Sunlight converted to digital data, transmitted across the globe, and recreated with pixels on a video projector feeding the seed underneath this virtual sun. A camera trained on the pedestal provides feedback for the Web participants. The installation creates the experience of the Internet as a life-supporting system. Whether the plant thrives or dies is up to the artwork's online audience. Eight images from Web-connected digital cameras trained on skylines around the world are captured by the gallery's Internet server and displayed at the Teleporting An Unknown State Web site.
Online viewers select one of the images for projection onto the soil containing the seed.
Tucked away in a corner of a UC Berkeley robotics laboratory, a small light-proof box containing a mix of secret objects is wired to the Internet and awaiting an audience. This is the Dislocation of Intimacy, Goldberg's quintessential experiment in telepistemology. Via an elegant Web interface, online viewers select a combination of lights to turn on and off inside the box. The naturally grayscale images are surreal and mysterious, reminiscent of Rayograms or Moholy-Nagy's eerie optical experiments. Inside Tokyos ICC gallery, a snapshot of armageddon is developing right before the eyes of dozens of spectators and live TV cameras.