by Igor Stromajer & Brane Zorman
Live Internet Broadcast from Svalbard, Arctic Ocean
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 at 23:55 PM Central European Time (GMT/UTC+1)
Robots often cry — why shouldn’t you?
authors: Igor Štromajer & Brane Zorman
sound edited by MC Brane vs. BeitThroN vs. Thronus Sound System
theoretical adviser: Bojana Kunst, Ljubljana
executants: Nils Are Mohn & Åsmund Njøs, Svalbard
Stromajer and Zorman controlled and monitored the complex operation of leaving, jilting the robot in the deep snow of the white spaciousness of the Arctic glacier (Olav V Land, Svalbard) on New Year’s Eve. They were located in their Control Center in Ljubljana (CCL), Slovenia.
Receiving instructions from CCL, two executants, Nils Are Mohn and Åsmund Njøs, keepers of the Indian research base on Svalbard (NCAOR – Indian National Research Centre; opened in July 2008 in collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute, as one of the twelve international permanent research bases in Svalbard), executed the intimate act of jilting the robot at the glacier.
Mohn and Njøs started their journey to the foothills of the Olav V Land glacier ten minutes before midnight. They were in permanent video contact (UMTS webcam) with the CCL. Exactly at midnight (Central European Time / also local Svalbard time), when the year 2008 turned into 2009, they reached Point Zero (78N, 17E) and prepared a platform for the robot, using a small snow shovel. They also thrusted the Slovenian national flag into the snow next to the robot. The action was performed in the complete dark (civil polar night).
Live broadcast lasted 10 minutes, starting 31 December 2008 at 23:55, ending 1 January 2009 at 00:05 — www.intima.org/bi/nord
# Produced by Intima Virtual Base – Institute for Contemporary Arts, Slovenia, December 2008 / in collaboration with BeitThroN vs. Thronus Sound System, Ljubljana / Cona, Ljubljana
Ballettikka Internettikka is an ongoing artistic study of the internet guerrilla performance.
“We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.”
(W. Churchill)
