The theoretical propositions were incorporated into the writing process itself.
Thus, the Portuguese and English languages were enriched with neologisms,
with words resulting from the appropriation of suffixes and prefixes and with
recomposed terms from Esperanto.
The continuously reprocessed transnational linguistic code impelled words and
sounds into newly defined meanings and concepts and propelled an experimental prospective language: "Teknopoeisis the possible language from the
third planet" [12].

Interactive Language Research
The beginning of the event's interactive works enabled the audience to play a more creative role. Unfortunately, the space in Sao Paulo had a raised stage that discouraged public involvement. A more accessible open space would have been better for inducing spontaneous public participation.
Global/cons, the first interactive exercise, was presented by Jim Kocher. The production required previous preparation. Kocher's intent was to layer images produced in Sao Paulo with others produced in Pittsburgh. The images were to be visual answers to the questions, "What image do you recall from recent media?" and "What symbol would you include on a flag that represented a world at peace?" [13]. Art students from the University of Sao Paulo produced visual answers [14]. Later, at the museum auditorium, they saw their graphics become 'global icons' as Kocher combined them with visual responses collected at Century III Mall in Pittsburgh.
The invited Brazilian artists took a different approach, designing bidirectional processes that were intended to sustain a continuous visual dialogue between the sites. Each movement on the screen required a new and immediate answer from the other site, eliciting a form of remotely induced teleperformance.
For Still Life/Alive (Fig. 2), Carlos Fadon Vicente proposed the in teractive creation of a still life:

Objects are set in front of the television, whose screen acts like
the background. The foreground is constructed/deconstructed by
adding or subtracting things. The interactivity occurs in the dialectic
between the background and the foreground picture planes, each
one produced in one of the cities [15].

Although the slowly changing frame of SSTV allowed time for remaking the picture at
each new cycle, the low definition of the SSTV video image prevented a clear apprehension of the backgrounds. Nevertheless, the alternate creation of a still life in an electronic medium was an intriguing visual exercise.
A videographic dialogue between a Sao Paulo artist and a Pittsburgh artist resulted in Interactive Image. The exercise, conceived by Milton Sogabe, required translucent acetates covering the monitor screens in both terminals so that graphic interferences could be made over the received picture. However, the obtained image could not endure the continuous superimposing of frames. Thus the picture definition gradually decreased, demonstrating that drawing and SSTV were difficult media to interface.
Rejane Augusto's intent in Replicante (Color Plate A No.1) was to create "a human with parts of a machine grafted onto it". She wanted the viewer to consider that "through media we all look like people, but we are really machines" [16]. Augusto herself performed with a pressure-sensitive pinprofile metal mask, creating with her facial movements changing digital faces of the technological future. The DAX people were quite responsive to the work. They detected human traces in every technical apparatus they came across, spontaneously creating mechanical figures by placing scissors in front of their own faces and also performing as electronic replicants [17].
Interactive Videocreature (Fig. 3) was conceived by Otavio Donasci as a kind oftelematic theater. He wanted to integrate a videoface created in Pittsburgh with an actor's performance in Sao Paulo. A tight close-up of either an actor's or an actress's facial expression produced in Pittsburgh would be transmitted through SSTV to Sao Paulo and shown in the monitor head ofthe videocreature. The videocreature would improvise a performance according to the face received. The performance would be transmitted simultaneously to Pittsburgh, completing an interactive cycle of body and facial pantomime [IS].
The freak videocreature was performed by Donasci himself. His face changed every 12 sec, following the SSTV image-formation cycle. The man-machine hybrid assimilated the slowly scanned faces into its own human mechanical movement, acting according to personalities created miles away by a mime improvising in Pittsburgh [19].
Personal Contacts, conceived by Donasci and myself, required previous arrangement in both cities. In each city, two monitors were placed side by side, almost touching. The first monitor showed a face from Sao Paulo while the second showed a face from Pittsburgh. The camera angles were such that both people on screen were facing inward, so that they appeared to be looking at each other. This created a fictional relationship between the two remote audiences, eliciting a playful and even comical performance by people physically distant yet joined in a virtual personal contact.
These SSTV exercises connected geographically and culturally distant groups of people who otherwise would never have had the opportunity to meet one another. SSTV provided a telesthetic experience of human interaction that was personal despite being remote. Through two-way communication we have realized a planetary ideal of universal kinship and have become more alive, more conscious, and more able to preserve, reinvent and understand life on this planet.

