noplace is by Marek Walczak & Martin Wattenberg, with Jonathan Feinberg, Rory Solomon and Johanna Kindvall.
noplace is a project of Creative Capital.
noplace online was commissioned by Tate, London. Curated by Kelli Dipple, Curator of Intermedia Art, Tate. Supported by Tate Online’s partner BT.
August 2008
noplace online - Tate Online
June 9 - July 3, 2008
Synthetic Times - National Art Museum of China
Multi-projection installation of noplace with user control.
20 October - 2 December, 2007
Video Vortex - Netherlands Media Art Institute
Alpha version of noplace installation.
noplace consist of multiple streams each identifying a unique ‘endgame’. This endgame can be heaven, a worker’s paradise on earth or an ecological paradigm. Each data stream, accumulating over time from the Internet, is fed to a specific projection at the installation or informs particular pathways for the website movie-maker.
Current paradises include, but are not exclusive to:
In a gallery space with multiple projections, the projections are kept synchronous with each other. As each individual projection conceptualizes a specific endgame, similar word-tags are sought across all the displays, so forming the basis for a comparative study of competing ideologies.
Installation at Synthetic Times, Beijing.
Installation plan at Synthetic Times, Namoc, Beijing
Using the noplace package, people can input a current state of mind and a future goal. The website will construct a downloadable movie of the path to get there. This path is based on live Internet searches that categorize different types of endgames.
The website will launch in August 2008.
(left) Constant’s vision of a networked environment evolving with its nomadic citizens.
(right) Constant’s vision of a Utopian society at play as the endgame of post-industrialization.
Tantric, alchemical and other practices suggest a shared psychology of transference. Shared depositories like Flickr can be mined for diverse conceptions of paradises.
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Tintoretto paintings use light, chiaroscuro and perspective to suggest multiple spaces and depths.
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Early structure for a noplace where physical and information space co-exit. Early interior structure for noplace, a flexible structure with transparent information screens.
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noplace depends on workshops, during which time we come to grips with contradictory utopias.
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Live feeds are taken from the internet using the RSS protocol. Each image and sound has its text-tags stored in the database. The Tag Sequencer finds relationships between these tags and streams these to the projectors. Each projector has a specific semantic cluster, each representing a particular concept of paradise. The tag sequencer not only finds narrative threads within each cluster, but also finds parallel narratives within different projections, so synchronizing divergent utopias and allowing for a reading across human wishes and desires.
Click on sample images from the ‘rapture’ cluster.
For publication quality images please contact us.
noplace locates numerous utopian inputs from the Internet and uses these data feeds to create virtual architectures. Photo and audio streams of opposing utopias are played side-by-side; the text descriptions of the content used to synchronize divergent paradises to create a narrative flow.
A museum installation includes multiple screens of different utopian visions, while a companion web version of the piece allows viewers to create personalized noplace worlds.
These paradise types are endgames of ideological constructs, whether a vision of a classless society or a scientist’s vision of a sustainable environment.
