[syndicate] Being There - Another kind of Travelogue

[Anders/Recycled]

BEING THERE
-Another kind of Travelogue

http://www.beingthere.se/
contact at beingthere.se

Being There offer six surrealistic films optimized for portable media
players. It's part of a web-based art project by the Swedish artists
Anders Weberg and Robert Willim. It is an attempt to twist the
authenticity hunt of tourism and the experience economy.

Tourism is growing in many parts of the world. Curious people, with
bags and cameras, are in search of various exciting experiences.
Places of interest are visited and documented. An important ingredient
of the tourism industry is the concept of authenticity and the lure of
the unique. But the question is: What would be the most authentic
experience? Attractive places are targets for more than travel
agencies.

This art project twists the authenticity hunt. We offer a number of
audiovisual excursions beneath the gloss of the tourism rhetoric. Six
films, imagining six places. It is an attempt to disclose the nervous
system that is underlying tourist experiences.

The places we have chosen are high density, they are tourist magnets and
global hotspots. They are places associated with pleasure, but also
with terror. With the shortfilms coupled to the different places we
want to examine the tension between pleasure and fear.

The films are made solely from clips out of tourist movies and similar
material. The clips have been twisted into a surreal atmosphere. And
the sounds accompanying the visuals is based on manipulations of one
or two sounds that are often used to give stereotypical associations
to the various places, e.g. demo sounds from sample libraries. The
audiovisual whole express an evocative imaginary geography.

Download the films, save them in your media player and take them with
you when you visit the different places. And remember, don't leave
luggage unattended.

Project URL + URL for online documentation (pdf, pictures, video)

project url:
http://www.beingthere.se

pdf documentation:
http://lonesomeplanet.recycled.se/img/beingthere.pdf


Anders Weberg
A seasoned film maker and mixed media artist. He has specialized in the
expressions that digital technologies provide. The purpose of Anders'
work is to mix genres and ways of expression to explore the potential
of visual media.

More info about Anders: http://www.recycled.se/

Robert Willim
Cultural analysist, sound designer, PhD and researcher in ethnology at
Lund University. He has done research about the cultural dimensions of
digital media and the transformations of industrial society. For the
past several years he has channelled his research to mixes of
ethnography, music and new media art.

More info about Robert: http://www.robertwillim.com/

Previous collaboration between Anders Weberg and Robert Willim has
resulted in the project Surreal Scania [ http://www.surrealscania.se/
], which has been widely recognized. Some of the exhibitions and
screenings of the artwork include:

- SONAR. 13th Barcelona International Festival of Advanced Music and
Multimedia Art.

- The4thScreen @ Scanners:
2006 New York Video Festival

- Interferenze New Arts Festival, in San Martino Valle Caudina, 3,4,5 August

 - Electrofringe New Media Arts Festival, Newcastle, Australia Sept 28
- Oct 02, 2006

- Perform.Media September 29th-October 14th, 2006, Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana. A Transdisciplinary Festival of Creativity,
Research, Theory and Techno culture.

- the 404 festival of electronic art in Rosario, Argentina. November. 2006

- The 2nd Art and Science International Exhibition and Symposium,
Beijing, China, November 2006.

-- 
Anders Weberg - Mixed Media Artist and Filmmaker
Recycled Image Studio
Laxgatan 1 - S-262 32 Ängelholm - Sweden
tel studio + 46 431 120 40 cel + 46 736 57 58 69
anders at recycled.se
http://www.recycled.se