![[TELE-PRESENT & THANXWARE]](masuyama-title.gif)
Tele-present and Thanxware by MASUYAMA Hiroshi
![[TELE-PRESENT & THANXWARE]](tpresent.gif)
Contributors: Analyzing Terrorists, Arinko-chan, Chelin, Dainippon Typo Association, Furopro, IKEMATSU Emi, Kerokero King(KIHARA Yosuke), MATSUKAGE Hiroyuki, NAKAZAWA Hideki, OSHIGE Miyuki, OKAMOTO Kenji, PepperShop, Ree-k, and TOKIWA Hibiki
"Tele-present and Thanxware" are inquiries into the idea of opening one's own homepage on the Net, a casual form of questioning the relationship between information consumer and producer, a look at opening up new channels for communication. First, the contributing artists have made movie, text, sound, photo or other data, and are "present"ing it. The user looks through the files, and pushes the "thanx" button if they with to show their "appreciation" index is monitored in real time on another page.
At present, the poles of Internet economics are exemplified by the conflictiong dynamics of free-and E-cash. Taking advantage of the Net's interactive communications potential, rather than sending money or mail, the idea was first to breach the idea of a less invasive "thank you" system of expressing value. Think of it as applause at the end of a performance. The author of this piece (MASUYAMA) worked with many of the same Thanxware crew in April/May of 1995 to produce a predecessor exhibition of freeware on the Net, the "Tele-floket" exhibition.
In this work the artist send presents to the participants, who then respond with their thanks and their comments. During the term of the exhibition, works of fourteen groups and individuals were exhibited on this page. The Content and form of these "presents" were quite diverse, ranging from images to mivies, text, audio, and font designs, all of which could be accessed by viewing on the WWW or by downloading. Participants then filled out specially designed "thanx ballots" on which they awarded points according to how interesting, entertaining, cute, or well executed the presents were, which they sent back to the server. As the ballots came in they were talled and displayed continuously so that participants could watch the changing levels of appreciation for each of the presents.
Planning: MASUYAMA Hiroshi
Planning Assistance: MATSUMOTO Gento
Production Assistance: SPANNER CO., KAWAMURA Maakiko
Production Notes by MASUYAMA Hiroshi
This project was originally conceived by MATSUMOTO Gento and myself as part of an exhibition to be held in a gallery space. We began with the notion that talk about the Internet and CD-Roms focuses too much on technology. So as a partial remedy to that situation we came up with the concept of "Tele-presents" which would transcend physical space. Then we set up an installation for the visitors to the exhibition made up of presents that had been sent over all kinds of media, including everything from plain olld letters, to faxes, beepers, and telephones. Our rather naive intention was to emphasize not the media themselves, but the simple desire to reach out other people.
"Thanxware" was a direct application of "Tele-present" from IC'95 to the WWW. This made it fairly primitive as "ware," its purpose being simply the sharing of thoughts and feelings. As you know, it is possible to use a wide range of media technologies on the WWW, including animation, sound, and 3D graphics, and since the fall of 1995 it hav evolved to accommodate interactivity as well. Given this situation, we felt that this was the first and last chance to exhibit a system as primitive as "Thanxware" on the net with anything like the hype it deserved. It remains true, nonetheless, that the more the technology evolves, the easier it will be to overlook the importance of `reaching out' that I mention above. This is a point that I would like to continue to emphasize until we get over our fascination with the systems and the forms for their own sake.
And finally I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all the artist who were kind enough to participate. Thanx a lot!!