The author would like to acknowledge the generous support of both the University of Sao Paulo and the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQl for the production of the event in Sao Pauio and far the writing of this article.

References and Notes
1. IPAT was founded in April 1987 by Brazilian art researchers, most of them associated with the University of Sao Paulo or the Pontificial Catholic University in Sao Paulo. Since then, the IPAT roll has been promoting different forms of telecommunications art through slow-scan television, videotext and facsimile.

2. The DAX group is a Pittsburgh-based collaborative group comprising visual
artists, engineers and theorists. The group has partaken on projects in telematics
at a global level since 1982.

3. Intercities Sao Paulo/Pittsburgh, which took place 25 January 1988, was designed by
Artur Matlick and produced in Sao Paulo by IPAT and in Pittsburgh by the DAX group.
In Sao Paulo, Artur Matlick was the curator, Paulo Laurentiz was the director of operations, Milton Sogabe was the technical director, Marco Antonio Felix was the technical supervisor, Rejane Augusto and Carlos Alberto Oias were technical assistants and SSTV operators, and Ivan Soares David and Guadalupe Maytorena were camera operators. In Pittsburgh, Bruce Breland was the superior, James Kocher was the director of operations, Matthew Wrbican and Robert Dunn were artistic assistants, Gene Hastings and Gregg Podnar were technical assistants, Michael Parker was audio technician and Steve Wadlow was lighting technician. In Sao Paulo the event was supported by the School of Communications and Arts of the University of Sao Paulo and by the Museum of Image and Sound from the State Culture Department. The CNPQ (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development), an organ of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, also provided financial support. In Pittsburgh, support was provided by the Department of Art, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University.

4. The lecture was first delivered in English. Takumi Jaschinschi then read the Portuguese translation.

5. Bruce Breland, "Floating in a Telematic Culture", unpublished speech delivered at Intercities Sao Paulo/Pittsburgh, 25 January 1988.

6. Breland [5].

7. The two papers "The Time of the Planet" and "Cyclotopia" were read by their authors before the audience in Sao Paulo and simultaneously translated into English by Marialice Haidar for the Pittsburgh audience.

8. Paulo Laurentiz, "The Time of the Planet", unpublished speech delivered at
Intercities Sao Paulo/Pittsburgh, 25 January 1988.

9. Laurentiz [8].

10. Laurentiz [8].

11. Artur Matuck, "Cyclotopia", unpublished speech delivered at Intercities Sao
Paulo/Pittsburgh, 25 January 1988.

12. Matuck [11].

13. James Kocher, proposal for Global Icons, interactive piece for telecommunications
event Intercities, 25 January 1988. The questions were first communicated by
telephone from Pittsburgh to Sao Paulo and subsequently sent by mail.

14. Edson Reuter, Laura Martirani, Regina Duarte, Thais de Freitas, Simone Rodrigues da Silva and Eliana Baroni sent visual answers to Pittsburgh in response to Kocher's questions.

15. Carlos Fadon Vicente, proposal for Still Life/ Alive, interactive piece for telecommunications event Intercities, 25 January 1988.

16. Rejane Augusto, proposal for Replicante, interactive piece for telecommunications event Intercities, 25 January 1988.

17. Phriar Phil and Mary Carlisle performed as the Pittsburgh replicants.

18. Otavio Donasci, proposal for Interactive Video-creature, interactive piece
for telecommunications event Intercities, 25 January 1988.

19. In Pittsburgh, Autumn Farole improvised for the Sao Paulo videocreature.

~~~~

LEONARDO, Vol. 24, No.2, pp. 203-206, 1991

Telecommunications Art and Play:
Intercities Sao Paulo/Pittsburgh

by Artur Matuck