NA SENDA DA IMAGEM A Representação ea Tecnologia na Arte

public the performance could not be possible.
Furthermore we had another problem because
we were working physically with people from
Portugal with their own culture and virtually
with artists from different cultures. It was
important to create a sensitive ‘place’ within
this multi-cultural reality, getting people to
interact, connect and transform visual
information. The people who came to the
performance were curious about this interactive
project, not knowing exactly what was expected
from them. Entering in the big room they could
see two giant screens; one of them showing art
works from R2001 members (Ututu), another
one showing a map of the earth (eARTh), and a
white wall paper in the background with another
map of the earth. In the center of the room, the
visitor sees a red cloth with the objects carefully
displayed for the Japanese tea ceremony, and
among them some Japanese artists dressed in
beautiful kimonos.
We started the performance spending 20
minutes for explaining the project in three
languages; English; Japanese and Portuguese.
We spend some time talking about R2001,
conflicts, the idea of the tea ceremony and the
essence of Ututu and eARTh. We invited them
to reflect upon our experience of conflicts,
about ourselves as part of the nature and
universe, and finally invited them to create a
map of our eARTh together with the artists
connected with us through the Internet.
Figure 4. Teresa, Sharif and Nana explaining Ututu/eARTh
at the XII International Art Biennale of Vila Nova de
Cerveira
After we explained them the project they were
still quite passive looking at the Ututu screen.
They seemed impressed by the number and
location of artists on-line and connected to us in
that moment. However, the tea ceremony, the
initial 20 minutes period, although from an alien
culture, seemed to act like a ritual of initiation: a
door opened towards the possibility of
interaction. As soon as they experienced the tea
ceremony with Seiji and Toko, they joined the
team drawing in the white wallpaper, feeling
they were part of something where their
personal emotions and voices played an
important role to achieve a collective message
characterised by fragmentation and multiplicity.
The collaborative drawing lasted for about 2
hours; after the first hour the first visual
feedbacks from R2001 members appeared in the
eARTh screen and they evolved during at least
one week in the R2001 web site.
Figure 6. Seiji conducting the tea ceremony at the XII
International Art Biennale of Vila Nova de Cerveira
VI. The collective message
The collective drawing was in progress;
everyone was visibly enjoying the act of
drawing. Nana and Yoko were busy helping
people to use Japanese brushes and black ink.
Every so often, the drawing was digitally
photographed and sent to our web server; people
could see the drawing in progress
simultaneously in the eARTh screen and on our
web page. As soon as the artists from R2001
started to transform the images; people could
follow the progress of the map and this
continued for many hours. Although the eARTh
map is not important in itself and should not be
regarded as a final outcome, the map is the
virtual documentation of emotions and feelings
flowing as a narrative revealing multiple
projections of the self, the other and the
collective. eARTh is finally the free-flowing
outcome of interaction between actors within
networks of transformation.
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