Information
Paul Sermon >
»Telematic Dreaming«, 1992 - 2007
http://creativetechnology.salford.ac.uk/paulsermon/dream/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2HhY_8FO2c&feature=related
Technology
Hardware
Projection location (Site 1)
Descriptions & Essays
Oliver Grau 30-09-2014
In Telematic Dreaming (1992) a live telematic video installation linking two sites first exhibited at the legendary Koti Exhibition in Kajaani, Finnland, a bed is the medium for high definition images: images of a partner, perhaps many thausands of kilometers away, live and in close proximity. The clear projection of another person, who can react almost in real time to the other's movements on the bed, is so suggestive that to touch the body's image, projected onto the sheet, becomes an intimate act. Sermon's declared aim was to expand the user's sense of touch; obviously, it was not possible to touch the other virtual bedmate, but one experienced the suggestion of touching through rapid and vigorous or tender and reflective movements. Many observers found this a contemplative moment; a sensory impression achieved synaesthetically where hand and eye fuse. This quality distinguishes this work and others created in subsequent years in collaboration with Andrea Zapp. Their techno-aesthetic language is unique and has brought this artist duo great popularity. The traditional rhetorical technique of hyperrealism is capable of addressing other senses through the faculty of vision. The images of another person in close proximity have such a strong effect that the visual impression stimulates a suggestion of tactility. This is a mechanism employed by art throughout the ages, and we encounter it here again in the phenomenon of telepresence.
Oliver Grau: Telematic Dreaming, 30-09-2014, in: Archive of Digital Art In Telematic Dreaming (1992) a live telematic video installation linking two sites first exhibited at the legendary Koti Exhibition in Kajaani, Finnland, a bed is the medium for high definition images: images of a partner, perhaps many thausands of kilometers away, live and in close proximity. The clear projection of another person, who can react almost in real time to the other's movements on the bed, is so suggestive that to touch the body's image, projected onto the sheet, becomes an intimate act. Sermon's declared aim was to expand the user's sense of touch; obviously, it was not possible to touch the other virtual bedmate, but one experienced the suggestion of touching through rapid and vigorous or tender and reflective movements. Many observers found this a contemplative moment; a sensory impression achieved synaesthetically where hand and eye fuse. This quality distinguishes this work and others created in subsequent years in collaboration with Andrea Zapp. Their techno-aesthetic language is unique and has brought this artist duo great popularity. The traditional rhetorical technique of hyperrealism is capable of addressing other senses through the faculty of vision. The images of another person in close proximity have such a strong effect that the visual impression stimulates a suggestion of tactility. This is a mechanism employed by art throughout the ages, and we encounter it here again in the phenomenon of telepresence.
Literature

Kluszczyński, Ryszard W.. »art@science: About Relations between Art and Science.« In Towards The Third Culture: The Co-Existence of Art, Science and Technology, edited by Ryszard W. Kluszczyński, 32-42. Gdańsk: Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, 2011.

Grau, Oliver. Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
Sermon, Paul. »From Telematic Man to Heaven 194.94.211.200.« In Consciousness Reframed, Proceedings of the First CAiiA Research Conference, University of Wales College, Newport, edited by . University of Wales College, Newport: 1997.
Sermon, Paul. »Paul Sermon in Interview at the Ars Electronica Center Linz.« .
Morse, Margaret. »Paul Sermon - Holder of ZKM Stipend 1993.« .
Exhibitions & Events