The World, Another 24 Hours: Practice-Based Research and the works of Robert Adrian X & Bill Bartlett

Abstract

In 1982, Robert Adrian X, Bill Bartlett, and a host of artists staged a worldwide telecommunications performance entitled “The World in 24 Hours” «Die Welt in 24 Stunden». In it,16 different timezones connected to the Ars Electronica Centre in Linz, Austria to engage in Telematic performances, including Telefonmuzik, teletype (Ascott), and Slow Scan TV performance (Bartlett, Bull). Actually the third of Victoria, BC artist Bill Bartlett, and Robert Adrian’s Wiencouver telematics soirees between the Western Front Space in Vancouver and Adrian in Vienna, “W24H” is a performance that is frequently mentioned, but little in-depth work has been done about it.

This paper is a historiographical narrative about the author’s revisiting of the 1982 work for and “updated” performance at the Ars Electronica Festival in 2017 or 2018 as a research intervention in considering the contemporary implications of the 1982 work. The presentation will give a detailed overview of The World in 24 Hours, research, archival and meetings with the surviving members of the performance, as well as a framing and discussion of the new piece, and expansion on the project’s outcomes moving forward. The World in 24 Hours, while frequently mentioned, has only been delved into deeply on rare occasion, and this project seeks to examine this seminal work, discuss its impact on media art histories, and explore its lasting implications in the 21st Century.