// Opera Calling (2007/2008) /////////////////////////
Arias for All!
About Opera Calling?
«Opera Calling» - is an artistic intervention into the cultural system of the Zurich Opera. By means of an unknown number of audio bugs placed within the auditorium of the local opera house, the outside public is given access to the performances on stage. The performances are retransmitted to the public not through broadcasting, but by telephoning each person individually.
From March 9th to May 26th 2007, audio bugs, hidden in the auditorium, transmitted the performances of the Zurich Opera to randomly selected telephone land-lines in the city of Zurich. Over 90 hours of opera performances were retransmitted to 4363 households.
In proper style of a home-delivery-service, anyone that picked up their telephone, was able to listen to the on-going opera performances for as long as s/he wanted through a live connection with the audio bug signal. As soon as the listener would hang up, the telephone machine would call the next random number.
With the use of the telephone for the dissemination of the opera transmissions a virtual auditory space is opened not as blanket coverage (as with broadcasting media) but as a home-delivery service: Every person is individually connected and can eaves-drop at their leisure from the comfort of their living room.
Following Bell's original intention for the use of the telephone, «Opera Calling» makes use of the telephone as a broadcasting media. It revalues this long-forgotten application, revealing how the telephone in its beginings was just an apparatus uncoupled from specific social use.
The Opera works as a symbol for a closed-circuit cultural operating system which is opened up by connecting it to the a telephone network. By re-distributing the performance-output, normally contained within the physical walls of the Opera House, Opera Calling also askes questions of cultural ownership.
Opera Calling is a project by !Mediengruppe Bitnik in collaboration with Sven König.
Project Website: http://www.opera-calling.com
Keywords:
Hacking as Artistic Strategy, Performance, Intervention
Technical Information:
Gnu/Debian Linux Server and Client, Asterisk Open source telephony engine for "Voice over IP" and outgoing telephone
calls, Python and PHP as scripting languages for the telephone machine, Mysql database for phonebook and event scheduling, Apache, PHP, SWF, Wordpress for the website.
The «Opera Calling» Live Performance
The project received wide media attention mainly locally, but also internationally. Through this, «Opera Calling» gained a third level of access:
People who were randomly called by the telephone machine had sometimes seen the project on television news and - thrilled to have been chosen by the machine - would call other members of the household to the phone, explaining to them the project. In some cases people would sit in groups in front of the telephone, listening to
the opera, discussing the transmission, just as people probably had done one hundred years ago with the "Telefon Hirmondo".
The media also informed the Zurich Opera about the project, by asking for a statement regarding «Opera Calling». After denying any involvement with the project, they sent a letter to both Cabaret Voltaire and !Mediengruppe Bitnik with the order to remove all hidden bugs, immediatly stop the transmissions, and threatening to file a law-suit.
There followed a debate in the media over cultural ownership which resulted in a David vs. Goliath style discussion about the flow of cultural subsidies. Finally the Zurich Opera decided to tolerate «Opera Calling» as a temporary enhancement of their performance repertoire.
Selected Press (online)
Woz - Wochenzeitung, Switzerland - (german)
Furtherfield Review by Maria X (engl.)
Orf.at - Felix Stalder (german)
Clickhere.ch - Verena Kuni (german)
Original Installation, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (March-June 2007)
Telephone Machine in the Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich
Uknown number of hidden spy bugs in the auditorium of Zurich Opera.
La bohème by Giacomo Pucini, first telephone retransmission, Friday - 9th of March 2007, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich
TV Coverage, Video Impressions
SF News, Swiss National TV, German
March 14th 2007, (03:40 min)
Impressions of the installation at the Cabaret Voltaire
March 2007
SF Kulturplatz, Swiss National TV, German
March 14th 2007, (01:30 min)
Pictures: Different versions of audio bugs
Bug version - mobile phone: Nokia 6100, needs charger connection, automatically answers to call-in connection from "opera calling".
Bug version - mobile phone: TV-News Screenshot - One of the bugs found by the opera house staff. Found in a lighting box - Connected to a power socket
Bug version - The Human Bug: altered suit
Bug version - (pirate) radio fm transmitter: home made radio transmitter with an external microphone.
// Curiculum Vitae /////////////////////////////
Artistic Works
The Zurich based !Mediengruppe Bitnik is a arts collective which works in the development of mediacultural and art projects. Bitniks main
focus is to investigate digital and analog media and the impact they have on society. This exploratory
work is put into practice in artistic exhibitions and in the development of software and social interfaces,
thereby aiming at creating new fields for social and cultural action and collaboration.
In their latest projects, Opera Calling and Download Finished, Bitnik have been exploring into _hacking_ as a means for artistic production.
In other projects, they have investigated the possibilities that arise
through media convergencies by connecting a pirate TV station with the overwhelming amount of media
content available in filesharing networks. Or they have built oversized Keyboards...
Selected Exhibitions
2007
«Access»
Installation, Shift - Electronic Arts Festival, Plug.In, Basel, Switzerland (Oct 25 - Oct 28)
«They call it Reality»
Installation Opera Calling and Download Finished, group exhibition, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund, Germany (Oct 6 - Oct 21)
«25 Years»
group exhibition - Opera Calling Miniature, Foundation Binz39, Zürich, Switzerland (Jun 6 - Jul 23)
«Download Finished»
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland (Jul 1 - Aug 25)
«Opera Calling!»
