Situation UCOG-144

[inke@is.in-berlin.de (Inke Arns)]

Hi there,
please find attached to this the information on the new project by Marko 
Peljhan / Projekt Atol from Ljubljana / Slovenia. Check it out.
Warm greetings from Berlin to all of the syndicate -
Inke Arns

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Situation UCOG-144

Time: from Feb. 28, 1996 at 10 a.m. through September 1996
Territory: Ljubljana and its surroundings
Tracking through WWW on the URL: http://lois.kud-fp.si/atol/ucog/

"On February 28, the project UCOG-144 (URBAN COLONISATION AND ORIENTATION 
GEAR 144) conceived by Marko Peljhan in collaboration with the PROJEKT ATOL, 
will be initiated. (...)

The artistic situation starts on Wednesday, February 28, 1996 at 10 a.m. and 
is going to continue through September, when the first psycho-geographical 
navigation chart of Ljubljana and its surroundings will be completed in the 
spirit of the Situationist International.

The performers of PROJEKT ATOL equipped with satellite navigation equipment 
and communication tools, are going to investigate the city, its hidden 
physical and spiritual passages, its psycho-geography. By means of collected 
data they will gradually build up an archive for the final definition of the 
navigation chart.

The project is technologically based on the use and interaction of wireless 
digital data transfer, satellite navigation and the Internet. The 
technological and conceptual part of UCOG-144 was developed in collaboration 
between PACT (Projekt Atol Communication Technologies), LJUDMILA (Ljubljana 
Digital Media Lab) and the SCCA (Soros Center for Contemporary Arts), and it 
uses satellite navigation systems NAVSTAR GPS (American) and GLOSNASS 
(Russian). All other electronics was developed by PACT (Borja Jelic, Luka 
Frelih). The whole system experimentally functions on the amateur 
frequencies of 2m and 70cm, the data is transferred from there to a specific 
protocol on the Internet, where they are available in real-time on the 
WWW-server.

Conceptually, the project is associated with the ideas and concepts 
developed in the time of the Situationist International and between other 
things includes the construction of situations, psycho-geography, derive and 
unitary urbanism. Guy Debord has written, that among the various 
situationist methods, derive is the one that best defines the status of the 
individual on an awaken and reflected 'passage' through the city and it's 
ambiance. Derive entails playful constructive behaviour and awareness of 
psycho-geographical effects, which completely distinguishes it from the 
classical notions of the journey and the stroll. In a derive one or more 
persons during a certain period of time, drop their usual motives for 
movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure, and let 
themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters 
they find there. From this point of view, cities have a psycho-geographical 
relief, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes. The task of the 
performers in UCOG-144 is to discover these invisible points of the city and 
its ecology, and to relay their findings on the observers. (...)"

For more information contact:

PROJEKT ATOL - PACT
e-mail:  pact@lois.kud-fp.si
Tracking through WWW on the URL: http://lois.kud-fp.si/atol/ucog/

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Inke Arns * Pestalozzistr. 5 * D-10625 Berlin * Germany
Tel / Fax + 49 - 30 - 313 66 78 *  inke@is.in-berlin.de