LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries to begin performances this saturday
Seven Mile Boots, one of the pieces selected for LABcyberspaces, will be the first performance on show.
LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries is to begin its cycle of performances tomorrow. One of the works selected for LABcyberspaces, now open at the Centre, will be the starting point for the performances visitors will be able to see on a daily basis, starting from next Saturday, at 1 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. It is Seven Mile Boots, jointly developed by the Finnish artist Laura Beloff and the Austrian artists Eric Berger and Martin Pichlmair.
The creators of this work stated out from the literary and popular tradition describing the Seven Mile Boots as magical footwear that allows wearers to cross great distances in a short period of time. The piece exhibited at LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries replaces magic with technology and enables people to cross distances in a different kind of geography. Equipped with a wireless connection, microprocessors, amplifiers and loudspeakers, the boots allow wearers to eavesdrop on conversations that take place in Internet chat rooms. Walking around in the technologised boots, wearers can surf chat rooms; standing still, they can listen in on several chats simultaneously and overhear people's conversations in the virtual world. If the magical boots of the fairy tales are able to traverse great geographical distances in the physical world with just one step, their networked counterparts operate in an entirely different geographical realm, merging the physical and virtual , stepping from one continent to the next.
ARTISTS
LAURA BELOFF ( Finland, 1964). Laura Beloff works primarily with media art. Her pieces in recent years have developed to become participatory and networked installations or portable, wearable objects. Her works re-examine private and public relationships to art and the individual presence in the globally networked world. Many of these works are collaborations with other artists, musicians and programmers. Beloff has exhibited widely in various exhibitions, museums, galleries and major media-festivals in Europe and worldwide.
ERICH BERGER (Austria, 1969). Artist and independent researcher currently living in Porvoo. Finland. He was trained in communication engineering, mechatronics and philosophy. In his art work, Berger is interested in information processes and feedback structures, which he investigates through installations, situations, performances and various interfaces. His work is shown internationally in media festivals, exhibitions and galleries.
MARTIN PICHLMAIR (Austria, 1977). Media artist living and working in Vienna. PhD in Computer Science, he works as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology. Recent exhibitions include Ars Electronica Festival, ISEA, Transmediale and Microwave International Festival for New Media Art. His research and publications focus on the theory and practice of interactive art and design.
