This project began in Sydney, NSW as part of an artist-residency at The Performance Space in January 2005.

I am interested in sharing a dialog from, away from, and about where "the home" is. What does it mean to leave home, not have a home, have the world as your home, not want to go home, not be able to go back home, have a smart home, have your home under surveillance, share your home or be forced out of home. Our country is our home and for those without one and in search of it or for those within it and perhaps participating from it there are countless stories, experiences, lost or established identities and outcomes shared amongst us.

I have created a group/chatroom called "travelifyoucan" and initially invited twenty or so people to share their stories. This is an ongoing discussion set up over time to reflect the changing environments and conditions of global (and local) travel to, from and within our places of origin. Something that affects us all as we constantly move in and out of our homes and lives.

My chatroom is for "the everyday traveller". As active participants people are invited to share an observation, story or account of past or recent travel experiences they might have considered "a little bit out of the ordinary". They may be theirs or someone else's, with a focus on personal experiences. Stories might be humorous, frustrating, serious, bizarre, social or political observations or experiences. People are advised not to compromise themselves, nor be afraid to discuss their stories openly. They are encouraged to speak freely and express their views on current issues relating to theirs and other peoples' freedoms and international rights of passage.

During the Performance Space installation I moderated the chatroom for a number of hours of each day starting from Monday the 17th to Sunday the 24th of January. From Thursday 21st to Sunday 23rd an invited public (of travellers and backpackers) had access to the chatroom. During these three days the group discussions/stories were projected into the installation space between midday and midnight of each day.



I called this first installation 1.NSW and the space included a slide projection of NSW's first number plate (see image), recorded sounds of a busy intersection in popular KingsX (to help create the scene), a large rear-projection of the online chatroom and a keyboard for visitors to login and tell their stories. I invited local backpackers in and around Surry Hills and Redfern to come and tell their travel stories and had bought a $10 telephone card (also called #1) and provided a telephone line in the space for them to call home. It was hard getting people in off the streets on Cleveland St, Redfern. Not many people pass by as they might do in a Mall or quieter location and I wasn't able to get late night access which would have made it more appropriate for travellers to call friends and family back home. But a handful of backpackers came in and out, chatted with the group online and some interesting stories came of it.

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2006

I am now interested in developing this project further. I want to incorporate the use of internet telephony (as well as a land line telephone) and wireless sensor technologies within a space driven by text, voice and sound and photo media gathered from the "everyday traveller".

I want to further explore what I suggest are three inter-connected themes of “home, exchange and solitude” and by doing so provide an avenue for people to share a dialog from, away from, and about the home whilst exploring problems of personal exchange and solitude in contemporary communities around the world.

In order to do this I would like to create an environment based on the model of the Mediterranean osteria (as suggested by Umberto Eco for his Multimedia Arcade in Bologna) rather than the Anglo-Saxon cyber café. It should provide a means by which people share an exchange or dialog (rather than nurse solitude in the company of others) and (as is the case in the Bologna Arcade) should be reflected in its openness and communal like structure.

I am interested in developing a space (rather then a keyboard-only email terminal) that sanctions a broad range of human-to-human communications and my understanding is that sophisticated gesture interfaces for sound synthesis (such as those being developed at IRCAM) and advances in Internet telephony make this project possible. Gestures are captured therefore expressions and words might be conveyed so much more convincingly. At the exact moment conversations or sounds are transmitted so might a strength or weakness in movement. Human emotions can be shared where for example excitement, pain or anguish might influence the moment of communication as say an ordinary cough, laugh or sneeze.

By building a sound, gesture and TCP/IP addressable communication interface I hope to create a point of entry into a world of changing environments, varying conditions of travel and social complexities that I believe today are over intensified by an ever-increasing “social and political gap” between continents. Visitors might probe their way through multi-lingual signs, controlling technology without having to control their flow of information in a hands free, expressive, sound and motion sensitive environment.

The format of the project would take shape as a sensor-driven, site specific, sound and Internet telephony installation to facilitate both gesture and verbal interface between everyday travellers and other (home) occupants (or travellers) with access to a telephone or Internet (wherever they might be). The core wireless technology would be embedded in the space and function out-of-sight.

© Damian Castaldi 2006



Below are a few photos from the Performance Space installation and a few of the stories contributed on the chatroom. I would like to thank everybody at the Performance Space and the group of artists doing residencies at the same time. Having only just arrived back in Sydney after two years of living and working in France it was a wonderful experience to find myself at TPS surrounded by a new, young and enthusiastic crowd of people. Special thanks go to Blaire French for helping me organise the residency from afar, Fiona Winning for her ongoing support of my work, Richard and Clytie for their technical help and Soraya for her time and delicious cuisine.

This isn't my story, but that of a friend whom I met in a wedding in Italy. We regulary regale each other with travel tales, this one arrived in my inbox on Christmas eve. I'll post a story of my own sometime soon. Nathan
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When the cabin crew scream at you not to get up, wait for the plane to stop moving before undoing your seatbelt, there's a reason. Coming in from Sydney to Stockholm, the chap behind me was rudely woken by my gin and whiskey landing on top of his head as the guy behind him eagerly opened the overhead locker before the plane had stopped. Unluckily, both bottles broke on the guy's skull. The carpet smelt really interesting for the rest of the flight. The chap just rubbed his head, no blood, and siad 'that woke me up'. The other guy dissappeared. The cabin crew hadn't seen that sort of thing very often, and reimbursed my two bottles of grog with some wine from first class, including a nice Vintage 2000 Piper Heidseck, thanks very much, don't mind if I do. Thence the other 29 hours of my journey via Frankfurt and Helsinki were uneventful, excluding the discovery that one can eat Mexican food at Frankfurt airport at 5.30am if one so desires (and some do).

This one happened over 10 years ago, though still comes up in 'travel tales'...
Travelling on a shoe string and for the first time, i bought a good old cheap flight from Bangkok to Dehli - it was with Aerofloat (russian airline). On the plane, we were all seated and waiting for the last people to settle down, when, it became apparent that a group of people were hanging around the back of the plane. The attentive attendants (not quite like our accustomed flight service) eventaully noticed and gruffly, in broken english, hustled everyone sitting down to stand up and move one seat forward - what the *#**? Apparently, the numbers that were on the back of the seats, (so you could read it when we sat down) were for the actual seat they were attached to - in front!! Not how it works in the theatres! No need to mention the plane shook and trembled as it took off, I realised why there is such a thing as a cheap flight and promptly made sure i slept the whole journey - scary stuff!