Summary

A photorealistic realtime virtual anchorman presents live, real news.  The anchorman retrieves information from internet news sources, and can present it in one of two ways: "truth reversed" or "truth confirmed".  The visitor is allowed to select which version of truth they prefer by using a television remote control device containing two buttons, labeled "TRUTH1" and "TRUTH2".

Copyright 1999 Franz Wamhof ZKM

Description

A regular television occupies a furnished white room.  On the television is what appears to be a normal news broadcast in progress.  The news broadcast is in fact entirely computer generated.  All graphics, the character, the voice, and all images are all generated in real-time.  The news text itself is continually accessed from internet news sources.  The news broadcast is a live, continuously self updating television program.

A remote control unit near the sofa has only two buttons: TRUTH1 and TRUTH2.  These allow the user to choose between just two channels.  On one channel, the anchorman reverses the truth of the news, and on the other channel supports it. The effect is two news channels reporting the same information, but opposite in truth relative to each other. (An underlying linguistic manipulation program makes this possible.)

Copyright 1999 Shane Cooper

click here for artist's statement for experimenta australia 2003

Copyright 1999 Franz Wamhof ZKM

History
 

Dates	Event	Location	Participants
01.21.2006 19.03.2006	Sichtbarkeiten - Zwischen Fakten und Fiktionen (Visibilities - Between Facts and Fictions)	Edith Russ Haus fur Medienkunst Oldenburg, Germany	The Atlas Group / Walid Raad, Miriam Baecktroem, Shane Cooper, Harun Farocki, Banjamin Heisenberg, Lynn Hershan, Korpys/Loeffler, Marc Lee and Christoph Ganser, Aeronout Mik, Machael Najjar, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Sean Snyder, Brian Springer, The Yes Men
01.20.2006 03.03.2006	Enseigner/Produire: Lehren, Kommunizieren und Produzieren im Zeitalter des Consumer Generated Content (Teaching, Communication and Production in the Age of Consumer Generated Content)	ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany	Marc Lee, The Vasulkas, Peter Weibel, Hans H. Diebner, Sebastian Fischer undLasse Scherffig, Shane Cooper, Giselle Beiguelmanter. Shane Cooper
08.19.2005 11.09.2005	Kunstfest Weimar (click here for some images by dirk heesaker)	Bauhaus Weimar, Germany (Office of Walter Gropius)	Pablo Picasso, Nam June Paik, Bruce Naumann, Shane Cooper, Golan Levin / Zachary Lieberma / Jaap Blonk / Joan La Barbara, Ludger Brümmer / Chandrasekhar Ramakrishnan / Götz Dipper, Frederic Post, Wolfgang Münch & Kiyoshi Furukawa, Bernhard Leitners
03.12.2005 05.22.2005	Reality Show	Forum Schlossplatz Aarau, Switzerland	Shane Cooper, Peter Volkart, Lutz/Guggisberg
09.05.2003 03.10.2003	Experimenta House of Tomorrow	Arts Center Black Box Melbourne, Australia	Jim Campbell, IAMAS, Christopher Langton, Shane Cooper, Richard Brown, Stephen Barrass, Linda Davy, Kerry Richens, Sally Blenheim, Marco Bresciana, Sam De Silva, Isobel Knowles, Van Sowerwine, Marcus Lyall, Lycette Bros., Bruce Mowson, Pia Ednie-Brown, Scott Snibbe, Josephine Starrs, Leon Cmielewski, Petra Trefzger, Godlab, Steven Mieszelewicz, Nimrod Weis, Asaf Weis, Elizabeth Vander Zaag, Tan Teck Weng, Scott Branden, Alan Dorin, James Cecil, Jeff Robinson, Peter Prasil, Michael Trudgeon, Cicada, Nigel Helyer, Brad Betts, Ian Haig
04.15.2003 05.15.2003	Vectors: Digital Art Of Our Time - The New York Digital Salon (Selected Only)	World Financial Center Winter Garden and Courtyard Gallery New York, NY	DJ Spooky (Paul D. Miller), Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel, Shane Cooper, Bernhard Leitner, Chris Petit, David Link, Markus Popp (Oval), Masaki Fujihata, Walid Ra'ad, Agnes Hegedues, Ian Howard, Susan Norrie,Toshio Iwai, Pipilotti Rist, Yuji Dougane, Mathieu Briand, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Hachiya Kazuhiko, Carsten Nicolai, Shirin Neshat, Chris Cunningham, Ryoji Ikeda, Dumb Type
10.07.2001 11.25.2001	Im Buchstabenfeld. Die Zukunft Der Literatur.	Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, Austria	Peter Weibel, Jeffrey Shaw, Shane Cooper, Ken Feingold, Peter Zimmermann, Masaki Fujihata, Giselle Beiguelman, Bastian Böttcher, Ecke Bonk, Franz Josef Czernin, Dragan Espenschied, Frank Fietzek, Alvar Freude, David Gabriel, David Larcher, Michael Lentz, Adolf Mathias, Axel Roch, Constanze Ruhm, Charles Sandison, Klaus Scherübel, Ferdinand Schmatz, Bill Seaman
10.01.2001	purchased for permanent exhibition	ZKM Medienmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany	Peter Weibel, Jeffrey Shaw, Shane Cooper, Lynn Hershman, Masaki Fujihata, Perry Hoberman, Paul Sermon, Christa Sommerer, Pierre Dutilleux, Christian Müller-Tomfelde, Bruno Cohen, Frank den Oudsten, Jill Scott, Agnes Hegedü, Laurent Mignonneau, Thomas Gerwin, Konsum Art.Server, Luc Courchesne
05.15.2000 09.15.2001	gallery show	ZKM Medienmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany	Lynn Hershman, Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel, Shane Cooper, Perry Hoberman, Masaki Fujihata, Christa Sommerer, Paul Sermon, Pierre Dutilleux, Christian Müller-Tomfelde, Bruno Cohen, Frank den Oudsten, Jill Scott, Agnes Hegedü, Laurent Mignonneau, Thomas Gerwin, Konsum Art.Server, Luc Courchesne
03.15.2000 09.15.2001	gallery show	GFT Creative Lab Berlin, Germany	Shane Cooper
09.23.1999 02.27.2000	net_condition	ZKM Medienmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany	Jeffrey Shaw, Peter Weibel, Ken Feingold, Masaki Fujihata, Shane Cooper, Lynn Hershman, Markus Huemer, JODI.ORG, Knowbotic Research, Jenny Marketou, ®TMARK, Paul Sermon, rhizome.org, ASCII Art Ensemble, Philip Pocock, Nicolas Collins, Vuk Cosic,  Jordan Crandall, Douglas Davis, Johannes Goebel / Torsten Belschner / Bernhard Sturm, Bob Farzin, Steven Greenwood, Institute for Applied Autonomy, Konsum Art.Server, Mongrel, Redundant Technology Initiative, Alexej Shulgin, Wolfgang Staehle, Dave Bruckmayr / Gaylord Aulke

