Guided by an artificial search dog, we follow in the traces of Operation Columbia, a ten-mile motorcade of grey-painted vehicles that drove from Los Angeles to Vancouver and back in 1947 to spread the ideas of Technocracy Inc.
✕ The Technate
The movement was about to transform the North American continent into a proto-Internet society based on radical de-growth and the equal distribution of energy among all “energy-consuming devices”.
Technologists were to replace politicians and a digital energy currency was to take the place of money. Housing, industry, agriculture, transport - the entire North American continent was to be assessed for energy efficiency and rebuilt as needed. Everything - land, means of production, housing and vehicles - was to be shared instead of owned. Despite half a million members, supporters dwindled, for the technocrats rejected revolution as much as candidacy as a political party. In 1947, they made one last attempt to propagate their eco-technoid utopia: As “Operation Columbia”, members drove from Los Angeles to Vancouver, stopping in each city to give lectures, distribute publications or trumpet their messages from loudspeakers along the way.
Along the journey we pass data centres, cable ships and the headquarters of all the major internet companies. We become entangled in the infrastructures of the World Wide Web, encounter pioneers, digital natives and users, and finally end up in the dusty archives of Technocracy Inc. trying to save everything we can carry from its impending destruction.
While the movement itself faded into oblivion, an internet did eventually emerge in the stretch of land encircled by the technocrats. Today, the grandson of its Canadian director, a former richest man alive, is eager to build up a technate of his own.
Images, sounds, artefacts and impressions of the expedition are presented as a constantly growing archive consisting of an installation, an interactive website and a folding map.
The installation itself is framed by wall-sized projections showing extracts from the expedition. They surround a large server floor system made of galvanised steel grating, which is usually used in data centres. On top numbered artifacts, pieces of the expedition’s equipment and Netscape can be found. The artificial search dog that led us to the data now rests on the table reading from her expedition notes, while a spherical soundscape blends the ideas of the technocrats with the roaring server farms, desert storms flowing around the expedition vehicle and other noises.
A control monitor shows the original 1947 Operation Columbia image film, and a digital-analogue terminal allows visitors to explore the map as if in an arcade adventure game, gaining more information about the myriad numbered artefacts.
Enter the Technate: www.thetechnate.net
Credits:
conceived and carried out by: Peter Behrbohm & Markus Bühler
with: Bill Adams, Jim Carruther, Marc Graham, Paul Hajnes, Kinnard Hockenhull, Arlene Landwehr, Chip Lord, Michael Round, Curtis Schreier, Aurora Tang and George Wright
website: Liebermann Kiepe Reddemann
sounds: burgund t. brandt
voice: Lizzy Davis
camera assistance: Nikolas von Schwabe
cablenaut suits: Johanna Frahm
dog suit: Carola Behrbohm
photography: Peter Behrbohm & Markus Bühler
cinematography: Peter Behrbohm & Markus Bühler
installation views Berlin: Galya Kovalyova
installation views Kassel: Nicolas Wefers
The project was made possible through the MAK Schindler Scholarship Los Angeles, the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen and the Initial2 Scholarship given by the Berlin Academy of the Arts. It was exhibited at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture (2019), Eichenmüllerhaus Lemgo (2019), the Architecture Museum of the Technical University Berlin (2019), Panke.Gallery (2023) and the exhibition "monitoring - this image will become important later" as part of the Dokfest Kassel. Nevertheless, so far only a fraction of the material has been "lifted" and we are very keen to continue the project.