An Artist in residence Project

A projection on the future by Leonid Filatov

Installation in front of the Ars Electronica Center

1996/1997
Linz

The streetlight is a technology that brings light into the dark of the night in the open air. Light plays an essential role in the lives of people – in all its qualities. Since the time people learned how to make fire, the era of artificial lighting began. The development of streetlights entailed bigger social side effects than any other technological innovation. It created additional possibilities of activities in the open air, enlarged social life in public space into the night and thus changed the habits of people. The discovery of this new level of the familiar physical surrounding by day would not have been possible without the streetlight. Often the social effects and changes in people’s behaviour are being mentioned that were caused by the entering of the TV into the living rooms. Analogies and parallels are drawn to the campfire of cavemen. People appear to be forgetting the psychological importance of the streetlight’s effect on people.

Its inconspicuous appearance suggested the use as an instrument for electronic street art. As an object, it belongs to the regular daily life. “Laterna Magica” enlightens the surrounding area by night – just like every normal streetlight does. Yet here its functional mechanism is enhanced by one important function: the lantern is equipped with a video-projector. When entering the cone of light the motion detector starts the projector. The pictures are being projected on the streets now, whereas the functionality of illumination remains intact. The passer-by is quasi located on the inside of a monitor. When leaving the zone, the projection disappears and the street lighting remains.

The projection itself consists of many things: Pictures of an exhibition, a film, text messages and image sources from the internet being connected to a computer. The internet serves as a transmitter of live pictures from all over the world. “Laterna Magica” becomes a new interface for the World Wide Web.

When the levels of reality superimpose, two aspects are of interest at once: Free access to information from the internet for everyone and the possibility of free expression – without intervention and arrangement – in public space. So “Laterna Magica” is a potential implement for everybody in public space who wants to express  him/herself via computer and thus find a new quality of imagination.