Expomus

Projects

So far, So close (Tão Longe, Tão Perto)

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2009/2010, finished
Clients e Sponsors: Fundação Telefônica
Service Areas: C + E
Locations: Museu Nacional (Brasília, DF).

From August 5 to September 27, 2009, the exhibition “So far, so close” could be visited at the Museu Nacional da República [Republic National Museum]. The curator, Peter Schulz, teacher and physicist from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), proposed a visit to the communication history, since the origin, from when the human voice was the only feasible resource to the main technological innovations that reduced the geographical distances, and even today redefine the social relationships and the urban structures in Brazil and in the world.

With the support of the Cultural Incentive Law, the show celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Telefônica Foundation that brings out to the public the Collection of the Telefônica Memorial Center.

Among receivers, telephone central stations, the first lists, historical photos and documents, 100 works are exhibited to create a panel of the evolution of telephony and of the different sorts of social communication.

Coordinated by Expomus – Exposições, Museus, Projetos Culturais – “So far, so close” covers three communication areas: the telephone network system, the technological convergence and new manners. Therefore, three independent segments that keep a dialogue among them were created. Throughout the exhibition circuit, the visitor is invited to participate, to answer to surveys and to produce material to the development of an interactive film. In 2010, the exhibition will be held in São Paulo.

A TRAVEL THROUGH THE COMMUNICATION UNIVERSE

A precise Timeline starts the trip. It recovers the time when the speech was one of the few man´s tools to establish social bonds. The need of communication among distant groups originated the first sound and visual codes thousands of years ago, using drums and smoke signs.

In order to quickly overcome long distances and to receive and send messages at the same time, a new means became essential. Invented in France, in 1794, the optical telegraph transmitted visual signs, but it only worked on days with good visibility. It was substituted by the electric telegraph, but to depend on an interpreter of the Morse code impelled men to look for new solutions. Patented in 1843, the fax machine could send a letter, written on a simple paper sheet directly to a distant receiver.

The telephone invention, attributed to the Italian Antonio Meucci, in 1860, and patented by Graham Bell 16 years later, caused a revolution in communication and was the starting point for new designs of the social and urban structure. The expansion of the telephone network system, the invention of radio, micro-waves, satellites, optical fiber, mobile, internet, broadband, all these innovations
have made human connections possible, faster, more and more efficient, economic and present.

At the segment Art and Popular Culture, videos, audios and documents show how the telephone, among other means of communication – influenced and was present on the movies, television, music and literature.

At the segment Communication and Education, we recall the professions that resulted from new technologies and those that are coming, and we resume the importance of long distance education and its possibilities.

The segment Sciences and Technology emphasizes that all the technological inventions are by collective authorship. The visitor may see simple experiments, which are easily reproduced and that demonstrate basic principles of communication, as how a microphone and a loudspeaker work, for instance.

The center of the exhibition was conceived to be a Forum, a place where the visitors could participate and interact. “Telebits”, an audio-visual created by the artists Giselle Beiguelman and Rafael Marchetti is projected on the museum dome and welcomes the visitor´s contribution, who can post images and texts in computers to be included in the dynamic film.

“So far, so close” offers also a Play Station, a ludic and educational place to stimulate the children and teens to be engaged in the exhibition. Educators coordinate plays and workshops that emphasize the communication principles, such as the “wireless phone”, “correio elegante” [“elegant card”], mime, and a telephone central station made of colored tubes. The educational program provides guided and thematic visits by appointment and distributes didactic notebooks to students and teacher. The exhibition is committed to serving visitors with disabilities as well.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS

The Telefônica Foundation keeps a large historical collection of telephony in Brazil. At “So far, so close” it features a selection of objects.

Among the telephone receivers, there is the “Wall Ericsson”, from 1884, one of the first models to arrive in Brazil in commercial scale; the “Iron Foot”, from 1892, pioneering the receptor and transmitter in the same equipment; the “Drum”, from the 1940´s, that carries a drum, instead of a disc or keys; the “JK Ericofon”, from 1954, that caused a revolution in the telephone design and included the initials of the elected Brazilian President in its brand in 1956; and the first telephone with keys produced in Brazil in the 1980´s.

The visitors can also see a fax machine used in 1950, a video-phone from the 1970´s and one of the first mobile models, produced in the 1990´s. There is also at the exhibition, a more than a hundred years-old operating board, a Strowger Step by Step Automatic Central Station, known as “Old Lady”, from 1928, still working, and the old “orelhões” [“big ears”] with chips and different colors to distinguish local (red) from interurban (blue) calls.

Among the historical documents, there is a selection of issues of the “Sino Azul” [“Blue Bell”] magazine, the first institutional publication of the extinguished Companhia Telefônica Brasileira [Brazilian Telephonic Company] (CTB) that circulated from 1928 to 1989; patent reproductions of some of the main technological inventions; a 1911 phone directory of São Paulo and the first directory of Brasília, DF, and also historical photos registering the daily work of the CTB´s employees.

About the curator – First-time curator, Peter Alexander Bleinroth Schulz is a PhD in Sciences from the Unicamp & Universidad Autônoma de Madrid. He teaches at the graduate and post-graduate courses in Physics and researches in the area of Condensed Matter Physics. He has several articles published and has just released his first book “The Nanotechnology Crossroad: Innovation, Technology and Risks”.

About the Telefônica Foundation – Founded in 1999 with the objective of coordinating the social investment of the Telefônica Group in Brazil, the Telefônica Foundation in Brazil is ten years old. During this time, more than 500 thousand people received benefits directly or indirectly from their social development projects devoted to the consolidation of the children and teenagers rights and the improvement of the public education quality. Presently its main projects are the Pró-Menino [Pro-Boy] and the EducaRede [Educating Web]. The Telefônica Foundation supports also the projects Memória Telefônica [Telefônica Memorial] and Voluntários Telefônica [Telefônica Volunteers].