"Amodal Suspension" was a hybrid work that transformed public space by visualizing electronic messages that people sent to each other. It was the eight in the series of "Relational Architecture" projects that Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has developed that seeks to create connective platforms for self-representation and anti-modularity.

There are many influential precedents to this kind of work. What follows is an annotated list of art and technology references that was compiled by researcher Jennifer Laughlin. For brevity, in many cases a single piece has been referenced from a larger body of work. Please write to jennifer@antimodular.com if you would like to add a project or correct any information below; however, please note that the list is non-exhaustive and idiosyncratic.

Contents:

Signaling, communication and telepresence
      Methods
      Art Projects
Interactive Public Art
      Internet or network interface
      Local interface
      Phone interface
      GPS interface
Non-Interactive Public Art
      Lighting based
      Projection based
      Other
Sky Art
Fireflies
      Festivals
      Initiatives
      Art
More resources

Signaling, communication and telepresence

Many forms of communication are used in today's world. This section examines the progression of communication and signaling systems throughout history. Many of these systems were developed for communication for military maneuvers. The impact of these methods and technologies on the art world is also discussed. Many of these projects involve the exchange of information through telecommunications. Systems employed are ASCII, Binary Code, Fiber Optics, Light sensitive cells and modems. Art works that involve the exchange of information and employ methods of conversion to another form of data are listed below.

Methods

Dispatch:
The earliest form of signaling was a man running on foot, carrying a message. For example – Pheidippides who in 490 BC, carried news of victory at Battle of Marathon, to Athens. Today foot races are named after this battle - Marathon (Reference: James Riddle).

Trumpets:
Soldiers communicated to one another on hilltops, though range was limited.
 

Aeneas
First Synchronous Telegraph, Ancient Greece, 350 BC
http://telematic.walkerart.org/telereal/index.html
A well-known author in ancient Greece who wrote works on military strategy. Aeneas used synchronous communication signaling via fire signals and water flows.
 

Smoke Signals:
Smoke signals have been used for centuries to communicate over distances where sound signals would not be effective. As there are relatively no standardized codes for smoke signals (other then 1 puff = Attention; 2 puffs = All's Well; 3 puffs = Danger, Call For Help), so unless there is a secret significance between parties, codes could be conveyed to both friend and enemy. (By William Tomkins)

Lights and Smoke:
Roman armies used coloured lights and smoke from signal towers. The Greeks used fire signals and the British used beacons.
 

Lighthouses for Navigational Signaling:
http://www.hugall.fsnet.co.uk/stemoptics/lihist.htm
Lighthouses were constructed to assist ships navigating at night. The first recorded lighthouse was built for the Pharaohs of Alexandria in 299 B.C. Since then many types of light have been used – from open fires, oil and electric power, to advanced optical light systems such as the Catoptric, Dioptric and Catadioptric systems.
 

Sign Language:
Another form of communication is Sign Language. Journals from explorers such as Columbus indicate that Native Indians used basic hand signals to communicate with them in order to convey ideas. This form of sign language is the world's most easily learned as it is elemental, basic, logical and properly illustrates ideas, transcending speech recognition and culture. (By William Tomkins)
For information on American Sign Language consult: http://www.masterstech-home.com/ASLDict.html
 

Semaphore Flag Signaling System:
http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/signal-flags.html
The Semaphore flag signaling system is an alphabet signaling system where flags are waved, with arms extended, in a particular pattern, representing each of the letters of the alphabet. The flags are usually square, red and yellow, divided diagonally with the red portion in the upper hoist. For other examples of the use of flags for communication please follow the link for "International Marine Signal Flags:"
 

Claude and René Chappe
Chappe Optical Telegraph, Brulon, France, 1791
http://telematic.walkerart.org/timeline/index.html
The two brothers sent a message between a castle in Brulon to a house in Parce, ten miles away, which took 4 minutes.
 

Letter Telegraph:
Lord George Murray invented this system that relied on visual contact, in 1796.
 

Morse Code:
The Morse System of telegraphy was invented by Samuel Finley Breese Morse in the 1840's in the United States. "Morse Code" is essentially a simple way to represent the letters of the alphabet using patterns of long and short pulses. These long and short pulses are translated into electrical signals by an operator using a telegraph key, and the electrical signals are translated back into the alphabetic characters by a skilled operator at the distant receiving instrument.
 

Electric Telegraph:
The Crimean War (1855) was first to use the electric telegraph in a war environment.
 

