Art and network culture
13.5.-25.9.11
KUMU
It is always worth the time going to the national art museum KUMU at the far end of Kadriorg park in Tallinn. You might spend a whole day exploring the temporary exhibition at the first floor, or the classical and modern art display at the second to fourth floor. But the real thrill is usually on the upper floor, the contemporary section.
At the moment all the fifth floor is dedicated to the exhibition Gateways - art and network culture. The artists are exploring the possibilities of the available technologies, and inventing new technologies. They are inviting us to interact with the artwork, maybe more than we are comfortable with. Some works give us a new way of looking at the world, and some works give us a new way of looking at art. Some works are entertaining, some puzzling, and some even frightening.
Jenny Marketou: Red Eyed Sky Walkers - Silver Series I
- silver helium balloons in the foyer at KUMU
Timo Toots: MEMOПOΛ II
- if you enter your id code into this machine, it searches the web for all information that is available about you. It is quite frightening and surprising how much there is to find.
Julius Popp: Bit Fall
- random words from internet searches are written in sequences of falling water. It is like magic: water spouts out from the ceiling, spelling a word, just to disappear immediately after when it hits the floor.
boredomresearch (Vicky Isley & Paul Smith): Real Snail Mail
- snails are the carriers of emails. You can send an email at a computer nearby. As a snail passes an electronical spot, it picks up the email, and deliver it the next time it passes a spot. It may take an hour, a day, a week.
Christina Kubisch: Wave Catcher
- exploring the city in an new way, discovering the electromagnetic fields. Wearing these headphones you discover the sounds of the tram, ATMs, billboards and revolving doors.
Karel Koplimets & Ivar Veermäe: Don't Be Evil Extended
- the city is mapped with tons of photos, like in googlemaps. But all commercial signs have been erased. You can virtually walk around and create your own advertisements.
Ingo Günther: World Processor
- mapping the world in a brand new way. Before the globus showed the national borders or the topographical borders of the world. These globes show the networks, the global brands, the international connections, that now define the world and its borders.
You Must Relax (Riin Rõõs & Eve Arpo): Astrid Mobile Phone
- this giant phone is a fully functioning mobile phone. Only it is not that mobile anymore according to its size. And all the museum will hear it when you talk to somebody.
