Electronic Cafe

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz of Mobile Image don't think along the small scale lines of producing video art tapes. Their ultimate objectives are sweeping: to foster cross-cultural collaborations through a global network of telecommunications systems. The prototype for such goals was "Electronic Cafe," the pair's six-week project installed during the 1984 Olympic Games and companion Arts Festival here. Galloway and Rabinowitz linked "Mom and Pop" restaurants in Koreatown, East L.A.

There is no separating artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz from the technology they use to make that art. Two of the original cyber-beatniks, the Santa Monica-based media and telecollaboration artists are well-known in online circles as the founders of the Electronic Cafe, a worldwide network of telecommunications- and computer-enhanced gathering spots and performance venues.

The Japan America Society will present tonight at 7:30 at the Electronic Cafe, 1649 18th St., Santa Monica, Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker's amusing and illuminating "The Japanese Version," a one-hour video on the myriad ways in which the Japanese have assimilated the myth of America into their own culture. Alvarez and Kolker have covered weddings American-style and so-called "love hotels" in which entire suites have been decorated to evoke Las Vegas and other U.S. fantasylands.

Traditionally, concerts are a real time, real space proposition. But that's only part of the story behind the periodic "teleconcerts" at Santa Monica's Electronic Cafe, which are linked by phone lines and other means to the College of Santa Fe and the Kitchen in New York City.

There is no separating artists Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz from the technology they use to make that art. Two of the original cyber-beatniks, the Santa Monica-based media and telecollaboration artists are well-known in online circles as the founders of the Electronic Cafe, a worldwide network of telecommunications- and computer-enhanced gathering spots and performance venues.

"Probably the most powerful magic that contemporary humankind has is the ability to pick up an instrument and talk to somebody on the other side of the planet," said Kit Galloway in the Electronic Cafe's Santa Monica headquarters. "What we're stressing is that a telecommunications revolution isn't something you consume. It's something you do."

Long before the Internet became a household word to be feared and respected, multimedia artists and techno-pioneers were busy trying to connect the dots. In the past, such wide-eyed experimentalists have been the recipients of polite tolerance, if not outright sneers. No one is laughing anymore. Interactive collaboration is the bottom line with Saturday night's "Teleconcert," a project of CalArts being presented locally at the Electronic Cafe International in Santa Monica at 7 p.m.

Kit Galloway says artists are afraid of technology. Computers, microprocessors, satellite linkups, videophones--they tend to scare away folks who are more at ease with, say, watercolors, or dance floors, or a pad and pen. "There's a lot of fear out there," he said.

Traditionally, concerts are a real time, real space proposition. But that's only part of the story behind the periodic "teleconcerts" at Santa Monica's Electronic Cafe, which are linked by phone lines and other means to the College of Santa Fe and the Kitchen in New York City.

Barbara Smith phoned Roy Walford the other day. Nothing special. Except that Smith was calling from Katmandu and Walford was inside Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. And the call was processed through the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica.

Long before the Internet became a household word to be feared and respected, multimedia artists and techno-pioneers were busy trying to connect the dots. In the past, such wide-eyed experimentalists have been the recipients of polite tolerance, if not outright sneers. No one is laughing anymore. Interactive collaboration is the bottom line with Saturday night's "Teleconcert," a project of CalArts being presented locally at the Electronic Cafe International in Santa Monica at 7 p.m.

Kit Galloway says artists are afraid of technology. Computers, microprocessors, satellite linkups, videophones--they tend to scare away folks who are more at ease with, say, watercolors, or dance floors, or a pad and pen. "There's a lot of fear out there," he said.

Barbara Smith phoned Roy Walford the other day. Nothing special. Except that Smith was calling from Katmandu and Walford was inside Biosphere 2 in the Arizona desert. And the call was processed through the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica.

The Japan America Society will present tonight at 7:30 at the Electronic Cafe, 1649 18th St., Santa Monica, Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker's amusing and illuminating "The Japanese Version," a one-hour video on the myriad ways in which the Japanese have assimilated the myth of America into their own culture. Alvarez and Kolker have covered weddings American-style and so-called "love hotels" in which entire suites have been decorated to evoke Las Vegas and other U.S. fantasylands.

"Probably the most powerful magic that contemporary humankind has is the ability to pick up an instrument and talk to somebody on the other side of the planet," said Kit Galloway in the Electronic Cafe's Santa Monica headquarters. "What we're stressing is that a telecommunications revolution isn't something you consume. It's something you do."

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz of Mobile Image don't think along the small scale lines of producing video art tapes. Their ultimate objectives are sweeping: to foster cross-cultural collaborations through a global network of telecommunications systems. The prototype for such goals was "Electronic Cafe," the pair's six-week project installed during the 1984 Olympic Games and companion Arts Festival here. Galloway and Rabinowitz linked "Mom and Pop" restaurants in Koreatown, East L.A.

When film maker Gary Meyer takes a break from his work at the Empowerment Project, a small Santa Monica film and video studio, he frequently steps next door to catch a performance at Highways Performance Space, the 130-seat performance art gallery. The directors of Highways, in turn, confer with neighbor Steve Durland, editor of High Performance magazine, about the graphic design for their press releases and newsletters.

The reading is already 10 minutes behind schedule and Merilene M. Murphy is racing to get the connections right. When at last she gets the modem and "videophone" configured, the call that she--and everyone else in her Telepoetics Salon Hollywood--has been waiting for arrives. It's poet Heather Haley in Vancouver and another confluence of verse and video is about to begin. Doug Knott does the first reading and seconds after he begins, the videophone captures a frozen moment from his reading.