REVIEW DAX GROUP ACTIVITY 1982-1990:
1990 - Goree/Almadies Memorial Celebration DAX Dakar d'Accord: Goree Song. July 21-22. Interactive Slowscan between DAX members Bruce Breland, Matt Wrbican, Bruce Taylor on site working in the O.R.T.S. television studio in Dakar, Senegal (West Africa) and DAX members Cindy Snodgrass, Philip Rostek, Nathania Vishnevsky, Ben Horten, (Valerie Lawrence, Shona Sherif of the University of Pittsburgh), Gregg Podnar, Tim Schrock, and others working from the DAX studios an the Carnegie Mellon campus. This was the first interactive slowscan television event between artists on the African continent and in the United States, and the first step toward establishing an artist network node in Dakar connected with artists in major cities around the world. DAX Dakar d'Accord became part of a projected five year celebration for the purpose of creating a living extension of a physical memorial commemorating the history of this region and African diaspora. Goree Island, located in the Dakar harbor, is the site of La Maison des enclaves (The Slave House). Through the slave house "Door of no Return" passed forty million humans who lost their freedom, and six million lost their lives during the four hundred years of its use as a holding warehouse and embarkation point in the slave trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Sponsored by The DAX Group, Carnegie Mellon University, College of Fine Arts, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Institute for the Study of African Culture, Inc., Mor Thiam, President. Art direction in Pittsburgh: Cindy Snodgrass.
1990 Fax Arte: Laboratorio de Arte e Telecommunicacao Do Projeto lnstituto de Arte da Unicamp. A faculdade Santa Marcelina convida para a abertura da exposicao. Sao Paulo, Brazil. Data de abertura 18 de junho.
1990 Celebration: Earthday '90 Global Telematic Network & Impromptu, April 22: DAX sponsored slowscan television and telefax network with Vienna, Austria; Lisbon, Portugal; Campinas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A secondary videotelephone exchange linked Moscow, and Tokyo through the Electronic Cafe, Santa Monica, California. The event also featured interactive telefax drawings and text, and in addition was a unique event in that the Dax Group for the first time physically constructed a telephone bridge linking all of the participating cities in a realtime simultaneous slowscan exchange utilizing two large conference networks for slowscan and voice exchange. The Earthday event was sponsored in part by MCI Telecommunications, Lanier Corporation, and the College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University.
1989
 Ars Electronica: Aspects of Gaia, Digital Paths Across the Globe, Linz, Austria, September 13-16. Networking project and interactive installation created by Roy Ascott in collaboration with Peter Appleton, Mathias Fuchs, and Robert Pepperell: Telefax, and digital file exchanges were made continuously over the three day period. DAX utilized Macintosh workstations: modern to Bitnet to E.A.R.N. between Pittsburgh, Seattle and the Bruchnerhaus in Linz (first DAX digital audio file exchanges). There was also a slowscan exchange built into the network between Chicago and Pittsburgh. Art direction: Patricia Wilds.
1988 Une Excursion de l'Esprit: une Voyage sur la Mer Telematique, Mind Excursion-Travelling Through the Telematic Sea: An Interactive Art Event, July 16. Slowscan interactive television with representatives from 20 Francophone African countries, and Haiti attending the 10th anniversary session of the Francophone Development Management Seminar. Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's International Development Institute held on the Oakland campus. The DAX Group participants were Robert Dunn, Matthew Wrbican, Philip Rostek, and Bruce Breland. The exchange took place between the University of Pittsburgh and the DAX Group studios located in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University.
1988
 Ninth European Meeting on Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence Systems, Making the Invisible Visible: April 5-8. The conference, held in Vienna, Austria, included Die Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, Gwent College of Higher Education, Careleon, Wales, and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Participation in this digital file exchange was by invitation. This project was designed by Roy Ascott. Art direction in Pittsburgh Robert Dunn.
1988 Mountains, Rivers, and Glaciers, March 20. A telematic celebration of the Spring Equinox between the Center for the Visual Arts of Alaska/Anchorage and DAX in Pittsburgh. Electronic sounds were created by manipulating recorded data of seismic activity collected on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic University, Blacksburg, the recorded sounds of the New River watershed, the Allegheny River and the Allegheny and Appalachian mountains all layered with Eskimo chants and sounds of aquatic animals.. Art direction Bruce Breland. Associate director Bess Adams.
1988 Par AvioZ. Pittsburgh section of I send you one, in January. Project designed by Paul Thomas. Computer disc postal exchange with the artist group MEDIA-SPACE of Perth using Macintosh software working in collaboration with predrawn images by artists located in Australia. 8 images were sent to artists in Pittsburgh, Boston, Vienna, and Gwent. The results were published in the Australian art magazine PRAXIS M., Perth, Australia, March, 1988. Art direction: Matthew Wrbican.
