[spectre] Tantalum Memorial
jaromil
jaromil at dyne.org
Tue Jun 3 16:24:15 CEST 2008
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re all,
below is the launch of a new project by Mongrel artists: Tantalum
Memorial. i think is a great piece of media-art and will hopefully be
heard more than past censored newspaper articles about the "high-tech
genocide in Congo"
(( for background info see:
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/5-high-tech-genocide-in-congo/
))
since spectre usually stays as an announcement list, you might want to
read more as a discussion is spawning in the bricolabs circle:
http://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20080603.140246.179e2860.en.html
ciao
- - ----- Forwarded message from harwood <harwood at mediashed.org> -----
Subject: Tantalum Memorial
From: harwood <harwood at mediashed.org>
Reply-To: harwood at mediashed.org
To: g.harwood at gold.ac.uk
Organization: Mongrel
“Tantalum Memorial – Reconstruction”
a new artwork by Harwood, Wright, Yokokoji
01SJ Biennial: “Superlight” at the San Jose Museum of Art
May 10th- August 31st, 2008
“Tantalum Memorial – Reconstruction” is the first in a series of
telephony-based memorials by the artists group Harwood, Wright,
Yokokoji, to the people who have died as a result of the “coltan wars”
in the Congo. The installation is constructed out of electromagnetic
Strowger switches – the basis of the first automatic telephone
exchange invented in 1888. The movements and sounds of the switches
are triggered by the phone calls of London's Congolese community as
they participate in “Telephone Trottoire” – a concurrent project also
built by the artists in collaboration with the Congolese radio program
“Nostalgie Ya Mboka”.
Since August 1998 there have been 3.9 million deaths in the “coltan
wars” and there are currently over 35,000 Congolese refugees in the UK
alone. Coltan ore is mined for the metal tantalum - an essential
component of mobile phones and other communication devices that is now
coveted by dozens of international mining companies and warring local
militias.
“Telephone Trottoire” is a “social telephony” network that calls
Congolese listeners, plays them a phone message and invites them to
record a comment and pass it on to a friend by entering their
telephone number. This builds on the traditional Congolese practice of
“radio trottoire” or “pavement radio”, the passing around of news and
gossip on street corners in order to avoid state censorship.
“Tantalum Memorial – Residue” (courtesy Manifesta7) will be the second
in the series, this time utilizing a 1938 telephone exchange rescued
from the old Alumix factory in Bolzano, Italy. This is also the site
of Manifesta 7 - the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, 19thJuly
to 2ndNovember, 2008.
“Tantalum Memorial – Reconstruction” will next be shown at The Science
Museum in London UK in October 2008. This version will be triggered by
the phone calls of a new telephony project created during workshops
that will bring together young people from a Greenwich school with
Congolese asylum seekers. The installation will then travel to
Chalkwell Hall in Southend-on-Sea, Essex where it will launch the new
centre for international arts organization Metal.
“Tantalum Memorial – Reconstruction” May 10 - August 31, 2008 is A
FUSE Commissioned Residency for the 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival
of Art on the Edge, ZERO1, CADRE Laboratory and the Lucas Artists
Program, Montalvo Arts Center.
The artists Harwood, Richard Wright and Matsuko Yokokoji have worked
together since 2004, firstly as “Mongrel” - an internationally
recognized artists collective. Previous projects include the first
online commission from the Tate Gallery, London, a BAFTA award
nomination and work in the permanent collections of the Pompidou
Centre Paris and the Centre for Media Arts in Karlsruhe (ZKM).
For more information contact:
Harwood,Wright, Yokokoji at
richard at mediashed.orgor
harwood at mediashed.org
matsuko at mediashed.org
http://www.mongrel.org.uk
http://www.mediashed.org
Telephone Trottoire: http://www.telephonetrottoire.net
ZERO1 Biennial: http://01sj.org
Manifesta7:http://www.manifesta7.it
- - ----- End forwarded message -----
- --
Jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org
GPG: 779F E8B5 47C7 3A89 4112 64D0 7B64 3184 [ B534 0B5E ]
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