Remote Sonar Drawing Device

This is a link to the article on Rhizome:
http://rhizome.org/object.php?o=49127&m=1042811

This is a link to a video describing the project:
http://www.dwbowen.com/remote_sonarmovie.html

Remote Sonar Drawing Device

David Bowen, an artist who is involved in a variety of electronic works, designed a project which involves the interactions from people in Minnesota and Spain. In each of these places Mr. Bowen set up robotic devices to draw by the direction of people from the opposite location. The device is composed of a sensor and a robotic drawing arm. Via the internet, sensors are sent to the drawing arm in the other location. Because of this set up, drawings are created in Spain by the people in Minnesota and vice-versa. It was encouraged for the people of each location to partcipate in the drawings taking place on the other side of the globe.

This art project really shows hows connected the world is. It shows that connections between people are limitless. While this project is similar to facebook and twitter in how it connects people from all over the world, it goes a step further in creating physical actions in another location as if they were there. This idea is known as telepresence and is a fast growing idea. David is advancing the connections between people in places all over the world and this is only the beginning of the idea of telepresence.

I think the idea behind this project is brilliant in gaining insight on the different views and ideas of art in different locations of the world. With the increasing need and use of video chatting and video conferences, this idea is another step in making the process that much more personal. I wish the article went more into detail about the process of submitting signals through the internet. This would have provided for a better understanding of the designs that were being drawn. Overall though, I liked how technology was involved in the creation of art but still using the creative minds of the world to input the designs on the paper.