VTC2.0 (messages for the future)
Online artwork by Justin Allen
Full pleasure and happiness in life can be found only in working for the honor and happiness of future generations.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
VTC2.0 is an brave, complex, brilliantly executed piece of social and spiritual art. I felt intensely and intimately involved from beginning to end.
Barbara Carrellas, performance artist
currently performing Eight Years of Living Art
in collaboration with Linda Montano and others
In August and September 2009 UK-based artist Justin Allen was the online artist-in-residence at The Art of Engagement, an international network for engaged practitioners. For his residency Justin created VTC2.0 (messages for the future) - a virtual time capsule into which anyone with a Web connection could place digital items for the future.
The time capsule was open from 11th August to 22nd September. During this time 36 people contributed securely via the Internet. Amongst the contributors were legendary sex educator and writer Dossie Easton, performance artist and urban tantrika Barbara Carrellas, Room 101 creator John Hussey and a wealth of emerging artists including Tim Jeeves, Yoko Ishiguro, Ewelina Kolaczek, Maria Slovakova, Helen Schoene and Clare Adams.
On Tuesday 22nd September, at the exact moment of the Autumnal Equinox, Justin sealed the capsule by enacting a sacred ceremony: he had his mouth sealed shut with stitches and observed an hour of silence, live online. An audience of over 150 people joined Justin via the Web for this ritual performance, breathing with him and sharing silence with him as he sealed the virtual time capsule for 100 years.
To see who contributed to VTC2.0 and view footage of the sealing ceremony, please click on the links below.