Project >> INTER-INFO << Stuttgart TV Tower, 1993
Installation with 24 red windsocks
The Stuttgart TV Tower is a 217-meter-high telecommunications and observation tower.
In 1956, it was the first of its kind worldwide.
Installation with 24 red windsocks at the Stuttgart TV Tower.
Branko Šmon: Twenty-four windsocks, twenty-four symbols, twenty-four letters, an alphabet, a code, a >> telecoding <<.
From the 1994 catalog, conversation with Branko Šmon by Josef Singldinger
Signals of global networking.
Excerpt
.......
The tower as a symbol of power, the transmission tower through which information, opinions, and statements
.......
The tower as a symbol of power, the transmission tower through which information, opinions, and statements
are broadcast in all directions. A network. The sphere of power, concentrated in a center,
wound around a spiral. What is sent out into the world—the information—has weight. Its speed
determines its direction. It is subject to manipulation. The greater the pressure, the more uniform the outcome.
….....
The image of the tower and its sensors in the wind, in light and shadow, in the ever-changing space before and behind the clouds, is beautiful. But Branko Šmon is not solely concerned with the purely aesthetic form, nor merely with the unity of artistic composition, but rather with the unity of nature, technology, and art. At first glance, technology appears to instrumentalize art. But art demands reflection on technology. Nature remains—both in imagery and intention—untouched. This installation contemplates the relationship between nature, art, and technology. It cannot remain a mere illusion of beauty. The spirit moves, even when the wind in reality, within which the image exists, is silent.
….....
The image of the tower and its sensors in the wind, in light and shadow, in the ever-changing space before and behind the clouds, is beautiful. But Branko Šmon is not solely concerned with the purely aesthetic form, nor merely with the unity of artistic composition, but rather with the unity of nature, technology, and art. At first glance, technology appears to instrumentalize art. But art demands reflection on technology. Nature remains—both in imagery and intention—untouched. This installation contemplates the relationship between nature, art, and technology. It cannot remain a mere illusion of beauty. The spirit moves, even when the wind in reality, within which the image exists, is silent.
…....
Twenty-four windsocks, twenty-four symbols, twenty-four letters, an alphabet, a code, a >> telecoding <<.
Twenty-four windsocks, twenty-four symbols, twenty-four letters, an alphabet, a code, a >> telecoding <<.
…...
Vilém Flusser writes: “If our children and grandchildren were to experience the world and themselves through differently structured codes
(for instance, through technical images such as photographs, films, television, and digitalization), then they would be different in the world than we are, and than our ancestors were.” Branko Šmon expresses the same idea with his TV tower installation—an insight into a possible future of our world. A global network and its consequences. A critique of potential hubris in handling new technologies. And a possible foundation for a future that we shape—one that does not succumb to formlessness and inertia, nor to excessive speed. Within this system,
Vilém Flusser writes: “If our children and grandchildren were to experience the world and themselves through differently structured codes
(for instance, through technical images such as photographs, films, television, and digitalization), then they would be different in the world than we are, and than our ancestors were.” Branko Šmon expresses the same idea with his TV tower installation—an insight into a possible future of our world. A global network and its consequences. A critique of potential hubris in handling new technologies. And a possible foundation for a future that we shape—one that does not succumb to formlessness and inertia, nor to excessive speed. Within this system,
which has already begun to take effect, we—still—have the sensitivity to decide what must be done.
And we must decide. Because the telecommunications system will become a critical point.
Either as a catastrophe or as life itself, which can be interpreted as a work of art created by us.
The total artwork: humanity—creating both technology and art—will be the content of a new aesthetic.
And nature? We shall see.
Branko Šmon 1993:
The telecommunications system, as the nervous system of our social life, becomes a work of art –
the INTER-INFO METAMORPHOSIS ©
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