Cover

by Michael Mueller

December 1, 2011

We don’t usually publish editorials. I prefer to reserve this space for contents, and our writers do a better job than me anyway. But this is where I wanted – but couldn’t – publish an inside story on Telenoika, an art collective I have been intrigued with for years. Telenoika are at the center of production in Barcelona of a revolutionary type of artistic performance called video projection mapping. This technique takes advantage of recent developments in audiovisual technology to turn any surface, including a building’s facade, into a live video display.

With the accompanying audio – a live musical performance in its own right – the effect is astonishing. Buildings appear to melt, reform and shatter into a thousand pieces. Lights and shadows dance over contours, dissolving them, while a huge face emerges from an undulating surface. Sections of a wall open to reveal spinning machinery, the surface pulsating with an electronic heartbeat. It is a mesmerizing, utterly enveloping experience.

No wonder then that Telenoika’s mappings figure increasingly as public spectacles, such as at last year’s opening of El Molino, sessions this summer at CaixaForum and at the recently inaugurated electronic music and video festival MiRA! This emergence of cultural phenomena is something we love to profile in Miniguide and so I was disappointed that my recent visit to Telenoika’s offices and request for an interview met with the following response (translated):

After discussing your proposal with our group, we prefer not to appear in your magazine. We have different concepts as to what represents independent culture and on the other hand believe that publications like yours protect and promote a type of tourism and economic model that are destroying the city. Mobbing of neighbors, tourist apartments, the ordinance on coexistence, etc. Evidently you are not responsible for any of this, but your publication is directed almost exclusively to this type of reader. In short, for various reasons, we decline (and on the other hand appreciate) your offer.

I suppose they were in a bad mood because of the elections. Still, as a guiri who’s been living for nine years in Barcelona, who’s learned Catalan, who doesn’t usually pee on street corners and who considers us lucky to have assembled a group of bars, shops, restaurants and the like whose ads cover the costs of our publishing articles on the city’s culture, I find Telenoika’s response frustrating, sad and not just a little ironic. As their motto states – in English – “Audiovisual Open Creative Community” indeed.

by Michael Mueller

December 1, 2011

Latest Comments

  • Responses

    RE: James, yes it doesn't seem coherent. I also find it ironic that Telenoika's projections this summer at the CaixaForum (part of Nits d'estiu and the Grec Festival) were intended – whether they liked it or not – to be enjoyed by tourists too. CaixaForum sent us a press release on it (in English) and I know from having met with their Difusió i Públics department that CaixaForum specifically target tourists and local expats as part of their communications strategy.

    RE: Mark, the "the ordinance on coexistence" is a translation of "ley de convivencia" which I understand to mean the "Ordenanza de Medidas para Fomentar y Garantizar la Convivencia Ciudadana en el Espacio Público de Barcelona." This is Barcelona's so called “civic ordinance” passed in 2003 by the City Council that enacted sanctions on urban art (graffiti), panhandling, solicitation of prostitution (as if this solved the problem), noise, urinating in public, botellón and using soap in public showers, among other incivic behaviors that are exclusively the responsibility of drunk English tourists.

    Posted by Michael Mueller December 05, 2011 19:22:26

  • Question

    What does this mean "the ordinance on coexistence"?

    Posted by Mark December 05, 2011 14:27:06

  • More thoughts

    It's funny the more I think about their response the more ridiculous it seems. I also presume when they do their international gigs they also avoid flying on budget airlines which have done as much as anyone to promote affordable tourism around Europe and when they go to a new city obviously they don't lower themselves to research their destination in one of the devil's own books like a Lonely Planet or Time Out Guide, they just instinctively know where to go to find what they want. They'll also obviously avoid any gigs connected with the Barcelona Ajuntament who have had an aggressively pro-tourist agenda since the Olympics.

    The more you think about it, the more hypocritical and ridiculous their response becomes.

    Posted by James December 05, 2011 09:53:28

  • Re: James

    Thanks for your comment James. Yes I found it an odd response, particularly since Telenoika actually have quite an international profile. They publish a summary on their group in both English and French (in addition to Catalan):

    http://telenoika.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=16&Itemid=57

    And as I noted in my reply to their response, Telenoika travel frequently to participate in international festivals. Over the past few years in fact they have brought their video mappings to Portugal, France, Italy, Netherlands, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Romania, Norway, Turkey, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan and Australia.

    Presumably, when they traveled to these festivals, they were not "destroying" the cities they visited, on the contrary.

    Posted by Michael Mueller December 04, 2011 17:24:09

Add your thoughts

  

Follow Us Facebook logo Twitter logo Google logo Myspace logo