Three Cats in a Box with 'Bots: Convergence/Tele-conferencing/Inter-facing and the Delicate Chemistry of Balance

If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.
- Doris Lessing Particular Cats...and Rufus

The cat is dying when the black box is opened... the event takes place at this time
.
- Erwin Schroedinger

Themes of visions, journeys and explorations of discovery propel these cats into space and time- the only road to the marvelous? Is it not this transcendence, this transgression, visions very symbol and in a sense its highest praise?

For the three cats interviewed in the Pandora box show, curiosity seems to have gotten the better of them.

Curator Graham Smith (
Schroedingers Cat ), sets his vision toward the sun. He wants to fly. He loves freedom. He becomes restless when kept confined.

An inventor, artist and entrepreneur his artwork has been exhibited internationally for the last 15 years. He has an unbridled imagination and deterministic zeal.

Some consider him to be a visionary; it was his vision that instigated Pandoras Box; the first international interactive encounter with art using remotely controlled robots, which took place simultaneously at InterAccess, Toronto and Fylkingen, Stockholm. (factoring in the time change).

What connected the two cities are twin robots; invented by Smith,with cameras attached, recording and transmitting images across the earth, making McLuhan's global village a little closer to home.

The artists collaborated with Amanda Ramos, for conceptual design, and exhibition assistance, She creates immersive environments, experimenting with a variety of formats that integrate architecture and media. Inside her stylized constructions, individuals are publicly invited to explore new methods of social interaction. She designs the viewing box, which viewers step into to watch and move the robot through the exhibition in either city, which have to be minature in scale, to compensate for the wee 'bot.
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Artists: Christian Bock, Joe Davis, Francis LeBouthillier, Dinka Pignon, Victoria Scott, Thomas Liljenberg and Kent Tankred
Curator: Graham Smith
Exhibition Design: Amanda Ramos
Place: InterAccess Electronic Media Art Centre, Canada and the Flykingon Gallery, Sweden
Time: March 4 -18, 2000
Documentation:
Francis LeBouthillier, Jowita Kepa
Words: Sasha Wentges

Above Image (Pandora): Joe Davis
Amanda looks inside the box
quicktime movie 340K