I love it and I want one - The Telectroscope*

[Martin S]

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/telectroscope/



Now this is an artistic work I wouldn't mind seeing at the Biennial. A long forgotten Trans-Atlantic tunnel built in Victorian times has been completed by the artist / engineer Paul St George and optical devices know as Telectroscopes have been fitted at each end to allow ladies and gentlemen in our capital city to send cordial greetings to our American brethren in New York.

The devices will be in place until June 15th so there isn't much time to see them, unless of course we manage to have one installed in Liverpool. Intriguingly, the artist informs us that the Atlantic tunnel, which links London to New York is only one of several tunnels that radiate from an island in the mid-Atlantic and that many of the labourers engaged in digging the tunnel came from Liverpool.

I think this idea is absolutely brilliant and I would love it to come to Liverpool. Of course, there are sceptics who say that the Telectroscope is nothing more than a broadband connection between London and New York with cameras and TV screens at each end, but even if that is true, it still tells us a lot about our relationship with technology.

What the Telectroscope does is allow us to marvel at the fact that we can see people 3000 miles away. It is a limited technology in that you can't select who you will see at the other end and no way has been found of sending sound through the Atlantic tunnel but it makes us appreciate the intrinsic value of technology.

Just like a Victorian steam locomotive with its gleaming brass, the Telectroscope is something that invokes wonderment in the observer, in a way that just doesn't happen with the more capable devices that we are familiar with, such as the Internet.

For once, we are allowed to enjoy technology, rather than being its slave.


*Apologies to nerd on the Manc skybar.

[The Longford]

My friends were visiting New York and arranged with some other friends to be in London, at the other end, at a certain time.
As it was a news crew from CBS News were also there (in New York) and they were seen on US television gooffing to each other!

I love the 'old' drawings on the website.