# What is «Opera Calling»?
# What does «Opera Calling» do?
# What happens in the Krypta of the Cabaret Voltaire?
# Why can I hear the opera in the Krypta even if there is no performance at the opera?
# Why use the Telephone?
# Why the opera?
# Can I join in?
«Opera Calling» is an exhibition and a performance. It’s main aim is to explore the usefulness of <hacking> as an artistic strategy of production. By detaching <Hacking> from its original context in digital culture the project aims at proving its more general viability as a means of redirection and criticism.
«Opera Calling» is the first of three parts of a six-month-long exhibition at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich called «appropriate – manipulate – feed back!». It stands for the «appropriate» - part so to speak. [top]
«Opera Calling» is an intervention into the cultural system of the Zurich Opera. By means of a bug placed within the auditorium of the local opera house, the outside public is given access to the performances on stage. The performances are redistributed not through broadcasting, but by telephoning each person individually.
As soon as the Opera starts performing a machine calls every phone number listed in Zurich. Zurich residents then enjoy the pleasure of listening in on a live performance at the opera from the comfort of their home. With the use of the telephone for the dissemination of the opera transmissions a virtual auditory space is opened not as blanket coverage (as with broadcasting media) but as a home-delivery service: Every person is individually connected and can
eaves-drop at their leisure from the comfort of their living room. [top]
What happens in the Krypta of the Cabaret Voltaire?
The installation represents and displays the different operations of the performance: 100 telephones are directly connected to the computer calling the people at home and thus connecting them with the opera performance. The machine constantly monitors to see if the bug is still emiting its signal. As soon as the bug detects <opera activity> the machine switches into LIVE mode and starts to automatically call the phone numbers listed in the Zurich telephone book. In the installation the telephones start ringing in time with the phone of the person called. As soon as someone at the other end of the line picks up the phone, the telephones in the exhibition, like the telephone at the persons house are connected to the opera.
The monitors show the number being called, the opera played and other such output information. [top]
Why can I hear the opera in the Cabaret Voltaire even if there is no performance at the opera?
During the day, while there is no opera performance going on, the exhibition machine switches into LOG mode: It replays random calls it has made during previous opera nights. [top]
Following Bell’s original notion for the telephone «Opera Calling» makes use of the telephone as a broadcasting media. Bell promoted the idea of the telephone as a central source for transmitting music, news, Sunday sermons to a paying network of wired-up subscribers for a couple of years. The idea was put into practice in Budapest, where for decades from 1893 onwards there was a government-run information system called “Telefon Hirmondo”. In Paris there was the “théâtrophone”, the first electrical media for the dissemination of cultural content. London had a similar system called the “Electrophone”.
In «Opera Calling» this discarded use of the telephone is hacked and thereby revalued: re-evaluating and celebrating long forgotten technologies and uses by putting them back into practice permit a new and more thorough understanding of the cultural systems they generate. [top]
The Opera is a cultural system that has played a central role in societies over the centuries. From the French to the Belgian and Italian to the Chinese, the opera has repeatedly proven political brisance. «Opera Calling» reconnects the Opera with the people. [top]
Can I join in?
Yes. Stay at home during opera performances and wait for the opera to call you! [top]
Downloads:
- FAQ in English: operacalling_faq_en.pdf (PDF, 820 KB)
- FAQ in German: FAQ (Häufig gestellte Fragen) in Deutsch: operacalling_faq_de.pdf (PDF, 820 KB)
2007
