program 2001: science + fiction Media art exhibition Hidden Parameters Films by Miklós Erdély update 2.0 Contemporary German media art exhibition Science and Fiction in Media Art, International symposium Exhibition in the Barcsay Hall of the Hungarian Academy of
Fine Arts
partners










Futurebar

A friend of mine wanted to open a night club in Budapest, and asked for my help in designing and furnishing it. We started talking about what such a dance-bar would look like in fifty years. This is where the idea for the project came from: In fantasy and sci-fi movies one can often see scenes where our heroes spend their time in a futuristic bar from the middle of the 2000s. Pictures on the walls, music is playing, and often people are dancing to strange choreography. We can see such scenes in 'Star Wars', 'Blade Runner', and 'The Clockwork Orange'. The project presents these future-documents in archive; in addition, with the help of the home page guests, the participants can create a bar of the future, complete with decorations, costume, music, and the types of dances popular there. These can be influenced by a adding to the 'menu' as well as selecting from already available choices. After a designated span of time, the given result can be realized with computer graphics, films, and real-videos; then for a while the project is open once again, and so on...

As a starting menu, the people in the video reports, made by me, suggest ideas. These approximately 10 reports also appear on the home page. The answers and ideas of the questioned art historian, dancer, musician, artist, club owner, etc. would be the first menu points. The visitor may choose from among the film sections, reports, the realized pictures, drawings, films, music, and the recommendations of the interactive menu. The ideas coming in on e-mail continue to expand the choices. Music, pictures, film, and text can also come into the gallery through attachments.

Scientific achievements appear in entertainment in various doses. A bar of the future, where people are dancing the futuredance, gives us transposed flashes of these "achievements". Another interesting question is, what retro movements will be revived in 60 years, what will our grandchildren be nostalgic after. During its operation, the project looks ahead 60 years; in other words, in sixty years today's suggested ideas can be compared to the future 120 years from now. The exhibition motto of C3 is the idea of Erdély's text "Extrapoled Exercises"; this is mixed with the "democratic painting" action's internet adaptation experiments. My friend promised that when his club is finished, he will have a computer there on which the project can be seen by all, even those who don't have their own computer at home. At the exhibition at Trafo, in addition to the home page, reports can be seen, as well as a furnished space, made with the help of students from the School of
Fine Arts
, who built the interior of a club from 2060.

Gyula Július