Mediterranean Touch Screen at TOMORROWS, urban fictions for possible futures
Curated by Daphne Dragona, Panos Dragona

I don’t see highrise. I see the Mediterranean cities floating in a sea of plastics. I don’t see the cities getting smarter, I see the debris of parts, bits, bytes, pixels chasing after extensions, plug ins to get to the terminals. I see the clouds falling off the sky and there’s no sign of raindrops falling.

Mediterranean Touch Screen is an imaginary sea landscape composed of broken keys and keyboard membranes. The numerous membranes float in the idyllic blue Mediterranean while the pebbled beaches made of broken plastic keys beam seductive toxic green. The work is a networked reactivated installation; the USB ports of the membranes are rewired, interlinked and connected to a system computer where sound data of Mediterranean remembrance are archived. The transparent membranes jointly serve as a post-digital touch screen for public interfacing. Visitors are invited to touch the membranes to retrieve sound notes from the stored data. The multiple sound notes generated offer a collective (de)composition of the syncopated tunes of bygone tomorrows.

Artist: Shu Lea Cheang
Sound data: Marinos Koutsomihalis
System patched by Julien Ottavi/APO33
Installation size:
stand alone translucent wall of 420cm(W) x250cm (H) x30cm (D)
Installation elements: keyboard membranes, keys
Tech specs: system computer, USB hubs
Software: PD patch, sound data