The Telepresence Garment

Anna Yu
© http://www.ekac.org/stillborg.GIF ; Anna Yu

Eduardo Kac

The Telepresence Garment , –
http://www.ekac.org/TelepGarm.html
Mnemosyne
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Documents
  • Anna Yu
    The teleborg and the telerobot Ornitorrinco
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    462 × 425
  • FACT, Liverpool
    Online telepresence work with wireless telerobotic clothes. sk-interfaces exhibition at FACT, Liverpool
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    1972 × 2957
  • http://www.ekac.org/kac.photo.ivam.jpg
    telepresence
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    549 × 359
  • kac
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    269 × 397
Description
I first conceived the Telepresence Garment in 1995 to investigate the notion of the mediascape as an expanded cloth; i.e., to consider wireless networking as a new fabric that envelops the body. The Garment, which I finished in 1996, gives continuation to my development of telepresence art. This time, however, instead of a robot hosting a human, we find the roboticized human body itself converted into a host. The Garment was designed as an interactive piece to be worn by any local participant willing to allow his or her body to be engaged by others remotely.
Keywords
  • aesthetics
    • immersive
    • interactive
    • mobile
    • performative
    • uncanny
  • subjects
    • Body and Psychology
      • bodies (animal components)
      • embodiment
    • Technology and Innovation
      • telepresence
Technology & Material
Display
The Garment is divided into three components. The Transceiver Hood (pictured here) has a CCD attached to a circuit board, both sewed to the leather hood on the left side, and an audio receiver sewed on the right side. The CCD is lined up with the wearer's left eye. Underneath the Garment, the wearer dons in direct contact with the skin what I call a Transmitter Vest, which is wired to the Hood and which enables wireless transmission of 30 fps color video from the point of the view of the wearer's left eye. Enveloping the body is an opaque Limbless Suit, so called because one can't stand or stretch one's arms, temporarily reducing or eliminating the functionality of the limbs.
Interface
Cloth, textile, CCD, transmitter vest
Exhibitions & Events
III Biennial of the End of the World
Sk-interfaces
Sk-Interfaces (Liverpool)
Eduardo Kac
Slick Art Fair
Man Transformed
Festival Atlântico
Saint Petersburg Biennale
Bibliography
  • Kac, Eduardo. »Telepresence Art and Net Ecology.« In The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology on the Internet, edited by Ken GoldbergCambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.
  • Kac, Eduardo and Marcel.li Antunez Roca. »Robotic Art.« Leonardo Electronic Almanac 5, no. 5 (May 1997).
  • Kac, Eduardo. »Interactive Art on the Internet.« In Ars Electronica 1995. Welcome to the Wired World, edited by Peter Weibel and Karl Gerber, 170-179. Wien, New York: Springer Verlag, 1995.
  • Kac, Eduardo. »Sur la notion d`art en tant que dialogue visuel.« In Art-Reseaux, edited by Karen O'Rourke, 20-23. Paris: Centres d`Etudes et de Recherches en Arts Plastique, Université de Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1992.
4 publications