The project TeleZone contains a robot, at the Ars Electronica Center, which serves as an interface between the physical and virtual spaces. Acting as an avatar on behalf of users in the community, it arranges and places together building blocks based on design decisisons made on the TeleZone web site. The actions of the community are visible both in the virtual and the physical worlds.

An architecture for net architecture

The TeleZone is a telerobotic art installation that creates a parallel between the real and the virtual. Visitors design architectural structures using a CAD interface. These structures are carefully constructed by an industrial robot arm which cements 1 cm rectangular elements within a 2 meter building area. Structures thus exist in two forms: within the virtual space of a 3D simulator, and within the real space of the Ars Electronica lobby.
The result reflects both the complex social interactions of the builders and the contrast between the Cartesian world of pure design and the realities of mass, gravity, and imprecision.
Prior to the December launch, architects and theoreticians from Austria and around the world being invited to take part in an experimental design phase. The results will be published.
Communications, trade and services are getting more and more detached from urban areas and transferred to data networks. This development does not only accelerate the organization of the WorldWideWeb as a venue for social action but also affects the appearance of urban areas on the threshold of the 21st century. The TeleZone installation takes up these developments and intensifies them. In a process of democratic self-organization and collaborative planning, an experimental lab situation for trend-setting urban structures and architectures is created at the Ars Electronica Center and on the TeleZone Website.
A robot at the Ars Electronica Center acts as “interface” between real and virtual space. Representing the user, it arranges and sticks together the building blocks on the TeleZone site precisely in accordance with the respective planning input. The robot makes visible the efforts undertaken by a self-organizing community. The joint actions of the community are reflected both in the real and in the virtual world; in other words, the architectural structures created in the process are not only built in reality by the robot but are also shown in a VRML world on the TeleZone Website.
The community is provided with a framework of rules which mainly contain “basic physical conditions.” The open nature of the framework of rules complies with the target of self-organization inherent in the system, which is part of the experiment. The participants are asked regularly to decide on modifications of the rules by a democratic vote. The underlying concept of TeleZone motivates each user to interact with other participants in the project in order to expand his or her possibilities of discussion. The process of development from an empty space to a complex architectural structure reflects the degree of self-organization and activity of the participants in TeleZone.

 
Telezone Team:

Project Direction / Projektleitung: Erich Berger/Ars Electronica FutureLab
Software Design: Mag. Volker Christian/Ars Electronica FutureLab
Interface Design: Univ.Ass. DI DR Peter Purgathofer / Technical University Vienna
Concept Consultant: Ken Goldberg/UC Berkeley USA
Programming/Graphics: Wolfgang Beer, Astrid Benzer, Ewald Dannerer, Stefan Eibelwimmer, Oliver Frommel, Tom Haberfellner,
Helmut Höllerl, Thomas Martetschläger, Denis Mikan, René Pachernegg, Jörg Piringer, Nestor Pridun, Christian Retscher,
Markus Seidl, Johannes Staudinger, Martin Wiesmair.
Web Design: igw in collaboration with gregerpauschitz f.o.p and Ars Electronica FutureLab.
PR and Publicity: Ursula Kürmayr (Ars Electronica Center), Mag. Romana Aumer (telekom austria), Pascal Maresch,
Florian Sedmak, Martin Lengauer.
Academic Consultants/Wissenschaftliche Beratung:
Institute for Design and Effects Studies, Technical University Vienna / Institut für Gestaltungs- und Wirkungsforschung der TU Wien, Univ. Ass. DI Dr. Peter Purgathofer; Institute for Publications and Communications Studies, University of Vienna, Department of
Electronic and New Media / Institut für Publizistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft der Universität Wien, Fachbereich elektronische und Neue Medien, Univ.Ass. Mag Gerit Götzenbrucker; Center for the Study of Aging and Social Policies Research at the
St. Pölten Academy of the Federal Province of Lower Austria, Section Social Welfare and Health / Zentrum für Alternswissenschaft und Sozialpolitikforschung an der Niederösterreichischen Landesakademie St.Pölten, Bereich Soziales und Gesundheit, Mag. Bernd Löger; Study Course for Media Technique and Design at the Technical College Hagenberg / Lehrgang für Medientechnik und Design an der Fachhochschule Hagenberg, DI Dr. Wilhelm Burger; Study Course for Software Engineering at the Technical College
Hagenberg / Lehrgang für Software Engineering an der Fachhochschule Hagenberg, Univ.Prof. DI Dr. Jacak Witold.

Telezone was realized at the Ars Electronica FutureLab with support from Telekom Austria and the Wittmann Company, robot production series and automatization facilities.


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