Eduardo Kac: Ornitorrinco

Artist(s):

• Eduardo Kac

Title:

Ornitorrinco

Exhibition:

• SIGGRAPH 1992: Art Show

Category:

• Installation

Artist Statement:

Ornitorrinco (platypus in Portuguese) is a telepresence artwork. It provides the conditions for a participant to experience presence in a remote and decidedly odd space. This is accomplished by allowing a person to see through the eye of a telerobot and to control its motion. By employing regular telephone lines, this project launches the concept of personal telepresence. It generates on experiential context which the participant explores. Two main features of the project are l) the creative solutions the participant improvises in configuring a “strategy of vision” and 2) the organization of the remote space, which takes a number of forms (installation, maze, mirrored environment, etc.). Special thanks to Steven Waldeck and Joan Truckenbrod of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and to Geof Goldbogen, Academic Computing Deportment, Columbia College, Chicago.