Mediterranean Touch Screen

I don’t see highrise. I see the Mediterranean cities floating in a sea of plastics. I don’t see the cities getting smarter, I see the debris of parts, bits, bytes, pixels chasing after extensions, plug ins to get to the terminals. I see the clouds falling off the sky and there’s no sign of raindrops falling.

Mediterranean Touch Screen is an imaginary sea landscape composed of broken keys and keyboard membranes. The numerous membranes float in the idyllic blue Mediterranean while the pebbled beaches made of broken plastic keys beam seductive toxic green. The work is a networked reactivated installation; the USB ports of the membranes are rewired, interlinked and connected to a system computer where sound data of Mediterranean remembrance are archived. The transparent membranes jointly serve as a post-digital touch screen for public interfacing. Visitors are invited to touch the membranes to retrieve sound notes from the stored data. The multiple sound notes generated offer a collective (de)composition of the syncopated tunes of bygone tomorrows.

Additional Info

  • Author(s): Shu Lea Cheang
  • Year(s): 2017
  • Project team: Shu Lea Cheang with Marinos Koutsomihalis (sound data), Julien Ottavi /APO33 (system patching), Alexandros Drymonitis (technical support)
  • Bio:

    As an artist, filmmaker, networker, Shu Lea Cheang (TW/ US/ FR) constructs networked installation and multi-player performance in participatory impromptu mode. She drafts sci-fi narratives in her film scenario and artwork imagination. She builds social interface with transgressive plots and open network that permits public participation. Engaged in media activism for two decades (the 80s and 90s) in New York City, Cheang concluded her NYC period with a cybernoia film FRESH KILL (1994) and the first Guggenheim museum web art commission/collection BRANDON (1998-1999). Since her relocation to Eurozone in 2000, Cheang has taken up large scale installations and networked performances while she also co-founded several collectives to pursue cross-disciplinary projects. From homesteading cyberspace in the 90s to her current retreat to post-crash BioNet, Cheang takes on viral love and bio hack. In 2017, Cheang premiered her cypherpunk movie FLUIDØ at Berlinale. She is currently working on a mobi-web-serial Wonders Wander for Madrid Pride and she also has in development two new works - UKI, cinema interrupted and Ultra Love Songs for the Unborn.