Patio Tech

Last night I attended the opening of the exhibit ‘Babylove ‘ at the Chelsea Art Museum. Sponsored by Taiwanese cultural institutions, artist Shu Lea Cheang and programmer Olaf Matthes explore “our contemporary obsessive immersion in the virtual life of the internet and its impact on cultural practices. It is an installation which mixes nostalgia for a seemingly simpler age with the technically boggling interactive technology of the connections on the net, Cheang seems to be asking where will the ever new frontiers of the web take us? Will it lead to an expanded universe of knowledge or to a frightening scenario of dehumanization, where even the emotions of a baby can be programmed at will?

Baby Love is a wifi mobile installation that consists of 6 large autonomously mobile teacups (67 inches in diameter) with 6 clone babies (each 28 inches tall). The teacups are modeled after spinning carnival rides, except that the soundtrack of love songs can be uploaded by public via the web at http://babylove.biz and directly to the teacups, where they are coded as ME (memory and emotion) data for the clone babies. When the museum visitor takes a teacup ride with the babies, the ME data is retrieved, jumbled and eventually crashes. Baby Love situates human and baby clone riders in a perpetual spin which fuses the familiar fairground iconography with contemporary “remix” pop culture.”

It was actually a lot of fun. The ‘mobile’ part got me confused because I thought cellphones were going to be part of the piece, but it’s actually a ‘mobile’ installation because it literally ‘moves’. It’s been a while since I went to an art exhibit where I actually enjoyed it and the art ’spoke’ to me.

Babylove at the Chelsea Art Museum
http://www.chelseaartmuseum.org/exhibits/2006/babylove/index.html

This video was shot with a Nokia 7610.