On "Telepresence Art" by Kac

Telepresence art is based on the "the integration of telecommunications, robotics, new kinds of human-machine interface, and computers" and is specifically designed to enable new forms of communication or interactivity between people (or people and machines) using technological media. The essay opens with a series of Kosuth quotes stressing the importance of artistic innovation in terms of maintaining cultural relevance. Kosuth believes that in the post-Duchamp age the conception of art must be expanded by questioning its nature and not just accepting the conventional language set by precedents. Today value in art can only be measured in terms of innovation.

As for definitions: "cyberspace" is an artificial space where a properly equipped human can interact in a digital environment with other people or the environment itself. "Virtual reality" is a more encompassing space where virtual and real space converge and affect each other. "Telepresence" involves a person remotely controlling a machine or robot. While there are a number of practical applications of this set of technologies labeled telepresence, Koc is interested in using it in an art context to create "the integration of telecommunications, robotics, new kinds of human-machine interface, and computers." He wants to subvert the traditional unidirectional mode of communication while enabling people to experience the world differently by designing a new interface through which we can confront it.

Baudillard claims that mass media does not provide an environment for communication because it does not provide a "reciprocal space" for the person being communicated to; in other words, that person can't talk back or participate in any sort of significant or meaningful way. This deficency can only be overcome by abandoning the reigning communications paradigm and generating new modes of interactivity that enables two-way responses (or true responsibility). Telepresence provides an individual with the power of true tele-vision, the "ability to decide what and when he or she wants to see."

Another aspect of telepresence aside from space is time. Technology affords us the capability of real-time interactions through remote connections. In some ways this is a more direct experience than time in our traditional physical space because we have to overcome the boundaries of space in order to interact. With communications technology, space can be overcome with the touch of a button. Space is overcome to a greater extent based on what Virillo considers the displacement of space by speed, particularly the speed by which images are communicated now. The images we recieve, he argues, provide us with the material to construct a version of reality that is in many ways more influential than our everyday experience in real space.

Telepresence in art functions differently than it would in industry, or as a practical means in our everyday life. Koc believes that its use as an art medium addresses the complexity of our modes of precieving in our technological world: our dependence on video and digital cameras, their images, and the fiber optic cables or satellites required to transmit their information. Telepresence art should reflect the promise and problems of this new technology as it's being incorporated into our lives at a more and more rapid rate. Koc refers to Merleau-Ponty saying that our eyes are more than receptors, and we develop vision by exercising them. Koc seems to believe that this represents the mission of telepresence art: to serve as a means for improving our vision using the predominant media that mediates our perception of the world.