CyberTattoo received the first prize of EXTENSION
(http://www.spiegel.de/extension). machine and project will be presented
at:

Hamburger Kunsthalle
SUNDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 97
12.00-13.00 CET

including a little speech about the metaphor of colonialism in the www

kontakt:
micz flor - micz@metamute.com
florian clausz - h0444ytg@rz.hu-berlin.de

+ + +

CYBERTATTOO
www.b.shuttle.de/art-bag/CyberTattoo
Micz Flor & Florian Clausz
©1997

CyberTattoo (tattoo parlour) and Parlour Maid (engraving machine) should
be sexy. With an internet controlled tattooing machine strapped to your
body and the telematic control of the virtual tattoo parlour, you can
literally exchange bodily fluids with the periphery of the net/computer.
Ink and blood mix for eternal stigma… Locating itself in tune with
Bjork and Henry Rollins?

Virtual space works at its best when it induces illusion. The simulated
body turns material reality into algorithmic exercises. New media
rehearse cognition. Apocalyptic visions might work for the film industry
but don't really help reality.

Alter your identity, feel your body, keep your scars… when you can
browse an application, why not browse a tattoo?

CyberSex I never saw it at work. Interestingly the way it comes across
is really too clean for real 'sex'. I don't think it has been watered
down for the media, it genuinely appeals that way. 'Tech' is sexy - the
body is a gimmick. Crash … CyberTattoo has a different ending.
Unfortunately CyberTattoo doesn't really work as a title anymore, does
it?

Junking and Junk Ink (Inc.) - surplus value in mainstream entertainment
as the aesthetic overspill of subculture. I never expected the needle to
be the first and second degree pleasure principle for individual and
society. Admittedly measured in terms of media interest.

The seaside metaphor has been dusted down and reintroduced into
high-tech navigational systems. Ships, anchors, flags, ship wheels, and
'explorers' set a tech agenda based on a glorified, cultural heritage.
The mythology of the sea as U.S.American epics: Mayflower, Boston tea
party, Netscape Navigator 3.0… On the verge of VRML CyberTattoo stores
real world metaphors of two dimensions on the biological body.

Or in the virtual space - who saw it at work?

VRML alters the concept of surfaces. Ultimately hypertext remains two
dimensional. VRML will be much more challenging - the surfaces of
objects are covered with textures which derive from two dimensional
images. Rendering the three dimensional onto the three dimensional could
be the ultimate brain-fuck.

Next thing we know someone will work on an application to directly
translate a CyberTattoo control file into data vectors. That way the
tattoo motifs could be rendered onto virtual surfaces (to cut out the
material carrier). The actor of T3000 whose body has been entirely
digitised could function as a guinea pig. The good thing: we could then
also produce animated tattoos. That would certainly cast a different
light on company logos. JPEG compression along the time axis.

'Reboot'?

Whereas sailors used to carry pics from continent to continent, anchored
in time and space; today tattoo.gifs are being exchanged at #tattoopics.
The image was detached from the body long ago (and subsequently from
biological needs) - CyberTattoo detaches it from matter and introduces
cultural artefacts to the paste-modern (as described by Conrads) virtual
communities. Inscription: digital vs. analogue, centre vs. periphery.
Either way: tattoos as souvenirs - where do you want to go today?