Pango
Infinite Small Steps for Media Democracy
On May Day 2010 Tango Panopticon 2.0 expanded the Tango Intervention experience with an innovative worldwide synchronous telematic structure that created a directed examination of the issues of increased surveillance in public space. An unlimited number of people around the world were able to participate in this live synchronous action. Using our open source Pango interface, people everywhere were able to stream simultaneous live video to our web grid where web visitors could choose which 6 live streams to watch. The actual live streaming was routed through Bambuser, but Pango put together all those streams in a simple web interface that linked tango interveners on 4 continents. A hybrid real/virtual cultural event of this kind has never been produced on such an international scale.
More than the latest manifestation of the ongoing project Tango Intervention; Pango presents a radical model for infinite multi-sited live performances networked via streaming video from mobile phones. While distant networked performance has been around a while, this work is revolutionary for these reasons:
- Video can be broadcast from any location with cell reception, infinitely expanding the range of locations for broadcast actions.
- There are no costs for equipment, software, services or implementation, making multipoint broadcast opportunities available to any group with smart phones.
- The project is highly scalable, allowing live networked performances by any number viewable by all on the Internet.
- The technology applications are not limited to art performance. These tools and strategies can be implemented in diverse ways, from unique social networks, to political organizing and actions, to manifestations not yet imagined.
In the coming weeks we will be developing Pango as a free open source online platform that will allow anyone to facilitate world wide synchronous events with multiple streams of live video. We will make this open source platform available to any and all. Pango is a significant step in the Democratization of Media.
Pango will be presented in New York at the College Art Association annual conference as part of Ben Chang's New Media Caucus panel "Fight the Power", in February 2011.
Please check back for more details!
