On August 14, 1794 the first dispatch sent by visual telegraph was transmitted. In order to do this a series of tower-high constructions each comprising of 3 moveable “wings“ had been built upon highly-visible locations selected according to their topography. A message could thereby traverse a distance of 230 kilomstres in a matter of about 8 hours.

At the beginning of the 19th century carrier pigeons were the fastest way to send messages. Today they have become a source of genereteddata when they soar past hobby breeders’ stopwatches during races.

Electro-magnetic waves are being used as a lightspeed transport medium to bring me tidings over the radio from a
successful breeder of carrier pigeons (Friedrich Jappe). It was through him that I came across the information involving race number 31 from Gerwlsch to Potsdam which took place on August 14, 1999. With the aid of special software* I have turned the race’s numerical data into a continuous line, a trail. That is how the graphic designs “paloma3“ and “palorma4’ came into being.

I am projecting these illustrations originating from the flight of carrier pigeons into the surface of the Earth like “landing strip markings“ along a flight route used by birds. In this way the mysterious markings on the desert surface of Nazca/Peru shed their fantastic light upon European soil.

HAEL YXXS, 14. 8. 2000

*   MPW-Software by JVSchmidt (www.piworld.de)