Martin Zet

DROP OFF POINTS

Motto: 
ÒWelcome, you messengers of structures. 
 Where are the messengers of communication?Ò 
                 (Book of Sighs)

The Wailing Wall. 
Stone and paper.
Desire and hope. 

The papers wait in their Òdrop off
pointsÒ until someone finds them, and if
so, then whether it is the right one,
the one to which the papers were
intended.

I would like to make a network of drop
off points both in the real and in
virtual space. I could make use of the
existing holes and crevices, cavities
and gaps, or special ones could 
be created for this purpose. Both in the
hidden and public spaces. Everything
would be mapped in detail, and it would
be accessible in certain levels. It
would be a kind of game, where you have
to know certain facts, and you must have
certain cubes, keys, to get one step
further, one round ahead. 
Everything would resemble a structure of
recognition, where everyone has to go on
and on, (sometimes ending at the very
beginning) despite the familiar facts,
and someone can get, perhaps just by
chance, to the central box, if there is
any. 

It is necessary to consider the
composition. The question is whether to
build a pyramid of levels, a spiral, a
funnel shape, a loop, or interlaced
loops, a ball, to create it fluently,
chaotic, endless, or closed, or as a set
of singularities. If we succeed in
creating a living organism, the
composition has a meaning only in the
beginning, and then I hope in a
spontaneous structuring. 

There can be common and uncommon things
in the boxes, both used and brand new,
even refuse. Fragments and extracts,
legible and illegible of unknown texts,
numerical ciphers, messages, whole
books, disks, addresses, verses, or just
wishes breathed into the wall . There
will be plans or complex schemes leading
to the next circle, which is not so
generally known. These schemes will be
either in one original, so that the
person who finds them can decide whether
to give them back or keep them for
himself (or for his friends), or they
will be recorded in a more durable way,
or they will be spread over more places
in several copies. There can also be
artworks (drawings, sculptures). People
can decide whether to keep the things
they find, and whether to keep the box
empty or they can put something else
into it. 

The real drop off points can be
anywhere. In a cavity in paving stones,
in crevices, waste baskets with double
bottoms, bells, firemen's boxes, tree
cavities, in the railing, in fountains,
at bridges, rivers, view-point towers,
churches, sculptures, in the sewer,
gutter, graves, pipes, valves, locks,
flag holders, security cameras, flower
bowls, street lights, WC, heating,
chairs, bars, gambling machines, loud
speakers, elevators, museums, fans,
curtains, bottles, bookshelves, concert
halls, machines, instruments, books, and
musical instruments. 

In virtual space, if possible, the drop
off points would be placed in the gaps
between the pages, between the columns,
between the lines (an opportunity for
hackers).

Both these spaces will be connected by
mutual references. 

Everyone can make a box, or destroy a
box, leave it empty, not leave it empty,
or he can fill a box he would find.
As a test, I would make a network of
approximately 40 boxes around Prague and
10 outside Prague, the plan of which, or
a list with a description of their
locality, would be accessible to the
public, and 20 boxes which could be
found just by random, or on the basis of
information (or a collection of
information) from several (or just one)
of the published boxes. 

I welcome any help with their filling,
structure of relations, with the
creating of the virtual boxes (Internet,
world web ... etc.), and also I welcome
a little media exposure.

PRICE OF THE COMPOSITION OF AN
AVERAGE MAN OR WOMAN

The source for this project is the list
of elements and compounds of which the
human body consists, including the
amount with regard to an average male
and female. These numbers are
generalized. (Human being is understood
as a species, and as a member of
individual races and nations.)
Another level of this work is the price
of the singular components on the world
markets, and on the markets of the
individual states. 

Everything would be expressed in the
national currencies, in Euros, and in
Dollars.

As a result of this experiment we should
get the price of the material of an
average Czech, Russian, Hungarian,
American, etc... If we consider the
different prices in shops, we obtain
such information as: the lowest and the
highest price of an average English
woman (on the English market, date...)
etc. It will surely be very interesting
to learn how much cheaper is an average
Czech than an average German, and how
much more expensive he is than an
average Ukrainian (the source of the
prices are the prices of the materials
in the shops of the countries
concerned). As the price of the impulse
leading to the change of this matter
into a human being or a homunculus is
impossible to set, we can compare the
prices of the materials necessary to
produce a robot of a certain type and
generation. 

Everything could be carried out on two
levels:

1/ The computer level, where we could
compare the price level of single
elements, components and organs every
day, every month..., depending the
domestic market and stock exchange
prices. (In the international computer
networks)
2/ On the level of an experience in
time. We could e.g. present the
information in a glass case placed at
busy places, at house facades, in
passages etc.. We would present it as a
report, including invoices and the
information how long it took to get all
the material necessary for one human
being, and how much it cost. 

It is also possible to follow currency
devaluation, in reference to the price
basket necessary to materialize an
average person. 

Another method of presentation is to
exhibit all these elements and compounds
(together with the invoices) in a
selected place (a bank would be the
best).

The presentation of the information
could take place in banks, savings
banks, it could be distributed on
leaflets, it could be published in the
economic papers, on account
statements...

To carry out this project we will need
plenty of information and data. 
We will need a computer expert, together
with consultation in the field of
biochemistry, statistics and economy. It
would be marvelous, if all the contact
with the public could be mediated by a
spokesman, speaking in neutral economic
jargon.

An underground carriage would be
darkened at both ends by a screen on
which an interior of another carriage
with different people from a different
city would be projected. That means that
the carriage would be extended optically
at both ends, so that we could watch
another carriage in the same everyday
situations, but in other ÒcolorsÒ
typical for the place where it is
situated. The single projections would
show the route from one terminal to
another; if possible the line should go
through the different social and ethnic
city parts. The passengers would be
changing during the ride according to
the place through which they would pass.
E.g. the D line in New York, going
through Harlem, West Side, Chinatown and
Brooklyn, to Coney Island (my love).
People will have the opportunity to see
other passengers of different habits,
types, races in their natural
environment. This project is intended
for Prague, but it can be carried out
any place in the world with an
underground. The underground is the most
convenient means of transport for my
project, as the boring view out of
windows creates the best conditions for
watching the projections. A sleepy
passenger thus gets in the tube at the
Malostransk‡ station in Prague, and
he/she will see not only their Prague
fellow citizens, but also the visitors
and inhabitants of New York, Moscow,
London, Peking, Paris, Tokyo, Kiev,
Berlin... The projected record should
present one whole working day from one
steady point into a carriage. The single
records should be taken and shown at the
same period of the day (if it is not
possible to use a live broadcast). 

For the first Prague project of this
type two records would be enough. E.g.
New York, Paris, Moscow, Kiev, Peking.
If the project is successful, we can
prepare a whole train, the carriages of
which would be extended by the two other
records from cities around the world.