DOCUMENTATION of the exhibition, Kunsthalle Bremen, 2000

rFACE_to_vFACE is setting the stage for a face-to-face communication on the borderline where real (physical) space and cyberspace are meeting, a tight-rope walk between REAL LIFE und VIRTUAL LIFE.

This artwork is part of my present debate with DISPLACED_PERSONS, persons without a place and those who cannot be located between anywhere and nowhere. The core of this endeavor is to establish some kind of communication between two persons, the visitor of the exhibition and the net user, who are not really in direct communication with each other. The visitor at the exhibition (rFACE) has only one active means of communications, his own glance as well as mimikry and gestures. The user of the net (vFACE) can send text/language which is being transformed by a speech synthesizer into an artificial voice on the other end. The internet is changing COMMUNIKATION and SOCIAL INTERACTION to a great degree. As such it is gradually developing into a LABORATORY FOR SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS. The ongoing oscillation between so-called real and virtual realms is taking place unobtrusively. Acting in "SPLIT PERSONALITIES" simultaneously is hardly being recognized as such. The experiences perceived in this "WORLD WITHOUT DEPTH", however, need to be taken seriously and not to be discarded as mere illusions. An attempt of trying to understand them needs to be coupled with providing critical access to them.

DESCRIPTION OF INSTALLATION
The visitor´s glance at the hole in the box is being recorded unnoticeable by an infrared camera located inside the box and is being simultaneously projected onto a video screen, literally "behind his/her back". Only the onlooker can make the projection appear for a moment without ever noticing himself/herself that it happened. He/she needs to be enlightened by other visitors at the exhibition.
INTERNET
	The same VIDEO/IMAGE appears simultaneously in the middle of the Website rFACE_to_vFACE. As long as there are no visitors at the coal face the user is looking through the white hole on the webpage quasi in the distance.
	Visitors, who are looking into that hole from time to time seem to look from the wideness of the internet directly into the eye of the user. The nearer they come to the HOLE the clearer they appear. Only the eye, which is straight looking into the hole can be recognized clearly. When moving away from the hole the outlines of the faces become blurred until they disappear completely.
	The TEXT ENTRY WINDOW below the video will enable you to draw attention and to interact with visitors present. The comments you enter into that field will be picked up by a synthesizer as soon as you have confirmed them by pressing the enterkey. They will the be heard as a synthetic voice over a loudspeaker next to the box . By this means the user can try to lure visitors in front of the hole. In contrast the visitors only have the chance to express themselves with looks, mimic and gestures.

Both forms of expressions (what is visible on the net and audible at the coal face) serve as substitute reality. They are the only access, the only indicator for existence or presence, even in the case the vis-a-vis may/would not exist. Despite of a descriptive concept (in the exhibition and on the net) both (user and visitor) are depended on on it's belief to each other, in their mutual trust whether other person really exists. In which dimension has the real world become a simulation game itself? Do we still preserve a SENSE or INTUITION, when SIMULATION differs from REALITY? Is this feeling more than an illusion? If you have an ANSWER please let me know ...