Thomas A. Edison
Recording Siphon, 1874
Edison invented this recording siphon in 1874. The Siphon received underwater cables and represented them graphically on a paper strip.
 

Signaling Discs and Shutters
These methods were introduced in 1915 and could be read using a periscope.
 

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
“Telephone Pictures”, 1922
Moholy-Nagy ordered five paintings from a factory; the images that were to appear in the paintings were dictated over the phone.

E.A.T. - Experiments in Art and Technology
"Telex: Q&A", New York, Stockholm, Ahmededabad, Tokyo, 1971
Four telex terminals were set-up in New York, Stockholm, Ahmedabad, and Tokyo. The public in each of the four countries submitted questions and the corresponding answers to participants in the other cities.

Sol LeWitt
"Cube Structures Based on Five Modules", 1971-1974
Sol LeWitt works with modules and systems that are simple and impersonal, to explore repetition and seriality. His works perfected the concept of "instructions" as a form of Art.
 

Kit Galloway, Sherrie Rabinowitz
"Satellite Arts Project ‘77", 1975-1977
This project, the first example of telecollaborative arts, allowed artists who were geographically separated to perform together through the use of video transmissions.
 

Interactive Public Art

Internet or network interface
 

Hello Peace
This project utilizes an automated telephone system, with Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to connect Palestinians and Isrealis to each other to engage in discussions about peace and conflict resolution. Since early October 2002 over 210,000 calls have been placed.

Sol B. River
"Two Tracks and Text Me", Leeds, UK, 2003
This play is a technological thriller where the cast sends each other text messages onstage?. The audience can then text message their comments after the show.

"Communicate!", Edinburgh Royal Museum, Scotland, 2003
During the exhibition entitled "Communicate!", has a giant mobile phone on the floor which allows visitors to text using their feet and also a machine where people can practice the art of Morse code.
 

Non-Interactive Public Art

Many artists work with projected light and images to create a discourse surrounding public space, politics, alienation, etc. to inspire and engage their audience.

Lighting based
 

Projection based
 

Hiro Yamagata
"Sculpture of Light, Laser Installation", First Street Bridge, L.A. River, CAL, US, 1998
 

Other

Les Levine
"Slipcover", Art Gallery of Toronto, Ontario, 1966
"Slipcover" showed viewers recorded images of themselves on a series of monitors?
 

Sky Art

Fireflies

General Information

Known as Hotaru in Japanese, Fireflies are nocturnal luminous insects of the beetle family Lampyridae, consisting of 1,900 species that inhabit both tropical and temperate climates. There are 19 known species in Japan.

The underside of the abdomen has light organs that glow in luminous flashes. The abdomen consists of several layers of small reflector cells and a layer of light producing cells. All Larvae and eggs are bioluminescent, though not all adults are. Some rely on pheromones to communicate. They illuminate to warn predators that they taste bad and biolumination is essential to their mating rituals utilizing flash patterns.

Flash patterns and responses are species specific as well as geographically distinguishable. The 'receivers' perception of, processing of, and responses to stimuli determine the response and how well it is transmitted and received. Females choose males based on their flash pattern and prefer males with the brightest flash.

Japanese (Old World) nocturnal Fireflies utilize four separate Flash Communication signals when mating. System I is where the female broadcasts short, continuous flash signals, a flying male recognizes it and approaches her; System II involves the flying male emitting a pulsating signal, the stationary female, usually located on the ground in tall grass recognizes it and responds with a flashed answer. This flashed response has characteristic form and time delay relative to the males' pattern. Once the female has answered, the two continue a flash pattern, dialogue, as the male gets closer. The dialogue ends in copulation.; System III (LL) involves the flying male emitting one flash, the female recognizes it and begins to flash. The male then approaches the female and converts his pattern into single twinkling flashes directed at the female. They both keep emitting their flashes at one another until copulation occurs; System IV (LC) is when the flying males associate and emit synchronous flashes, the female(s) recognize these signals and emit a single pulsed flash which a male perceives, then approaches her and copulates. Non-nocturnal fireflies rely on pheromones attract a mate.

Certain Asian species of firefly, like the Pteroptyx species, aggregate in synchronously flashing swarms on Mangrove Trees (Firefly trees) and females come to them. In order for the flashes to be classified as synchronous there must be rhythmic and repetitive patterns with a tendency toward unison, either in an anticipatory synchrony or a machrony (wave synchrony) display. Synchronous Flash patterns are species specific, therefore the males display a specific flash pattern at highly precise intervals (a mean of interflash of 556.3 milliseconds).

