PINGS springs directly from the geographical distance between two collaborators. Working directly from their locales they explore the physical space between them through rivers and air and a range of other terrains with their own qualities, such as the web, phone, post, and the less tangible links of memory and synchronicity. In January 2008 the artists began an exchange of performance and materials through these various channels as a means of mapping these terrains.mp4ement artist Simon Whitehead and Sound artist Barnaby Oliver have been working simultaneously from their local rivers in Abercych, west Wales and Melbourne, Australia.
Although a few thousand miles apart they share the intention to meet at a particular time each week and approach their rivers as an unbroken body of water through which they correspond. Their instincts are improvisational and over time they have been building a body of performative material from these shared events. Linked by their shared intentions and the physical rivers this material (in video, sound and image) begins to create its own character responsive to season, the time of day, the level of water and the meandering presence of each artist. This unedited material was shared through the net (RSS, podcast, email) and snail mail. PINGS was funded by an Artsadmin (London) Roaming Bursary.
The exchange is archived here