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland (Mar 9 - May 25)
2006
«Batman in Ascii - 100% downloaded»
group exhibition, Municipal Art Grant, Museum Helmhaus, Zürich, Switzerland
2005
«Boutique - Art for the Masses»
group exhibtion, Gallery Les Complices*, Zürich (Dec 7 - Dez 24)
«Mapping Information Society and its Discontents»,
Gallery Les Complices*, Zürich (Apr 20 - May 8)
«4. Internationale Dada-Festwochen 2005», Dada TV-Shopping,
Gallery Rämistrasse, Zürich (Feb 4 - Mar 6)
2004
«Hardware Orchestra»,
in Collaboration with Roger Wigger, ReadMe- Software Art Festival, Aarhus, Denmark (Aug 23 - 27)
«CopyFight!», «StopGap-TV», «TV Hacking»
Kunstraum Rüdigerstrasse, Zürich (Sep 2 - Sep 23)
2003
«Teleklettergarten»
in Collaboration with artist group FOK, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (Sep 6 - Sep 11)
«People First!»
Public Installation, Main Train Station, Geneva, Switzerland (Dec 5 - Dec 12)
Selected Curatory Works
(Exhibitions, Workshops, Events/Performances)
A Hack a Day I with Sofatrips.com,
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland (Mar 07)
A Hack a Day II with C6.org (UK),
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland (Apr 07)
A Hack a Day III with Platoniq.org (Spain)
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland (Jun 07)
A Hack a Night with Bob Milosevic, Eric Bünger, Sven Koenig,
Dock18, Zürich, Switzerland (Jun 07)
Love and Peace - Artistic TV Channel
in Collaboration with Balkan TV, Binz 39, Zürich, Switzerland (Nov 06)
Aire incondicional -
Art Space Shedhalle, Zürich Switzerland (Feb 04)
Medialab - 2. Internationale Dadafestwochen
Gallerie Sihlpapier, Zürich, Switzerand (Feb - Mar 03)
Dialog02 - Festival for Electronic Music and New Media
Winterthur, Switzerland (Aug 02)
Projects 2003 - 2007
2007
Opera Calling!In collaboration with Sven König (DE)
Download Finished
In collaboration with Sven König (DE)
2006
Deptford TVIn collaboration with James Stevens (UK) and Adnan Hadzi (CH/UK)
2004 - 2005
TV-HACKING! - Experimental Pirate TV projects:CopyFight! - Make P2P Television
StopGap TV - Robotic Night, Fill or Buffer TV
2003
Teleklettergarten - Tele Climbing WallIn collaboration with the art collective "FOK"
PeopleFirst! - Mapping the Information Society and its Discontents
Ascii Soup! - Intervention
2002
ImageWriter ASCII-ART - Interactive installation(* comming up as of Sept 7rd 2007)
Selected Talks/Presentations
Workshops
Screenings
Interventions
2007
dorkbotswiss in bangalore (*)Workshop on Mobile Media Performances, Intersections Lab Bangalore, India (Dec 07)
immediat.ch (*)Workshop on Mobile Media Performances, University of Art and Design, Postgraduate Studies Programme, Geneva, Switzerland (Nov 07)
interfictionXIV/2007 PATCH_WORK (*)Film & Documentary Film Festival, Kassel, Germany (Nov 07)
Panel - Who owns Culture? (*)Shift - Electronic Arts Festival, Plug.In, Basel, Switzerlenad (Oct 07)
RecuscitateScreening Download Finihsed, Gallery The Distillery, Boston, USA (Jun 07)
Open the SourceHacking as Artistic Practice, The International Situationist, Museum Tinguely, Basel (Jun 07)
Dorkbot SwissArt Space Walcheturm, Zürich, Switzerland (May 07)
TV-Hacking WorkshopCenter for Conterporary Art, Warsaw, Poland (Apr 07)
News Room Warszawa ¿ TV Hacking - Gallery Lokal 30, Warsaw, Poland (Apr 07)2006
Peer2Peer CinemaThe Pirate Boat, London, UK (Nov 06)
CinematicsMediaruimte, Brussels, Belgium (Nov 07)
Zoom FestivalScreening Download Finished, Brno, Czech Republic (Oct 06)
Panel Freedom ExpandedWizards of OS, Berlin, Germany (Sep 06)
Verführen...Reisen...Navigieren[plug.in], Basel, Switzland (Apr 06)
Deptford TV - TV HackingPresentations, Workshops, Walks trough Deptford, NODE.London, Media Art Festival, Deckspace, London, UK (March, Apr 06)
Strategies of Sharing: the Deptford.TV ProjectGoldsmiths College, London, UK (Mar 06)
Exhibiting TransformationWorkshop Community Practices, Gallery Salzinsel, Kulturfabrik, Luxembourg (Jan 06)
2005
Panel Dada?! Cabaret Voltarie, Zürich, Switzerland (Dec 05)
TV Hacking - My own Private Pirate TV-Station Presentation, Projekt P, Berlin (Jun 05)
TV Hacking - My own Private Pirate TV-Station Presentations, Ongoing series of workshops, radio show, screenings, Medialab Ruedigerstrasse, Zürich, Switzerland (Jan-Jul 05)
Dorkbot SwissArt Space Walcheturm, Zürich, Switzerland (Jan 05)
2004
ReadMeSoftware Art Festival, Aarhus, Denmark (Aug 04)
Media Space InvadersCCCB, Barcelona (Oct 05)
MetaworxMedia Art Festival Viper, Basel (Sept 04)
2003
Ascii SoupWorld Summit on Information Society, Geneva, Switzerland (Dec 03)
Geneva03: WSIS? We Seize!Geneva, Swizterland (Dec 03)
