makrolab | makrolab information bulletin last bulletindate 08 Jul 97 bulletin number 0002080797 This is the second MAKROLAB information bulletin. The activities are not proceeding as planned, due to some extremely difficult technical problems connected with the signal intelligence part of our work. Today the first propane gas bottle that propels the emergency generator had to be exchanged for a new one, and the generator attempted to run on automatic for the third consecutive day at night, at the voltage level of the batteries of approximately 23.5V. This is a major change due to very little sun radiation in the past days, just a quarter of an hour a day of direct sunlight basically. The APU has to be repaired ASAP, so we can have another kilowatt hour of electricity in emergencies. The APU is the only proprietary electrical system in use at the MAKROLAB, developed by PACT, the complete energy system in use was developed by ISET from Kassel and paid for by dX, which now obviously wants the money back from the project, i.e. us. 30.000 DM or so, sort of a problem at the moment. We will try to fund the electrical system from other sources, although I’m quite skeptical at this stage. Have to work on this. What a mess and misinformation. Contracts that never existed, agreements that were never really made, money that was never supposed to come from anywhere. The project seems to really run the boundaries of the contemporary art system, it is so self contained and has such an individual inner logic that it causes problems wherever it appears at the moment. The console is working well, yesterday, July 7, some users again mended the microfilm reader in an impossible way, but this morning we serviced it. Agreement with the technical crew from Documenta halle about 2m radio contact every morning and remote check of the status of the console. Good. In the past days the 2m radio contacts were more common in Makrolab, developed few methods of comm, although people mainly want to know if everything they see on monitors happens for real. Somebody asked about the temperature and wind speed. Our weather station is operational, although not completely and we have to reset it in the next days, one of the sensors is already dead.... On the other hand, e_mail contacts are more and more consistent. Somebody from Denmark proposed to communicate and probably collaborate. Will try to contact him again. The activities from July 5 - July 8 - setting up the short wave antenna, probable date of operationality July 10 - Monday we taped the first MAKROLAB NEWS for Hessicher Rundfunk 2 - got a fax machine for fax probe testing - C band SCPC and FDM interception operational, decoding problems - INMARSAT interception and comm operational, decoding problems In search of: - arabic interpreters - fax phreaks Web site updating software still not finished. Luka proposes updating locally, with html editing, without preprogrammed interfaces as planned before, and tarring to ljudmila. Can go, but a lot of work for me. He is leaving Thursday for Berlin, after 3 weeks of stay in Kassel. Did good work and a lot of noise. That’s him...but, the station will be empty without his chickens and noises. Hope he works on the software in LJNA. Webcam should work now, it’s up and running on the LTS page of the site. Transmission time everyday between 9:00 CET and 21:00 CET. After that time shutdown of the transmitter occurs because of energy conservation procedures. Have to keep the voltage up. Still problems with the web server at the console though. Sometimes it just dies. Basically, phase 1 comm set up is operational, although decoding capabilities far from ones planned for this stage and time. Predictable events in the next few days: - visit of the artistic direction of documenta X, Mme David, Frau Voelckers, Isabelle, Tom, et al. - HF radio activities operational - first visit by Christian Mass, some help with the decoding - Koeditz gets the part and finally brings the transmitter for the video link - decoding successful (more hope than prediction) Decisions: From Tuesday till Sunday, every week, every day a live audio and video conference for the people at the console from 15:00 CET TO 16:00 CET. Installation of a live mike for the console together with the live video when we get the transmitter. More communication with the crowd. Labels will be printed for the console, so people can use it with more ease. Although everything is written in the manual, nobody reads it. Visits at the ML limited for announced guests. Non announced will not be serviced, simply because there’s too many of them. END OF 0002080797 archived bulletins 001 04.07.97