The Hole in the Wall: How Humans Connect No Matter What
In 1980, on a November evening in Los Angeles, pedestrians who walked past the glass windows of the Broadway Department Store noticed something strange…they did not see their reflection. There were other people walking by, just not them. They ended up talking with the alien reflections and realized that they were in two different locations, indeed, on other sides of a country: the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City and the Broadway Department Store in Century City in LA. This work, called Hole-in-Space, was created by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz.
Last year I was recruited to a group to consult on a project for the Australian communications company Telstra. I recommended that Telstra, given their core brand is (I believe) enabling people to communicate with each other (not tourism!), that they install a contemporary version of Galloway and Rabinowitz’s work. Using their substantial communications infrastructure they could link together two key and important communities: rural Australia with urban Australia; and Australians in the street with people in the streets of the online virtual world Second Life. The project has been put on hold indefinitely and since the future of the project is unknown and I wasn’t compensated for my advice, I’m sharing it here. But recently I came across a different iteration on the theme, and one that bypasses the corporate and art world.
A few years ago Dr. Sugata Mitra, head of research and development at an IT firm in India, installed a computer in the wall of a slum area in India. He put it in to enable the children to use the computer and the Internet for free. He wanted to see what the children would do if they had unlimited and free access to these technologies. He called it the Hole in the Wall experiment. Within minutes, a Frontline segment explained, the children taught themselves computer literacy. Dr. Mitra has installed computers in many areas now and revels in the response. He is quite conscious of the immense impact of his cybernetic seed:
“If cyberspace is considered a place,” Mitra tells FRONTLINE/World, “then there are people who are already in it, and people who are not in it … I think the hole in the wall gives us a method to create a door, if you like, through which large numbers of children can rush into this new arena. When that happens, it will have changed our society forever.”
The segment told the story of the first boy to teach himself the computer and Net: Rajinder. He creates things using paint programs, plays games and browses the Disney website. His teacher notes that ‘he has become quite bold and expressive’.
When Dr. Mitra asks Rajinder to define the Internet, the doe-eyed boy replies immediately, “That with which you can do anything.”
And so, we move from people connecting with each other, to people tapping into possibility. The continuing theme, whether it is enunciated by artists, the corporate world or a single person who wants to heal the rift of the digital divide, is that of creating portals where once there where walls. It doesn’t matter if the wall, the ostacle is financial, cultural, geographic or technological, we’ll find a way to dissipate it. I’m so happy to have front-row seats to one of the most amazing times in Earth’s history.
Check out full Hole in the Wall article and video by journalist Rory O’Connor, and the amazing collection of Social Entrepenuers videos at Frontline/World. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for posting about it.
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July 11th, 2007 at 12:08 amHi Christy,
I love your idea. It reminded me about Greyworld’s World Bench project http://www.greyworld.org/#world_bench_/i1. Also, Patrick Lichty (Second Front) has proposed a re-enactment/update of Hole in Space in SL.
Regards,
July 11th, 2007 at 10:04 amJo
[…] videos at Frontline/World. Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for posting about it. [blogged by Christy Dena on Cross-Media] Jul 10, 18:59 Trackback […]
July 14th, 2007 at 7:53 amWOW now that is cool…
July 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pmThanks for revealing the seed of this enterprise. I don’t relish the thought of experts enabling large telecoms by suggesting to them that they could potentially enriching themselves by reinventing “contemporary versions” from the catalog of past efforts of visionary artists! If this is how we continue to chose to define facilitating and enabling then we still have a long way to go in reinventing ourselves and towards becoming the architects of the future of an information environment of our own choosing. However, one could further their own career doing things this way. If you can get paid!
-Kit Galloway
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 pmHello Kit! Thankyou so much for coming by this blog and taking the time to comment! I appreciate hearing your thoughts…even though I find them saddening. I agree with your criticism of the reinvention cycle — it is something that is a destructive habit in industry (and some art communities). And yes, my proposal was in part tinged with that mind-set. But it is something I work actively against in industry — you don’t know how many times I’ve fought for a ‘conceptual’ understanding approach rather than a ‘copy’ and ‘reap’ approach and lost. But, my aim was not to ‘enable’ telcos by drawing on the efforts of past artists. Instead, it was a pedagogical device to help make the telcos aware of inspiring possibilities. Most people in industry only understand concepts that are already proven to be successful. I had one hour with them after being briefed quickly the night before to do this. So, I put together examples of inspiring artistic works and my own ideas. My suggestion of creating a contemporary version of your work was an attempt to get them to see avenues other than the ring-tone shop ideas they were preferencing, ideas that though different to them had a proven track record as impacting society in a positive way. Unfortunately, in the end, they decided not to explore reinvention or invention…they went with the ring-tones store. So, no fear Kit, industry hasn’t been ‘enabled’ by your efforts. [Which, for the record, if they were keen I would of contacted you to check your permission.] I posted the idea on this blog because I saw the other post about the hole in the wall and thought that your symbol was emerging again in culture and needed to be shared.
But I must say…on your ‘enabling’ language, I find the artist versus industry war debilitating and ironically, considering your words, thwarting many possible futures. To me, the future is in the hands of those who choose to break down ALL walls. You created a wonderfully beautiful work…that keeps inspiring people years later. Let everyone, whatever they do, wherever they work, be inspired by it.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:43 pm