FAX 1 - Telefacsimile project between Amsterdam and Vienna, 5. August, 1981. Left: Tom Kilinkowstein in Mazzo, Amsterdam. Right: Robert Adrian in Blitzbar, Vienna.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS * Conception by rax ** Participation by rax
1979	INTERPLAY**, a computer communications conference organised by Bill Bartlett for "Computer Culture 79" in Toronto. IP Sharp Associates (IPSA), provided free access to their world-wide computer timesharing network for participation by artists in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Houston, New York, Sydney, Canberra and Vienna. The Vienna participants were Robert Adrian and Richard Kriesche in the IPSA office and Heidi Grundmann with Gottfried Bach (IPSA manager), using a TI 745 portable terminal/printer, in an ORF radio studio. The event was broadcast live in the programme "Kunst Heute", April 1 '79 (ORF Österreich 1).
1980	Artists' Use of Telecommunications Conference**, slow-scan TV and Computer communication project organised by Bill Bartlett for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and La Mamelle. Artists in Japan, Australia, N.America and Europe (New York, Cambridge, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo and Vienna) were connected live to the SFMMA auditorium in a telephone and computer conference. The telephone voice line could be switched to send/receive slow-scan video images at most locations. The computer conference, using the IP Sharp network, was continuous on a separate telephone line. The SSTV equipment used was a "Robot 530" slow-scan video transceiver - basically a piece of radio hardware which was never approved for general use on the telephone network. The on line conference was part of the on site event organised by Carl Loeffler of La Mamelle/ArtCom for the SFMMA. In Vienna the event was organised by Robert Adrian and Grita Insam and took place in Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts as part of the "Video Made In Austria" exhibition (curator: Dieter Schrage). Participating artists in Vienna included Ernst Caramelle, Valie Export, Richard Kriesche, Peter weibel, etc.
	ARTEX*, an electronic mail program for artists on the world-wide I.P. Sharp Associates (IPSA) timesharing network. It was initiated by Robert Adrian, Bill Bartlett and Gottfried Bach (Vienna IPSA manager) to offer artists a simple, (relatively) cheap alternative to the elegant but costly IPSA "MAILBOX" (email) program. The first version was tested in autumn '79 and became operational as "ARTBOX" in 1980. The final version, "ARTEX", was completed (by Joakim Karlsson of IPSA Vienna) about 3 years later. ARTEX/ARTBOX was used as: 1) an email communication program for artists, 2) an organisation/coordination utility for on-line events 3) a medium for text-based telecommunication projects. ARTEX had a core of about 10 regular users and a fluctuating population of 30 to 40 others during its 10 years of operation. In 1989 IPSA was taken over by Reuters who shut it down in 1991.
1981	Vienna-Amsterdam FAX**, Telecommunications Performance Via Facsimile: was conceived by Tom Klinkowstein and was the first telefacsimile project by artists in Europe. The event took place between Tom Klinkowstein at "Mazzo" in Amsterdam and Robert Adrian at the "Blitz Bar" in Vienna on Aug. 5, 1981. The fax machines were group II (3M 2346), speed = about 3 min for an A4 page.
1982	THE WORLD IN 24 HOURS*, A world-wide 24 hour telecommunications project conceived by Robert Adrian for Ars Electronica'82, Linz. Artists and groups contributed from 15 cities around the world (Vienna, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Bath, Wellfleet, Pittsburgh, Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver, Honolulu, Tokyo, Sydney, Istanbul, Florence and Athens). Media: 3 telephone lines (including 1 control line) were available in Linz so that, in principle, the remote locations could use up to 3 telephone-based media in any combination - in reality this meant slow-scan TV, Fax, computer network and/or telephone audio. Program: The project ran for 24 hours beginning and ending at 12 noon in Linz.(C.E.T.). Following the mid-day sun around the world, each location was called from Linz at 12:00 local time and exchanged material with the Linz location for about one hour. But, because the world of electronic communications only included capitalist industrialised countries, vast areas were blank - which meant that in some cases several locations were crammed into the same time zone (i.e. CET and EST) while zones in Asia, India, E. Europe, Africa and S. America are empty. Concept and network organisation: Robert Adrian Organisation in Linz: Robert Adrian, Waltraut Cooper, Norbert Hinterberger. Participants in Linz : Gerald Hackenberg, Gabi Holzhaider, Moidi Kretschmann, Carl Pichler, Jörg Mikesch, Otto Mittmannsgruber. Organisation in Vienna: Helmut Mark. Participants in Vienna included Markus Geiger, Ruth Labak, Alice Weber, Heimo Zobernig.
