The TeleGarden was a

telerobotic Telerobotics is the area of robotics concerned with the control of semi-autonomous robots from a distance, chiefly using television, wireless networks (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the Deep Space Network) or tethered connections. It is a combinatio ...

community garden A community garden is a piece of land gardened or cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively. Normally in community gardens, the land is divided into individual plots. Each individual gardener is responsible for their own plot ...

for the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. Starting in the mid-1990s, it allowed users to view, plant and take care of a small garden, using an Adept-1 industrial

robotic arm A robotic arm is a type of mechanical arm, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm; the arm may be the sum total of the mechanism or may be part of a more complex robot. The links of such a manipulator are connected by join ...

controlled online.

History

The project began at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

with project directors

Ken Goldberg Kenneth Yigael Goldberg (born 1961) is an American artist, writer, inventor, and researcher in the field of robotics and automation. He is professor and chair of the industrial engineering and operations research department at the University of ...

of University of Southern California, and Joseph Santarromana, a

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

artist at the time known for his video installations. They envisioned it as an

art installation Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often cal ...

challenging the notion of the Internet and "consider ngthe 'post-

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

' community, where survival favors those who work together." Project members included

George A. Bekey George A. Bekey (19 June 1928 – 17 October 2024) was an American roboticist and the professor of Computer Science, Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. Life and career Bekey was born in ...

, Steven Gentner, Rosemary Morris, Carl Sutter, Jeff Wiegley, and Erich Berger. The Telegarden went online in June 1995. During its first year, it attracted over 9000 members. In September 1996, the Telegarden was moved to the

Ars Electronica Center Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in t ...

in Austria where it was originally planned to be on display for one year, though it ended up remaining active until . The Telegarden was a fusion between old technology (agriculture) and new technology (the Internet). The notion of a physical garden that is operated by users online was appealing to Goldberg because "it was the most absurd". This new media art raised questions of legitimacy. How are users to know that the garden actually exists, or that any of their motions matter? Goldberg stressed that, "media technology generally facilities the

suspension of disbelief Suspension of disbelief is the avoidance—often described as willing—of critical thinking and logic in understanding something that is unreal or impossible in reality, such as something in a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe i ...

." In its nine years, the installation had 10,000 members, and 100,000 people visited the physical exhibit. Users interactivity created a miniature

social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

. People became protective of plants, even territorial.

References

External links

Telegarden homepage
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302143637/http://queue.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/garden/Ars/ , date=2019-03-02 from Ken Goldberg
Ken Goldberg's UC Berkeley homepageIntroduction to Telegarden
by Ars Electronic (Linz, Austria)

from "Database of Virtual Art" (virtualart.at)
"Telematic Connections," Curated Piece on the Development of Telepresence
from the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

"A Performance Space without Geographical Boundaries" (1977)
from ecafe.com
Muntadas's "File Room" (1994)
Community gardening Internet art Installation art works Student activities at the University of Southern California Types of garden Internet properties established in 1995 2004 disestablishments

History

References

Further reading

External links