Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers.
Ponton/Van Gogh TV «Piazza virtuale»
Ponton/Van Gogh TV, «Piazza virtuale», 1992
© Ponton/Van Gogh TV
Located beside the Museum Fridericianum, the ‘Container City' consisted of a satellite uplink with a broadcasting van, broadcasting and production studio, offices for administration and PR, a café and a small open-air piazza. Some 30 team members were active on-site for longer periods or for the project duration. Entry points were implemented that allowed visitors instant access to the current live broadcast. These entries were either located in stationary kiosks where visitors could join up with the live broadcast at the press of a button, or observation cameras distributed around the Fridericanum showing what was currently happening.


 Ponton/Van Gogh TV
«Piazza virtuale»

Artists and technicians from Austria and Germany have been working together as Van Gogh TV since 1986 in the Ponton European Media Art Lab. Some of their members developed joint projects from as early as 1979 in the Minus Delta T group. 'Piazza Virtuale' is an interactive television project that could be received all over Europe via 4 satellites for 100 days during documenta IX in 1992. Visitors to documenta could beam themselves in via videophones and cameras that had been permanently installed in Kassel and other European cities to the live broadcast called 'Piazza Virtuale'. It was possible to use telephone, fax or modem to dial into the broadcast from home. The aim of the project was to transform the mass medium of television into an interactive medium that reverses the relationship of one broadcaster and many receivers.