Can You See Me Now? Oldenburg

Calling the adventurous! The House for Media Art is hosting the British artists’ group Blast Theory and their project Can You See Me Now? Oldenburg. Take this opportunity to play the game that has earned Blast Theory the 2003 Prix Ars Electronica »Golden Nica« for Interactive Art. The opening is on Friday, 4 July at 3:45 pm. The game begins at 4 pm and can be played by anyone online at edith-russ-haus.de

Players from around the world have three days to step up against the members of Blast Theory. From the comfort of your home or at the Edith Russ Site for Media Art, you can move through the streets of a virtual Oldenburg, develop tactical strategies with other online players, and attempt to escape the members of Blast Theory who search for you in the very real streets of Oldenburg. The Blast Theory runners use GPS technology to pinpoint their and your location, tracking your virtual Doppelganger in hot pursuit. On the website the players see what their opponents see: the city, themselves, the runners and the game. Listening in on the audio stream of the runners walkie-talkies gives you an added advantage to help leave the pursuers behind - sweating, lost and completely out of breath.

Can You See Me Now? Oldenburg overlaps a real city and a virtual city to explore ideas of absence and presence. It is a pladoyer for the nuances of a »meeting of the worlds « and their positive reassessment. For the cell phone already stands for the victory of uncomplicated and unlimited communication technology over intimacy, interpersonal encounters and the traditional relationship between time and space.

Blast Theory gives this a framework in the form of the game and enables it to be experienced directly. By sharing the same 'space', the players online and runners on the street enter into a relationship that is adversarial, playful and, ultimately, filled with pathos. There is also a louder and more forceful set of interactions between runners and players based on insults, teasing, goading and humor. But the course of the game also brings moments of intimacy with it. When two players place their virtual selves into the game, they can suddenly stand across from each other and survey themselves on the computer screen and in their surroundings in a mute first »encounter«. Above and beyond that, a sense of empathy can develop for the tired runners who are out there battling against the environment. One player from Seattle who took part in an earlier Sheffield or Rotterdam version of the game wrote, »I had a definite heart stopping moment when my concerns suddenly switched from desperately trying to escape, to desperately hoping that the runner chasing me had not been run over by a reversing truck (that’s what it sounded like had happened).«

Blast Theory is one of the most interesting artists’ groups working in the area of performance, installation, video and mixed reality projects. They combined exact research and development with alternative technologies, which enables them to embark on projects with different media and within varying disciplines. Their projects are accompanied by risks as well as critical debate. The group has been based in London since 1991 and is made up of a creative team of three and numerous collaborators for each project. Can You See Me Now? is a collaboration between Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab.

Blast Theory has presented work in many high profile international exhibitions and conferences such as the Banff Television Festival, Basel Art Fair (Liste 2001), the 2002 Biennale of Sydney, the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre, Dutch Electronic Arts Festival in Rotterdam, Mediamatic in Amsterdam and »Mixed Reality Boundaries« at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. Their legendary work Desert Rain received an honorable mention at the 2001 Transmediale Awards in Berlin and has toured throughout the UK, Central and Eastern Europe and Australia. Since 2002 they have taken part in the stipend program at the Banff New Media Institute, Canada. »Can You See Me Now?« was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2001 and has just won Blast Theory the 2003 Prix Ars Electronica »Golden Nica« for Interactive Art.

Can You See Me Now? is a collaboration between Blast Theory and the Mixed Reality Lab.

Online Game 4 - 6 July 2003, 4-6 pm and 8-10 pm at www.edith-russ-haus.de

blasttheory.co.uk