The artistic duo Empfangshalle has conducted research on the behavior of cell phone users. Their actions/performances staged to achieve specific effects and reactions visualize the new spaces and gestures engendered while cell phone users are on the line.

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 prototypes of “mobile telephoning spaces” that will be offered in conjunction with a worldwide telephone service. The project will be carried out at several locations in downtown Linz. An infostation with details about As if we were alone will be set up in the Brucknerhaus.

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.

Control over a human subject is turned over to a fully automatic system. The setup on which this experiment is being run is an abstracted assembly line on which electrical muscle stimuli deprive the human being of control over his own body and he becomes a tiny, insignificant cog in the overall mechanism. The computer determines when and how the human's limbs are to be moved. The human thus becomes the slave of the system that he had originally designed-a perversion of the human-machine relationship.
maschine-mensch received an Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2005—[the next idea] art and technology grant.

A commissioned work by Ars Electronica. Supported by the Arts Division of the Federal Chancellery, Austria. Additional support by: M. Hauser Medizintechnik, Haberkorn/Ulmer GmbH, Leopold Aumayr GmbH & Co KG, Transparent Design, Liska Bekleidung, Eurofoam GmbH. Special thanks to: Manfred Bijak and Monika Rakos / Center for Biomedical Engineering & Physics, University of Vienna, Vienna General Hospital. Composition: David Gottschalk. Realised in cooperation with Ars Electronica Futurelab / Gerald Priewasser, Katharina Nussbaumer.

Mobile computerized units roam the city and turn up at Festival events. People can anonymously confess their remorse and regret to the computers: things that have long been a burden on their minds or even what’s troubling them at the moment in this way-too-complicated world. The result will be a comparative sociological databank that will allow those who encounter these statements to draw interesting conclusions, since they will immediately be made available to wider audiences on websites, via public displays and on the radio.

We would like to thank the REGRETS Linz team, Rama Hoetzlein, and the continued contributions of Dora Nemere. Special thanks to Microsoft Research Cambridge.

The Sledgehammer Keyboard communicates with a computer just like a normal keyboard but offers the user an unusual option. Installation visitors are invited to work over the keyboard with a hammer in order to literally hammer their frustrating experiences with technology into it. Entries will be uploaded to the Internet in the form of a weblog.

With their Song for C, artistic duo M + M has come up with a film noir-style detective story in which the boundary between fiction and events actually taking place in real life tends to get a bit blurred.
The narrative gets the audience of cell phone users partaking of it involved in a drama entailing a variety of different seemingly authentic messages, transmitted images, clues and leads that turn passive viewers into active “voyeurs” of what is transpiring.
It works like this: a female detective sends out mobile video dispatches to keep the audience of cell phone users updated about the progress of her investigation and, at the same time, to actively involve them in the case.

"Song for C"– a cinematic narrative for cell phones by M+M
Actors: Stephan Bissmeier, Anna Schudt, Christoph Luser, Britta Hammelstein, Barbara Rudnik.
Project Associates: Department of Technology of the HGKZ – School of Art and Design Zurich (Gerhard Blechinger, Tanja Katharina Gompf); Mobile Art Lab of Vodafone Group R&D, Germany (Bernd Wiemann, Martin Richartz, Serafine A. I. Lindemann / Artcircolo).

Fri 1.9., Mon 4.9. 17:00 and 21:00
Sat 2.9., Sun 3.9. 17:00

The Cell Atlantic CellBooth is a mobile telephone booth that can be strapped on like a backpack and then quickly and easily set up when the user’s cell phone rings. This project illustrates in a humorous and provocative way how mobile telecommunications technology has influenced cell phone users’ communication with each other and with their surroundings.