The globe village
"A massive change of perspective is taking place through the development of the Internet and other kinds of high-tech communication. Physical properties such as distance and situation become less important, and we communicate on a virtual level where time and place cease to exist."
Short description:
With its reference to one of the most powerful memes of our time, McLuhans' vision of 'The Global Village', this work makes a surrealistic comment on the increasing complexity of human relations in the digital age.
The installation consists of a large number of globes with built-in light and 5 continuous streams of time lapse video, assembled from 'webcam-images': images frequently uploaded to the Internet from cameras placed on different places all over the world.
For the time of the exhibition the work will be directly connected to the net, and variations in the light of the globes are reflecting the network traffic passing through the installation creating a fluctuating and pulsating view for the spectator.
The installation also contain its own web-server where visitors in addition to getting general information and statistics, can participate in a virtual community, discussing the work an related topics.
Note: The Globe Village was originally commissioned by the Screens exhibition in Trondheim Oct. 1997, but has been further developed and specially adopted for the showing at the conference.
Biography:
Gisle Frøysland studied computer science, information science, TV production and arts in Bergen. He has since the early eighties worked in a variety of expressions. As a musician he started out working with performance and installations where music was an important part of the expression.
Later this developed into larger sculptural installations, which also included sound and video. The theme of these works is related to the postindustrial society, with strong references to the ideas and images of the futuristic movement.
Lately he has mainly worked with video and computer installations where modern technology and communications is in the main theme. Interactive video, internet, remote control, and hypermedia are used in a meta-strategy which often puts the audience itself in focus.
Gisle Frøysland has been the receiver of grants and has had numerous exhibitions, many of them in Norway but also abroad.