Credits (alphabetically)

 
Jeffrey Shaw (realization, management, guidance, planning)
Peter Weibel (realization, management)

Torsten Belschner (audio)
Annika Blunk (concept, management, planning)
Jan Gerigk (management, planning)
Matthias Gommel (design)
Manfred Hauffen (audio, networking)
Dirk Heesakker (remote control construction)
Sabine Hirtes (lead modeler)
Bernd Lintermann (guidance, planning)
Kai Richter (design)
Nicole Weber (planning, support)
Christina Zartmann (additional modeling, documentation)
Torsten Ziegler (networking, equipment)

Technical

Hardware

Computer Systems

O2
Silicon Graphics
http://www.sgi.com/

Television

large screen
NEC
http://www.sony.com/

Remote Control Unit and Infrared Receiver System

CRS-1401A handheld remote control device (modified by Dirk Heesakker at ZKM) and NEC-IR2PC infrared receiver
Custom Remote Systems Inc.
http://www.oem-remote.com/

Digital Delay Unit

Yamaha
SPX-1000
http://www.yamaha.com/

Software

Real-time Graphics

Alive!
Protozoa Inc.
http://www.protozoa.com/

Head and body models
Sabina Hirtes (ZKM), Christina Zartmann (ZKM)
http://www.zkm.de/

Phoneme analysis, automatic behaviors, procedural animation, close captioning, remote control driver
Shane Cooper (ZKM)
http://www.shanecooper.com/

Voice Synthesis

True Talk
Entropic Research, Inc.
http://www.entropic.com/

Linguistic Manipulation

Linguistic Manipulation Tools
Shane Cooper.
http://www.shanecooper.com/

Internet Software

News Ripper
Shane Cooper
http://www.zkm.de/

WGet
GNU Project
http://www.gnu.org/