Ballettikka Internettikka: Intermenttikka, 22 July 2008, Seoul, Korea, Live Internet Broadcast
Low-Quality Guerrilla!
- authors and performers: Igor Štromajer & Brane Zorman
- theoretical adviser: Bojana Kunst
- live MP3 audio (composed, manipulated and performed) by MC Brane Vs BeitThroN
- live video: Igor Štromajer
Ballettikka Internettikka is a series of tactical art projects by Igor Štromajer and Brane Zorman which began in 2001 with the exploration of Internet ballet. It explores wireless Internet ballet performances combined with guerrilla tactics and mobile live Internet broadcasting strategies. After invading The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (2002), La Scala in Milan (2004), The National Theatre in Belgrade (2005), Volksbühne in Berlin (2006), the City Hall and Lippo Centre in Hong Kong (2007) and other institutions and their concepts, Štromajer and Zorman performed a new internet ballet, Ballettikka Internettikka Intermenttikka, as part of the Digital Playground 2008, secretly broadcasting live from the target construction site in Seoul, performing a robotic mortal ballet right after the sunrise.
The artists grouted the sad and lonely commercial Silverlit R/C toy-robot with cement and intered it into reinforced ferroconcrete foundations of the target construction site (the rising Dongdaemun, Great East Gate / Tongdaemun Market), to stay there for ever.
# target construction site in July 2008: Dongdaemun (Great East Gate) / Tongdaemun shopping district, Seoul
Action Timetable - Seoul, Korea, 22 July 2008
04:14 Alarm clock: waking up 04:38 Leaving Ehwa-Samsung International House (Daehyun-dong, Seodaemun-Gu) 05:16 Taking the subway train at the Ewha Womans University Seoul Metropolitan Subway station 05:39 Arriving to Dongdaemun Stadium Seoul Metropolitan Subway station 05:51 Entering the Dongdaemun (Great East Gate) construction site (near Tongdaemun Market) 05:53 Turning on the computers, cameras and other equipment, connecting to WiFi/wLAN 05:59 Starting live internet broadcast and the Construction Site Guerrilla Net Ballet
[Ballettikka Internettikka Intermenttikka: Live Broadcast]
06:30 Terminating and the Construction Site Guerrilla Net Ballet and live internet broadcast 06:32 Terminating WiFi wireless internet connection and securing the equipment 06:36 Exiting the Dongdaemun (Great East Gate) construction site (near Tongdaemun Market) 06:38 Securing the recorded material and turning off the computers, cameras and other equipment 06:49 Taking the subway train at the Dongdaemun Stadium Seoul Metropolitan Subway station 06:59 Arriving to Womans University Seoul Metropolitan Subway station 07:13 Returning to the Ehwa-Samsung International House
TAD (Total Action Duration): 2 hour and 59 minutes LBPD (Live Broadcast Performance Duration): 30 minutes RREL (Real Risk Estimation Level): medium
# Brane Zorman and Igor Štromajer with their robot / testing
The interment robot was equipped with powerful QSTARZ BT-Q818 eXtreme GPS transmitter which was broadcasting the signal until the transmitter run out of batteries. The signal was edited live by the computer software and was available for public mourning and monitoring (see the archives):
[ Day One – Tuesday, 22 July 2008 | Day 2 – Wednesday, 23 July 2008 | Day 3 – Thursday, 24 July 2008 ]
Live GPS (QSTARZ BT-Q818 eXtreme GPS transmitter) signal by the buried robot; location: Dongdaemun (Great East Gate) Tongdaemun Market / shopping district, Seoul, Korea; archived by days. The GPS device (attached to the buried robot) ran out of batteries on 24 July 2008, 81 hours after being switched on (the robot died 81 hours after its funeral).
The Seoul Metropolitan Government held an international design competition in April 2007 to redesign a central area of Seoul, "The design plaza and park". The competition winner was Zaha Hadid. This is how the robot's sepulchre will look like after it is finished (render photo from 2008 / microlocation marked):
"We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight them on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
(W. Churchill)
From 22 July to 24 August 2008, the Ballettikka Internettikka Intermenttikka project (including the selected history of Ballettikka Internettikka actions since 2001) was exhibited at the TMCA (Total Museum of Contemporary Art) in Seoul, as part of the Digital Playground 2008 - "Hack the City!" exhibition, curated by Nathalie Boseul Shin:
# Exhibition catalog released in November 2008; ISBN 978-89-961789-0-1 (64 pages, color)
Igor Štromajer Virtualna baza Intima Igor Štromajer Intima Virtual Base Ballettikka Internettikka
