The Telectroscope
Friday, June 6th, 2008
Visiting the Telectroscope art installation in DUMBO was fortunately a convenient excursion, located a block down the street from Grimaldi’s Pizzaria (best pizza in New York).
Seeing Londoners Through the Telectroscope
What’s a telectroscope? Here’s a description from the installation’s website:
Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.
This is, of course, fantasy, an art installation meant to tingle the imagination. Instead of a scope bored through the Earth’s crust, a digital display links the two continents, but the installation did involve staging a mock drill coming up through the Earth. It was neat seeing people in London in real time, with people on both sides writing on dry-ink boards to send messages across the Atlantic, bringing everyone a little closer the was the Information Age does.
The Telectroscope
Only after he got back on Saturday night did we realize what an amazing opportunity we had passed up, as my brother Jason was in London at that very same time! With a modicum of text-messaging coordination, we could have gotten photos of each other at both ends of the scope! (Although the cab ride would have cost him twice as much with the present state of the dollar vs euro).
A few more higher quality photos on flickr.
Visiting the Telectroscope art installation in DUMBO was fortunately a convenient excursion, located a block down the street from Grimaldi’s Pizzaria (best pizza in New York).
|
Seeing Londoners Through the Telectroscope |
What’s a telectroscope? Here’s a description from the installation’s website:
Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.
This is, of course, fantasy, an art installation meant to tingle the imagination. Instead of a scope bored through the Earth’s crust, a digital display links the two continents, but the installation did involve staging a mock drill coming up through the Earth. It was neat seeing people in London in real time, with people on both sides writing on dry-ink boards to send messages across the Atlantic, bringing everyone a little closer the was the Information Age does.
|
The Telectroscope |
Only after he got back on Saturday night did we realize what an amazing opportunity we had passed up, as my brother Jason was in London at that very same time! With a modicum of text-messaging coordination, we could have gotten photos of each other at both ends of the scope! (Although the cab ride would have cost him twice as much with the present state of the dollar vs euro).
A few more higher quality photos on flickr.
