Telomatic
Telomatic (2021-2024)
Electronics, silicone, software, CCTV camera, CRT TV
12x12x16” & 18x24x48”
Telomatic is an exploration of post-digital intersubjectivity through electronic, sculptural and computational art.
Drawing inspiration from telematic art, technology ethics and cypherpunk ideas, this project seeks to comment on and propose playfully engaging alternatives to the dematerialization of contemporary virtualized landscapes while addressing concerns of cybersecurity in our increasingly connected age.
From an immediate socio-cultural standpoint, Telomatic is inspired by the rise of teledildonics, a phenomenon encompassing both the creation and advertisement (both commercial and DIY) of connected sex-toys, and consequent ethical questions concerning the use, abuse and cybersecurity of such objects (cryptodildonics), theorized by researchers such as Sarah Jamie Lewis.
Artistically, this piece follows in the footsteps of early telematic art, such as Heath Bunting’s 1994 King’s Cross Phone-In, which brought interactivity to the cybernetic realm and favoured a conceptually playful critical reading of technological progress. Within this broad world, Telomatic is specifically inspired by artists pushing the limits of corporeal cyberart, such as Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca, ORLAN and Stelarc, whose work (e.g. Epizoo, Ping Body) points to the amplifying effect of embodied materiality on telematic interactivity.
In theory, Telomatic is an interactive experience reverse-engineering embodied possibilities of telematic experience via subverted teledildonics. In practice, it presents as a silicone-cast anal plug actuated by online interaction.
The viewer initially engages with the piece through an apparently innocuous web application proposing an augmented reality drawing activity using machine-learning trained real-time hand pose detection (The Apparatus). The data generated by this activity also serves, via a wireless connection, to vibrate the plug (The Exparatus). The Apparatus and Exparatus are spatially segregated so that the viewer only later understands the relationship between the initial ludic action and its telematic consequences.
Using their right index finger, the viewer traces a line of which the weight and colour can be modulated with the left index finger. This digital finger-painting canvas is superposed on the webcam video feed.
A screenshot of the drawing, which is uploaded to a gallery and echoed back to the viewer as a scannable QR code. The gallery of drawings creates a collage that can be used as a meta-canvas for a random cadavre exquis or an intentional générateur poïétique.
Technically, the application rests on a structure of HTML & CSS, is scripted in Javascript & PHP, and implements p5.js, jQuery for DOM manipulations, jQueryUI for GUI element generation, MediaPipe Hands for hand position detection and QRCode.js for QR code generation and formatting.
This project is indebted to Sabine Rosenberg.
Shown at Espace Loüable, Eastern Bloc, VAV Gallery & mai/son MTL.