke
Production Support Berlin / Hongkong / Guangchou / Barcelona
Friederike Steinbeck / Ankie Lau, Julianne Lau / George Jie Wu / Wendy Feng / Jose Salado
The project „As if we were alone“ is the result of an initiative from and a cooperation with
Vodafone Group Research & Development Germany and the Mobile Art Forum Artcircolo.