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LogIn-speed
' Österreichischer Kultur-Service
Österreichischer Kultur-Service
A telecommunications project initiated by OKS, the Österreichischer Kultur-Service (Austrian Culture Service), in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs, Black Board, Ars Electronica
Some teenagers are already surfing through the enormous flow of data. Once they realize that a computer is more than just a screen, technology, speed, distance and language no longer present problems for them, and pure signs replace well-meant content and any sort of reasoning. They have arrived in another world (one which may seem pretty banal to outsiders). School is a completely different world, conservative and idealistic in imparting knowledge and values, centralist in its structure and methods. The use of computers and the subject computer science have been part of the curriculum for quite some years. This subject aims at teaching students how to use programs and acquire word processing skills, which they might need in their respective jobs later in life. Traditional teaching scarcely leaves time to try and test all the diverse and complex possibilities the new technology offers, let alone deal with it from a theoretical or reflective point of view. There are, however, some school projects that exceed the limits of traditional teaching, reaching out to include teleconferences, aesthetic experiments and interdisciplinary projects. Given that complex situation, the OKS has positioned its project LogIN somewhere in between the mediation of art at school and virtual reality. The project both requires and aims at analyzing, in terms of content one of the core issues of our information society: speed. It combines reflection, decentralized activities, transfer and processing of information and interaction.
FIELDWORK SITES: TRAFFIC JUNCTIONS After a planning and coordination meeting, the students taking part in the project are divided into groups: each group is looked after by a network specialist and provided with a computer and a telephone. Subsequently, the groups set out to do research on assigned sites, such as airports, motorway cafés, railway stations, TV/radio-stations and industrial training workshops. They do field work on the phenomen of speed, the break-neck pace of standstill. They examine the flow of passengers at airports (or railway stations) for signs of dwindling distances and time-shifts, trace notions such as the power of the media, simulation, access to information and the profusion of data in the control room of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF. They examine the compulsion to speed, aggressiveness and rapture on motorways, discuss the speedy progress of technology and its impact on future generations in an industrial plant, talk about the half-life of hard and software and of knowledge per se. So much for a brief outline of the assignments given to the researchers and reporters and with which they have to deal on site.
Via modem, their documentations, snapshots and soundbites are sent to the headquarters, i.e. the newsroom of Ars Electronica, on the "information superhighway".
HEADOUARTERS AT THE NEWSROOM The newsgroup selects and processes the incoming information, placing it on the network. Apart from keeping in touch with the fieldwork groups, this team of students also has to coordinate contributions made by schools throughout Austria and Bavaria participating in the discussion of the issue of speed (amongst others the Zentralstelle "Computer im Kunstunterricht" München). This group is responsible for public relations, their task being to design a WorldWideWeb page from the available data.
INTERFERENCES Sometimes, of course, participants just hook up for a chat, which is probably something participants prefer to information and reflection. Thus, this network project on the exchange of information and the transfer of knowledge is also an experiment giving the students leeway to pursue their own ideas and create their own use of telecommunications facilities. The Österreichischer Kultur-Service, within the framework of Ars Electronica, initiated the project. The OKS does not claim to produce art. The activitybased setup provides the participants with a platform enabling them to act and react – just as they like – and does not pressure them for creativity and performance. Given all that, students, teachers and coordinators may familiarise themselves with telecommunications together, using them with or without the help of traditional datatransfer methods. The project is also an opportunity for OKS to make observations and produce detailed documentation about the issue.
Elisabeth Loibl, Cultural Editor
Date: June 23, 1995
Newsroom Headquarters
Ars Electronica/Stiftersaal of the Brucknerhaus, Linz
Field Work sites
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Dornbirn regional studio
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Salzburg regional studio
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Eisenstadt regional studio
Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Klagenfurt regional studio
Rosenberger motorway café St. Pölten
Rosenberger motorway café, Ansfelden Süd
Austrian Federal Railways, Innsbruck Central Station
Airport Vienna Schwechat
VOEST Training workshop
Net Participants
schools throughout Austria and Bavaria
Zentralstelle "Computer im Unterricht" München (the headquarters of "Computers in Art Classes", Munich)
Jugendgästehaus Graz (Graz Youth Hostel)
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