At Contained we did a lot of robotics and sound-installations with people like Matt Heckert former member of Survival Research Labs, Laura Kikauka, John Duncan and more. It was a very apocalyptical hangout where we experimented in pirate TV Broadcasting, machine fighting and rocket science. Out of this community I was developing a project which was called Hypercompetition.
When i left for New York the production of Hypercompetion was shown at different festivals in Europe. In 1998 the main effort was to invite people over the year and specially to the time of Ars Electronica and present their works. Guests where people like Gordon Monahan – B.O.L.T. – Craig Baldwin Staalplaat – Bruce Sterling Negativland Triclops Vuk Cosic Prema Murthy and others.
For Hypercompetion the group developed machines like the Velodrome (which is a registered trademark) a combination of an java based game controlled via 8 people onpedals, chainlinked and a democratic steering mechanism to obtain proper speed and directions which give you a sense of what it feels like in a bus with no driver but all control in everybody’s hands. This years goal will be to develop more sophisticated application like this one and to hook permanent online to the internet and develop new projects of communication out of this possibility.
