[Forgive the cheesy title, but once I thought of it I just couldn't resist!  More importantly: this post is written by a guest author and friend of mine and Alexander's, Gabrielle, who very kindly and eloquently offered to write a post about her trip to Brooklyn to visit one of Brooklyn's most futuristic visiting objects. Read on, and many thanks to Gabrielle!  -Chelsea]

The Telectroscope in Brooklyn. Photo by Gabrielle

A few weekends ago, I went to see what appeared to be a giant telescope at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn, NY, near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Telectroscope, a giant contraption that looks like it was imported straight from Disney’s Tommorowland, was an exhibit created by artist Paul St. George to connect viewers in London and New York by giant video screens inside what appears to be the end of a giant telescope. A “connecting” Telectroscope was also installed in London, and both ends of the Telectroscope were positioned so that viewers on the other side of the ocean could see picturesque views. In back of New Yorkers, the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline could be seen, and the London Bridge rose up in back of Londoners looking through the giant lens.

According to Wikipedia, French writer and publisher Louis Figuier first used the term “telectroscope” in 1878 in regards to an invention of Alexander Graham Bell that Figuier wrongly interpreted as real. According to Figuier, Bell had invented a device in which people anywhere in the world “could be seen anywhere by anybody” – something like a combination of television and video-conferencing, on a larger scale. In reality, such a device never existed. But Paul St. George picked up on this idea of visually connecting people in creating the Telectroscope exhibit, and even created a fictional back-story to go along with it. (On the official website of the Telectroscope, the device is presented a giant telescope running beneath the Atlantic Ocean connecting London and New York, originally started by St. George’s fictional great-grandfather, Alexander Stanhope St. George.)

The view from inside the Telectroscope in Brooklyn. Photo by Gabrielle

The exhibit was a little disappointing when I saw it in person because the screen was pixelating, so there could be no illusions about it being a real telescope. Nevertheless, I really liked the idea of a giant “telescope” through which you could see people in real time in London. Through a giant glass lens, you could see a screen across from you and wave to people in London, who were waving back at you. Without sound, there was no way to speak to each other, and so these people on a screen became part of the artwork as well. The most fascinating part is to consider that for them, you are the elusive person on the other side of the screen.

The exhibit took the act of people watching, a hobby of both city residents and tourists, to a whole new level. Each viewer was aware that the people on the opposite continent were seeing him or her as part of the exhibit. There was a very blurry line between observing and interacting, which people really seemed to find intriguing.

The Telectroscope exhibit could be seen in London and New York from May 22nd–June 15th, 2008.