1988 Intercities: Sao Paulo-Pittsburgh, January 25. Interactive slowscan television/sound exchange with Sao Paulo, Brazil marking the anniversary of the city's founding. DAX presented images and sound including the co-creation of global icons in which the public in both cities participated. Position papers were exchanged. Pittsburgh participation was called "Floating in a Telematic Sea" by Bruce Breland. Art direction: James Kocher. Associate director: Bess Adams
1987 Video Crossing-Magical Dax, September 17. A telematic art event with the Institute for Art and Technology in the Museum of Image and Sound at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This was the first time DAX employed live professional musicians and a dancer: Roger Dannenberg, Chris Koenigsberg, Carnegie Mellon University, and Scott Timm of the Pittsburgh Alloy dance company. Images were transmitted by slowscan television. Art direction: Bruce Breland. Associate director: Bess Adams.
1987 Images du Futur, Ultimatum II, Nouvelles Literatures, September 11-19, Seven day festival of live performance, multi-media reading, exhibition of electronic texts, and data transmission held in Vieux-port de Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Poetry editor for DAX: Frank Correnti. DAX contribution supported in part by a gift from Francis Balter, Pittsburgh.
1987 II Serpente di Pietra, Co-opera in the Santuario Campestre di Saltria, Gavoi, Sardinia, July 1-4. A network performance piece based upon the mythic imagery of the serpent. The event was produced by Sandro Dernini, and Franco Meloni (Dipartimento di Fisica dell 'Universta di Cagliari, Sardinia, and the Italian Plexus group based in Rome an international celebration of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of electro magnetism by Nikolas Tesla. DAX established an interactive text/network bridging across the IP Sharp, Bitnet, E.A.R.N. Networks, connecting Gavoi, Sardinia with Sydney Australia, Vancouver, Canada, Vienna, Austria. The DAX Group was represented in Gavoi by Philip and Marcia Rostek
1987 Snowball Project, at the Cafe New York, Documenta 8, Kassel Germany, June 20. A text/file telematic event using the I.P. Sharp network between the Canadian art centers, the Banff Centre For the Performing Arts, Western Front in Vancouver. The American groups led by Dana Moser in Boston at the Massachusetts College of Art, and the DAX Group, Carnegie Mellon University. Produced in Kassel by Hank Bull of Western Front
1987 Electronic Mannerisms. At the International Conference Center in Vienna, May 21, 22, 23. An I.P. Sharp network project hosted by The Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna Austria. Sub-titled Cultural Digitalis, this was the second attempt to bring art students together using the Bitnet and E.A.R.N. networks. The I.P. Sharp network was used to coordinate the project designed by the artist Zelko Wiener in Vienna.
1987 The Palais Ideal, Toulouse, France, April 4-7. A conference event: The DAX Group was invited by the French Ministry of Culture to participate in celebrating the biennale of European art schools in a text exchange utilizing the I. P. Sharp network to coordinate the first attempt by Carnegie Mellon and the Dax Group to use Bitnet and E.A.R.N. as a collaborative art medium. Produced in Toulouse by Roy Ascott.
1987 Tucker-Boatwright Festival: The Tri-city Interaction, and the Magical Dax 3, March 9-11. Sponsored by the University Richmond. "...Tri-city" was part of a three day event consisting of a slowscan television workshop, lecture, and panel participation by Bruce Breland, director of the DAX Group. This activity culminated in a simultaneous three City slowscan television exchange between: Richmond, Virginia, Boston, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1986 The XLII La Biennale de Venezia: Network Planetario, July, August, and September. The theme of the Biennale was " Arte e scienza." DAX was invited by the Italian government and the commissioners of the Venice Biennale to participate in the section Laboratorio E Informatica in three categories: Slowscan television, text over the I. P. Sharp computer network, and telefax, Sponsored in part by the Italian government, Mr. Bryan Buckley, Pittsburgh, Harris-3M Corporation, and the College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University. Bruce and Helen Breland represented the DAX Group in Venice.
1985 The Ultimate Contact *1, SAREX. In August. Sponsored by NASA and Robot Laboratories of San Diego, California cooperating with the Amateur Radio League and the Carnegie Mellon radio club members. DAX exchanged images with the shuttle Challenger using slowscan television imagery VHF radio. Michael Chepponis of the DAX Group was the principal radio Operator.
1985 Language Plus Exchange, ANNPAC, RACA conference in June. Performance piece image slowscan television exchange with Madeline Dore in collaboration with Roger Coudre, and Lisa Marcoux, Director of the project called SONAR. Alma, Quebec, Canada.
1985 Machina, Memory Landscapes. II Paradiso, in May. Telefax drawing exchange with artists afilliated with the MIDA Group of Milano, Italy. The exchange included kindergarten students from Shadyside Academy of Pittsburgh and Italian children in Turin, Italy where the exhibition was held. Supported in part by the Harris-3M Corporation, the City of Turin, the MIDA Group, and the College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University.
