GATEways was a Live-Event that acousticly connected, for one day via the World Wide Web, the newly renovated Siebenbrunnenplatz with other locations. Concrete local squares, that acted as intercultural gateways, became nodes of a global acoustic network: local bound soundscapes went through the dataway on a tour to other spaces, diversified the intimate atmoshperes, mixed with them and were sent back.

GATEways had cultural diversity, languages, and cultural transient situations as main themes. The question of various cultures living together daily in one place (like for example in the 5th district of Vienna) was the central motif. Conversations with people of differing ages, career and ancestry served as a starting point for the entire event.

GATEways was also a project about time. Culturally-bounded local times became transparent and formed in the space of WWW a new unfamiliar time sculpture in the syncronous global network. On the 21st of March, - where times for day and night are equal - daytime is at every point on earth exactly 12 hours long. The single events at each location were spawned from this 12 hour rythm. The entire event, however, began with the sunrise at the eastern most point of the network in Melbourne and ended with the sunset at the western most point - in Vancouver. Consequently, the day of the occurance was altogether 30 hours long - stuctured through a diversity of sunups and sundowns.

GATEways had many stages: the Siebenbrunnenplatz in Vienna, the Domplatz in Erfurt, the Bauhaus University in Weimar, a space in the center of Melbourne and the Gallery of the Western Front in Vancouver. Not only were the concrete places the stages, but also the hompepage itself which served as a platform displaying, in picture, text and sound, the entire event in all its single pieces for the entire length. Additionaly, radio stations in Austria, Germany, Serbia and Canada acted as live media and so as "loudspeakers" for an audience that couldn't be on site nor had access to internet.

GATEways wasn't just the event on March 21, 2000. The material that was collected about the locations, the information, the conversations and documentation of the event remain on the internet. The material forms and consists of the groundwork for an extended and deepened involvement with the theme - a theme that never loses its actuality.