1983	BLIX**, a non-profit organisation for the development and execution of telecommunication projects by artists was founded in January'83 by Robert Adrian, Helmut Mark, Zelko Wiener (media artists) and Karl Kubaczek, Gerhard Taschler (communication engineers). Blix was active until 1986.
	TELEPHONE MUSIC*, a live telephone concert between artists in "western" Vienna, divided Berlin and "eastern" Budapest. The concept was to simply ignore the political borders and use the electronic territory of the telephone network to produce a collective artwork. No permission was asked and no problems encountered. Blix used the small budget provided by the Österreichische Kulturservice to call the other partners who just connected their equipment (illegally) to the telephone and sent their sounds. Organisation Vienna: Blix. Location: ÖKS studio Organisation Budapest: Artpool (Gyorgy & Julia Galantai), Organisation Berlin: AufbauAbbau (Reinald Schumacher).
	ELECTROGRAPHICS**, a FAX event between Vienna (Blix/Molotov), New York (FashionModa) and Berlin (AufbauAbbau). Concept: Christian Michaelides of Molotov. Electrographics was the first use of a group III fax machine (3M 9136).
	WIENCOUVER IV*, a slow-scan TV and telephone music project between Vancouver and Vienna on Dec. 4, 1983. Sound and Image from live performances by artists in Vancouver and Vienna were sent and received on 2 phone lines - one line for sound and one line for Video (slow-scan). The event - a low-tech interactive TV program - lasted for about 3 hours. Due to the time difference the event in Vancouver took place at 11:00 as a Sunday brunch while in Vienna it was an evening event starting at 20:00. In Vienna a preliminary telephone concert with Warsaw and Berlin took place between 18:00 and 20:00. Project organisation : Robert Adrian Vienna location: Osterr. Kulturservice Studio.     Concept/organisation: Helmut Mark for BLIX. Vancouver location: Western Front Society.     Organisation: Robert Adrian and Hank Bull.
	LA PLISSURE DU TEXTE**, was an exercise in "distributed authorship" that used the ARTEX email network both for project organisation/coordination and as the medium for the project itself. Artists and groups in Alma Que., Amsterdam, Bristol, Honolulu, Paris, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna were invited to improvise an on-line narrative in the character of the roles assigned to each of them (princess, witch, hero etc.). The resulting text-collage was a global fairy tale created in 12 days - from Dec.8 to 22 '83. Concept: Roy Ascott for "Electra'83", Paris. Network coordination: Robert Adrian X. Organisation in Vienna: Helmut Mark & Zelko Wiener for Blix IPSharp provided free computer time for the project. An Incomplete and fragmented version of "La Plissure du Texte", was captured on disk by Norman White in Toronto.
1984	PARTICIFAX**, FAX project by C.A.T., Toronto with a free phone for 2 months (for N.American users). Blix organised a 7 day participation for 4 European locations - Pavia, Berlin, Vienna and Bristol - as part of the L'Unita festival.
	KUNSTFUNK (Artradio)*, a 1 week slow-scan TV project using ham (amateur) radio organised by Blix for the Vienna Festival. The radio equipment was installed in upper rooms in the Vienna Secession and the antennas were mounted on the roof. Short wave was used for local (Europe, Middle East, North Africa) and VHF to a local "ham" for retransmission via satellite (Oscar1) to Pittsburgh. Each day a different artist or group presented a work in the Secession for sstv transmission. The artists included Robert Adrian, Distel/Dee, Klaus Karlbauer, Helmut Mark, Rainald Schumacher and Zelko Wiener. Concept: BLIX Project organisation: Zelko Wiener Program organisation: Helmut Mark Technical (radio) organisation: Gerhard Taschler
	ELECTRONICALLY YOURS**, a fax project organised by C.A.T., Toronto, for "Video Culture Canada", (Toronto, Nov. 2 -4 '83). . Artists from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Morocco and U.S.A. exchanged images by fax during the event. On Nov. 4 BLIX initiated a public event at the Europa Bar in Vienna that included a telephone music concert with Bergen and Berlin plus a live fax exchange with Bergin, Berlin, Rabat, Toronto and San Francisco. Concept and organisation in Vienna: Helmut Mark for BLIX. Network coordination & Fax: Robert Adrian Performances in Vienna: 1) Halofern (J. Danner, A. Kunzman, M. Geiger, H. Zobernig). 2) Die Nervösen Vogel (G. Danner, C. Brandl, Viech). Installation (projections): Helmut Mark
1985	MACHINA**, FAX project for school children in Turin, Vienna (Museum Moderner Kunst) and Paris (Centre Pompidou) organised by Maria Grazia Mattei.
