The Telectroscope: New York - London Live Link

"The Telectroscope - 11 May-15 June 2008"

"Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel will finally be completed. Immediately afterwards, an extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope will be installed at both ends which will miraculously allow people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa."

This sounds like quite a piece of art. I like the story that goes with it, and am intrigued by the technology. However it works, the link really is in real time.
"Artist's imagination at work as optical invention connects New York and London in real time"
International Herald Tribune (May 23, 2008)

"New Yorkers could see their English cousins across the pond Thursday without benefit of cable TV or video conferencing, courtesy of an unusual live optical hookup created by a conceptual artist with a fanciful tale of a long-lost tunnel.

"An optical device called a "telectroscope" was placed at the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn and another one on the Thames River in London on Thursday.

"Spectators stepped up to the machine on both sides of the Atlantic and waved and wrote greetings to each other in real time on wipe-off message boards. ...

"The contraption is the invention of Paul St George, a London artist known for his tiny replicas of monumental pieces of art

"Publicists will say only that it uses fiberoptic communication. St George prefers to stick to his story that the machine was started by his great-grandfather in Victorian times and transmits images via a tunnel under the ocean.

"According to the project's Web site, St George's work "has always been concerned with questioning the relationship between the viewer and what is viewed. His work is also often associated with different realities, spectacle and viewer participation. ..."