Festivals

Santocho Firefly Festival
Amanogawa River, which runs east to west through Santocho, Shiga Prefecture is host to 19 species of "Hotaru". Each June there is a Firefly Festival.

Nagusa Firefly Festival
The Firefly Festival is held in "Nagusa Firefly Village". The fireflies are Genji Fireflies, and usually can be seen from about 8pm to 9pm. The best time to see the fireflies is on a muggy, rainless night.

Iwakura Onsen Hotaru Matsuri (Firefly Festival)
http://www.omekanko.gr.jp/index.html
Iwakura Onsen is a quaint hot spring village located in the north of Ome city. A lot of tourists visit the place wising to see the fireflies during the "Hotaru Matsuri" period every year. The festival has been popular among people from long ago as a typical summer event. From June 21-July 15, 2003.

Muju Firefly Festival, Korea
Running in August, the festival activities include: Prayer festival for firefly prosperity, mysterious exploration of lightning bugs, release of daseulgi (food for the firefly larva), firefly lectures, ecology photograph exhibition, environmental speech contest, drawing contest, writing contest.

Initiatives

DENSO Project, Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
DENSO works to preserve the environment and local ecology with the conservation of the Heigen Genjibotaru no Sato in Nishio, an area where the rare Genji Firefly breeds;

Hotaru Project, Kitakyushu, Japan
The Hotaru Project in Kitakyushu, Shiga Prefecture along the Kokumano River funded by the organization, Urban Habitat Rehabilitation. The "Hotaru" or Firefly Project aimed to rehabilitate the Kokumano River and to restore riverbank flora and fauna while simultaneously instilling a sense of pride and ownership in a community.

Firefly Village, Fukuoka City, Japan
The creation of the Firefly Village and walking routes in Fukuoka City through the Sawara Ward as part of a city initiative to give the Ward a hometown look with water, plants, and fireflies. Also included in this initiative was the expansion of Muromi River cleaning activities and other citizen activities such as citizen-sponsored firefly cultivation and release and observations of aquatic life.

Cinema::

Isao Takahata - Director
"Grave of the Fireflies" Japan, 1988
This film is a Japanese animé about two children from Kobe who have been left homeless by the bomb. Acclaimed and very popular.

Takae Kawase
"AMANOGAWA"
This video is filled with grief for the beauty of old Japan that is fast disappearing, as symbolized by the image of the fireflies.

Songs::

A popular Japanese song for children:

Fire-, fire-, fireflies, come.
Water over there is bitter,
Water over here is sweet.
Fire-, fire-, fireflies, come.

A Japanese popular song titled "Hotaru-no-Hikari", which means fireflies' light, is commonly sung as a farewell one. It is as popular as the national anthem of Japan, because it is sung by all students at the graduation ceremonies of most schools in Japan. Japanese people sing it as a final program at the closing ceremonies of events, such as the Olympics, the sumo league series, the NHK TV annual popular song show at the end of the year and so on.
The song begins with an old style of words,
"The days when we read books in the light of fireflies and snow by the windows, have passed, ------",
and ends with:
"we'll part from each other this morning, opening the past gate".

Firefly Art:

The artists listed below all have a firefly motif in their pieces, if not a direct reference to the insect. The bioluminescent light of the firefly is often a key factor in the work.
 

 "More Alien than Alien", 2001
"Digital art produced by morphing photograph of P. Pyralis with that of the author, Terry Lynch."
 

"When the light of sense goes out, but with a flash that has revealed the invisible world..."
- William Shakespeare

"... they congregate to communicate en masse, with untold thousands of individuals cooperating in huge synchronized light displays."
- Synchronous Rhythmic Flashing of Fireflies by John Buck

More resources

Electronic Café tele-everything pioneers.

Telematic Embrace comprehensive resource for historical and contemporary instances of telepresence

Interaction Field Mirjam Struppek's excellent research site on electronic art in public space.

Smart Mobs Informative weblog with frequent updates and scanning for news.

Steven Wilson – Information Arts comprehensive resource for electronic art.

Pending, future updates

Roger Malina, Roy Ascott, Paul Sermon, Torre de los Vientos, Estridentistas, Mori Tower, KPN tower, Andrea di Castro, Marc Tutters, Connective Force Attack.