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Stadtwerkstatt
Medienterrarium t.p.l.m. black stage, black tracks
Stadtwerkstatt: a Project of the Stadtwerkstatt for Ars Electronica 84
CONTRIBUTION TO THE CATALOGUE OF ARS ELECTRONICA 84
"Kulturvereinigung Friedhofstrasse 6"
(Cultural Association Friedhofstrasse 6),
A-4040 Linz-Urfahr
As today catalogues are documents they are the exhibition.
1. t.p.l.m.* BLACK STAGE, BLACK TRACKS Stage, Black Tracks
A picture and sound terrarium as a compact installation in the Large Foyer of the Brucknerhaus for the duration of Ars Electronica
2. SERIES OF EVENTS STADTWERKSTATT
a) Sept. 8, 1984, 10 p.m.
PINK INDUSTRY—Liverpool
ALPHORN DUET—Central Switzerland
b) Sept. 14, 1984, 9:30 p.m.
3 TRIOS—Düsseldorf
GUSZTAV VARGA—Gypsy music—Hungary
3. t.p.l.m. * SINGING POOL
Festive night in the old neighbourhood of Alt-Urfahr Ost
Sept. 12, 1984, 6:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
a) CROSSING THE DANUBE 6.00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
b) MUSICAL EVENTS + OPENING 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
c) FESTIVE LIGHT INSTALLATION
*note: titula poor la media
ISLANDS OF POWER ARE LONELY. WHO IS SINGING SO BEAUTIFULLY, OVER THERE ON THE TV SET?MEDIA TERRARIUM t.p.l.m. BLACK STAGE, BLACK TRACKS
"The parasite attains power not because of having occupied the centre but because it has filled the world around it. The cricket occupies the space. The media, the world around, the environment, the space and its property, just like a proprietor releasing an expending phenomenon into space."
From "The Parasite" by Michel Serres
PICTURE AND SOUND TERRARIUM in the Large Foyer of the Brucknerhaus
open all day from Sept. 8–14, 1984
Tsi says:
"Any idea, poor as it may be, any correlation, false as it may be, is considered important progress, as soon as it has passed a maze of cables and circuits—nothing has changed its poverty or falseness in any way—but its facility of passing the wires and circuits has been proven—knowledge is not a new or deeper understanding, it is the consequence to mechanical sequence." Consisting of 3 elements: - VIDEO/AUDIOTHEQUE
- PALLET STAGE WITH MEDIA FIGURES
- CRICKET TERRARIUM
The PICTURE AND SOUND TERRARIUM is seen by the audience at first as a black pallet stage, gradually mounting towards the back, with media figures.
Height of the stage: mounting from 2. 50 m at the front to 4.30 m at the back.
The visitor is addressed by 3 MEDIA FIGURES from the stage. Under the stage there is the video and audiotheque, the view is partly obstructed by the cricket terrarium.
When approaching the PICTURE and SOUND TERRARIUM, the visitor perceives various sounds from behind the red curtain of the cricket terrarium. Among them the sound of a cricket.
Visitors are attended to by attendants at the video and audiotheque.
Tsi says:
"What is technically practical is being executed and the needs that are to be met are established only afterwards. The development of electronical products is not pursued in accordance with needs that have to be met." The 3 Media Figures:
Video and audiofigures, built of elements from the Stadtwerkstatt archives of material plus monitors, loudspeakers, flashes of lightning, bells, rattles and other material. One figure standing statically on a turntable, one figure lying statically, one figure suspended above the stage as a media puppet.
The figures are more than life-size and continuously produce unintelligible signals. At certain times they show highest agitation—the dance of the media can be observed.
Sound Pendulum:
a media box swings between the media figures.
Tsi says:
"The media transform all real happenings to news—happenings of all kind and significance: political events, a strike for the reduction of working-hours, a car accident, a dog biting a postman, the queen searching for her diamond-necklace—the media level to any difference of kind and significance. News from all over the world—events become significant only by being transformed into news—what is not transformed into news, is not significant, did not even happen—only news happen which can be consumed after culinary processing from the reclining chair every night." Videotheque:
Temporarily and finally cut videomaterial from the environment of the Stadtwerkstatt (SWS) can be consumed via monitors. One monitor is mounted on a column at a height of about 2 1/2 m, two are built into the counter and can be watched via mirrors.
Audiotheque:
The list of the selection contains live-recordings of Stadtwerkstatt events, noises of Friedhofstraße 6, own productions and favoured curiosities of the intimate circle of SWS, also music from different nations and centuries.
Three headphones are available for the visitor.
Tsi says:
"The application of microelectronics relieves man of the tedious routine, it supplies time for creativity. How much time should be available even today, if these promises, made long before the introduction of microelectronics, had come true." Cricket Terrarium:
Dark closed room, with "vegetative decoration", accessible only by a narrow entrance. It houses a warmly lit terrarium inhabited by crickets.
The chirping of the crickets is picked up by microphone and amplified (ideally also broadcast by the loudspeakers boxes of the cloud of sound outside in the Danube Park).
Cricket on the Hearth – Common House Cricket – Achetta Domestica
The cricket on the hearth, also called common house cricket, originally inhabited Africa and only later started to populate our country. It is closely related to the field cricket and the well-known grasshopper.
With a heating lamp, we create the conditions of a summer climate and thus we are able to study these insects' behaviour throughout the year. They feed on plant and animal matter. Their strong hindlegs permit jumps of up to 20 centimeters. Adult animals reach a length of three centimeters. Their developed wings are mostly used for fleeing from some danger. We are more familiar with their music than with their looks. Their melody sounds somewhat like TsiTsiTsiTsiTsiTsi and is produced by the male animals rubbing the edges of their fore wings against each other. It is a song of courting.
Mag. F. Gusenleitner, entomologist of the Upper Austria Regional Museum.
THE OFFER OF THE PICTURE AND SOUND TERRARIUM Persons, active friends of Stadtwerkstatt, show selections from their own productions.
UFL 1 is evidence of the radiation of a workshop having moving molecules in its spotlight. Several persons attracted by Stadtwerkstatt who developed an unusually active interest in filming and had been filming on their own, welcomed unconventional programs and met for two years to see movie shows, and in the course of consecutive meetings produced UFL. The program UFL 1 was first performed in the Stadtwerkstatt in 1982.
Unabhängige Filme Linz (Independent Films Linz) is an association of 18 to two dozen male and female film-makers, born and bred in Upper Austria. UFL has existed since 1982. UFL supplies about 8 hours of material to the terrarium.
FRIGO gives evidence of the effects of long-term media work. A non-commercial marketing system gathers momentum and recovers in new publicity. FRIGID means refrigerator.
Continuous documentation of and by Stadtwerkstatt will make use of technical material according to prevailing conditions, it records instinctively on magnetized tapes what is being done here and there by our cultural initiatives.
Videos of Stadtwerkstatt mostly show a deficiency in camera work, especially in the most beautiful passages. Another one is inadequate cutting and editing—recordings are rarely viewed a second time (lack of time) and hardly ever cut. Blundering away at new productions without preceding arrangements is the order of the day.
Audiotheque
Rubber ball and tambourine:
Recording of natural rhythms in space, sound, time, gravity, and man at play with them.
SWS-live recordings, noises of town and country, own productions, music from different nations and centuries and favoured curiosities of the intimate circle of SWS can be listened to.
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