There’s a new way for folks in New York City and London to communicate with each other, at least through June 15. “Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York.” Well, that’s what the official Web site says. And the whole set-up has a definite 19th century, Jules Verne, retrotech look to it.
In reality, the installation is the work of artist Paul St. George with able assists from fiber-optic cable and the übercreative production company Artichoke. The official Telectroscope site describes St. George’s m.o.: “His practice as an artist has always been concerned with questioning the relationship between the viewer and what is being viewed. His work is also often associated with different realities, spectacle and viewer participation.”
The New York Times elaborates further: “Mr. St. George hopes that people will use his device in surprising ways — to hold dance-offs, say, or propose marriage via placards. (The Telectroscope has no audio component ‘because I thought then people would just stand still and use it like a telephone,’ he said.)” His production partner Artichoke is the supertalented bunch of people who produced the Sultan’s Elephant spectacular on the streets of London two summers ago. Grants from the British government and private-sector sponsorships are footing most of the bill, which is running about $787,000. Viewings are free in Brooklyn. But in London, where everything is always more expensive, it costs £1.
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