	HEARSAY**, computer network (Artex/IPSharp) project by Norman White, Toronto, in which a text was passed from place to place around the world in 1 day- each location receiving in one language and sending in another. The route of the message was - Toronto, Des Moines, Sydney, Tokyo, Vienna, Newport, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto. The languages were - English-Spanish-Italian-Japanese-German-Welsh-Hungarian.
	KUNST BTX (Art-Videotext)*, an experimental Video-Text art magazine by BLIX. In summer 1985 the ÖPT (Austrian Post) introduced Video-Text using the new CEPT-2 norm - a system that was capable of 4096 colours and vector graphics. The ÖPT also provided subscribers with a computer (MUPID) and editing software. Zelko Wiener researched and developed the Kunst-BTX prototype for BLIX. The editorial team included Robert Adrian X, Andrea Dee, Gottfried Distel, Helmut Mark and Zelko Wiener. The project was funded by the Österreichische Kulturservice. KUNST BTX included an on-line comic strip "DER AUFTRAG" by R.Adrian and Gottfried Distel. KUNST BTX was presented for BLIX at Ars Electronica'86 by A. Dee and G.Distel.
1986	PLANETARY NETWORK (Laboratorio Ubiqua, Venice Biennale)**, Slow scan TV, FAX and Computer network (Artex/IPSharp) project. Live activity in Venice lasted for 14 days followed by a 2 month conference on Artex funded by IPSharp. Locations included Venice, Vienna, Sydney, Honolulu, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Boston, Bristol, Paris and Milan. Concept - Roy Ascott Network organisation/coordination - Robert Adrian
1991	Texts, Bombs and Videotape - a journey to the zone**, FAX, computer network (Artex/IPSharp) and Slow scan TV project in response to the destruction of Iraq. Locations included Vancouver, Pittsburgh, New York, Frankfurt, Bristol, Boston,Paris and Vienna.
1992	ART'S BIRTHDAY**, world-wide FAX project for the 1,000,029th birthday of Art according to Robert Filliou. (Organised by Hank Bull)
	ZERO - The Art of Being Everywhere*, a 2 year (92-93) curatorial project (with Gerfried Stocker) for the Steirische Kulturinitiative. ZERO was located at/in the Interfaces of the transport and communications systems. In addition to producing many projects by different artists/musicians/writers. The ZERO project also created 'ZEROnet', a BBS (electronic Bulletin Board System) for communication by artists with local servers in Vienna, Graz and Innsbruck.
1993	DANUBE CONNECTION**, a fax and picture-phone (AT&T 2500) collaboration between Vienna (ZEROnet) and Budapest (Artpool) as a 10th anniversary celebration of the historic1983 Vienna-Budapest-Berlin "Telephone Concert". (Concept - G.&J. Galantai/R.Adrian)
1995	HORIZONTAL RADIO**, 24 Hour radio/multimedia communications event.
	KUNSTRADIO-ON-LINE*, web site of Kunstradio, which first went on line in April, 1995. (Concept and creative direction untill April 2000 - Robert Adrian)
1996	KUNST&POLITIK*, project for the internet about Nazi culture politics for OK Centrum f. Gegenwarts Kunst and Ars Electronica'96. Concept and design: Robert Adrian. Text and editorial: Reinhard Braun, Christine Wassermann and Robert Woelfl
1998	RADIATION*, a project by Robert Adrian and Norbert Math for 4 short wave radios, computer and loudspeakers. 1998: installed at "Infowar", Ars Electronica'98., Linz 2002: installed at "Broadcasting", Technical Museum, Zagreb. 2004: installed at "Reinventing Radio", Radiokulturhaus, Vienna. 2006: installed at "Waves", Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga. 2008: installed at "Waves", Hartware Kunstverein, Dortmund 2008: installed at "ZeitRaumZeit", Künstlerhaus, Vienna

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