la lava

A web based Art work and site specific installation

by the New York media sculptor John Long
and
The Los Angeles poet and founder of the Telepoetics network
Merilene M. Murphy

The Washer: World Street Poetry

Using the web to create a global collaborative poetic mixture of Street sounds and voices from all continents.

Based on the power of MP3 audio files to be exchanged over the internet, La Lava takes the Napster.com
concept and software out of the realm of piracy into the realm of Art creation.

The telepoetics network is used to collect a data base of ambient street sounds and poetic expressions from all continents and cultures of the globe.
These sounds in the form of MP3 files are stored on notebook computers that are used in a site specific installation and connected via the internet to each other through the napster.com server. Using simple keyboard macro and java scripts visitors to the installation can DJ mix the poetry and street sounds from the other computer in the room over the internet and hear the mixture played back in the room.

II.

The physical site installation is the " washer", a 1 meter white cube with a circular opening in the top. around it are the "keyboards" of the notebook computers. Inside is covered with mirrors and has a DVD player and monitor which plays a swirling mixture of faces and street images from around the world. Speakers play the sounds of the live mixed street sounds and poetry into the room by pressing the custom keys of the keyboards to create unique live networked global sound collages.

contact
Merilene M. Murphy PeazRitr@mediaone.net 323 419-0001
( http://geocities.datacellar.net/peazritr/biowpic.htm)
John Long nanoart@aol.com 718 472-0914