Buy time !..........Here, stopping of time lived in the real time since Friday 20th of March 12H a. m. until Saturday 21th of March 12H a. m. For a humanitarian association. Why to stop the time, and with that?

Annick Bureaud, Mario  Costa, Christian Huitema, Philippe Quéau, Pierre Lévy

http://www.fredforest.org/temps « Machine à travailler le temps »
http://www.fredforest.worldnet.net/« Techno Mariage »
http://www.fredforest.org/territoire « Course-Poursuite »
http://www.fredforest.com « J'arrête le temps »
http://www.nart.fr/forest « Procès contre Beaubourg »
http://www.monaco.mc/exhib/territories « Le Territoire du m2 »
http://www.imaginet.fr/forest « Parcelle/Réseau »
http://www.coda.fr/Hypermonde/Forest.htm « Esthétique de la communication »
http://www.netfr.com/forest « Pour un art actuel, l'art à l'heure d'Internet »

 

In its Internet setting, this interactive project is aimed at a wide cross section of the population attracted online through a variety of media including the Press, Radio and Television. The message is one of encouragement, a reflection both on Time itself and on the symbolical meaning of rebirth and renewal at this special season of the year, the Spring equinox.

World-wide support attracted to this initiative throughout each of the 24 time zones will support the idea that time can perhaps be "stopped" for an hour - at least on Internet. It is this symbolical suspended animation of time on internet, as we pass from one zone to another, that allows the imagination, and each individual, to venture across time.

We are not playing the devil's advocate. It is a space-time given over to reflection. It draws not only on the artistic message, but also on the desire to encourage critical reflection on the future of civilisation at the dawn of a new millennium. This interactive experience will allow all to share their feelings, their viewpoints and their expectations for the year 2000 in the context of the Information Age. Guest speakers from ??? and "chats" and SOFRES opinion polls will underscore key symbolical and aesthetic outlook for the next millennium.

The question "Do you wish to suspend Time this Spring to share thoughts and feelings together ? " or "What would we want for tomorrow ?", or "Does the question itself irritate you ?" will be asked.

The answers will be available online, while regular contributions will be made by the artist on "Time will Stop" on the web site. The contributions, scheduled to start on 25th January will also be taken up in the press and audio visual media. The site will offer a nursery for feet, and an online real time auction sale of time. Among the philosophers, artists, sociologists and economists contributing to the site will be Christian Huitema, Philippe Quéau, Pierre Lévy, and Mario Costa. This animation will expand over the weeks between today and the Spring Equinox between 20th and 21st of March 1998.

The results of the SOFRES opinion pall will be available online and in the Press. At midday French Time on 20th March Time will be "suspended" until midday 21st March. One of the main metro stations in Paris, AUBER is expected to be the public headquarters of the INTERNET FETE, with giant screens following time's progress across the 24 time zones. Live online cameras will be positioned in each time zone, and will successively diffuse the background images of Times suspension across the Internet, while artists and musicians across the world will participate on the theme of Spring.

The content architecture and original technical solutions will be undertaken by software and hardware partners throughout the world. Project partners will have a leading innovatory role in initiating a novel kind of cultural event, a new way of communicating original art forms. New types of works of art will be symbolically introduced with art being both responsible and original within the setting of the new information society. This is an art form whose representative aesthetic, social, educational and philosophical functions will be presented

Fred Forest

Artist and University Professor

Chair of Information and Communication Sciences