1985 Hearsay, I.P. Sharp Text Language Exchange, November 11. Designed by Norman White and organized by the SPEAK Group of Toronto, Canada. This project involved multiple language translations of the poetry by Hungarian Poet Robert Zeno. The poem was transmitted around the globe from one member computer node to another located in the I.P. Sharp computer network. Each node was assigned a specific language translation. DAX received the poem written in Welsh to be translated into English to pass an to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it was translated back into Hungarian and sent on to Toronto. The piece originated from the A-Space Gallery located in Toronto, Canada.
1985 Electronic Visions II, Life-O-Mation. Four slowscan television broadcasts took place between CMU during the months of January and February between the cities Pittsburgh and New Orleans (Hammond, Louisiana): First color slowscan television transmission by artists using HF (HAM) radio. The broadcast originated from the Carnegie Mellon amateur radio club studio located in Hammerschlag Hall and was broadcast to HAM radio Operator Mid Bardwell in Hammond, Louisiana where Mr. Bardwell recorded the slowscan video images an sound tape and delivered the tapes to the Contemporary Center for the Arts in New Orleans, Louisiana. The sound tapes were then converted back to video images at the exhibition's slowscan/video work station. Life-O-Mation was conceived and produced by Mr. Willard Van de Bogart of Pittsburgh.
1984 Festwochen Kunstfunk Technology Exhibition. First U.S. amateur radio transmission slowscan television by artists, during July. A telecommunications exchange by HAM radio satellite by artists from the Carnegie Mellon amateur radio club. Ham radio Operator Mike Chepponis of the DAX Group transmitted the work of Bruce Breland and Jim Kocher, Funkatotemic, and Atomic Alphabet, to Vienna, Austria. The HAM radio Operator in Vienna was Hans Hahn.
1983 La Plissure du Texte, A Global Fairy Tale, during December. This event was designed and produced by Roy Ascott in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France was the first major I.P. Sharp network art event which clearly demonstrated the potential for collective and widely dispersed authorship on a global scale. Twelve cities: Paris, France, Sydney, Autralia, Honolulu, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Boston, in the United States... Toronto, Montreal, and Alma Quebec in Canada, Bristol in England, Vienna, Austria, and Amsterdam, Holland were each assigned classic character roles, ie. the magician, the fool, the prince, the beast, the trickster, etc., and began with: Once upon a time... .
1982 Ars Electronica, The World in 24 Hours... Sky Art, September. A slowscan television event between Pittsburgh and Linz, Austria. First major slowscan image transmission at a global network level. Slowscan images were transmitted from the studios of Atlantic Teleproductions located in Pittsburgh to the Bruchnerhaus in Linz, Austria where they were aired over the city's cable television system. Pittsburgh participants were Bruce Breland, Jim Kocher, Bruce Hamady, Herb Koshak, and Cindy Snodgrass. Produced by Robert Adrian X in collaboration with Sky Art of MIT, Otto Piene, Director, Boston, Massachusetts. Staged for the Bruchnerfest in Linz.
1982 SCANNING: The Inaugural slowscan television exchange in Pittsburgh was between intermedia art students of Carnegie Mellon University and students at the Ecole Nationale Superiure des Art et Decoratif, Paris, France, in April. The slowscan exchange was initially planned as a three institutional event to include work from the National Film School of Lodz, Poland, DAX (Gekko) in Pittsburgh, and ENSAD in Paris. With the crushing of the solidarity labor movement, and the declaration of martial law by the Polish government in December of 1981 the original idea of a three City project was abandoned. In lieu of a realtime tri-national exchange with Lodz. Polish student photographs were brought out of Poland early in 1982 by the project director, video artist Douglas Davis. These symbolic images were then transmitted during the "Scanning" exchange combined with poetry. Supported in part by the International Network for the Arts, NYC; the Rockefeller Foundation; Warner Cable Communications Corporation of Pittsburgh, and the College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University. Collaborative art direction by Don Foresta in Paris, Douglas Davis in New York City, Lodz, Pittsburgh, and Bruce Breland in Pittsburgh. Student art director James Kocher.
 
Bruce Breland, Director
The DAX Group
Art Department - College of Fine Arts
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
 
*1 Author's note: The name DAX (Digital Art Exchange) was born with the Ultimate Contact FM radio project. Prior to this the group was known as Gekko which stood for: "...generative energy, kinetic knowledge and order." The Gekko group was formed in 1979 as extension of the art department intermedia program for the purpose of producing community access television for broadcast over the Warner Cable network. "Telematic art" as a class-room activity began in 1981, and during this time period DAX (Gekko) first subscribed to the Computer services of I.P. Sharp Associates, Incorporated of Toronto (IPSATEXT). IPSA provided the only practical international computer "E-mail" network service available to artists groups at that time. IPSA is still used, in a very limited way, to coordinate telematic projects. The founding DAX members in 1985 were James Kocher, Gregg Podnar, Eugene Hastings, Michael Chepponis, and Bruce Breland.
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