I was lucky enough to be able to go and visit the Telectroscope in London bridge last night and I can attest first hand that it is a wonderful piece of interactive public art. The Telectroscope is the brain child of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St George who envisaged a secret tunnel running underneath the Atlantic connecting London with New York.
These plans were re-discovered by Alexander’s great grandson Paul St George a few years ago and with the miracle of modern technology his vision has finally been achieved. The apparatus itself looks like a huge steampunk-esque telescope buried in the ground and allows viewers to communicate in real-time between London and New York via a large screen and webcam.
The exhibition is on in both London (London Bridge) and New York (Brooklyn Bridge) until June 15th, so if you’re in either city I definitely recommend going to check it out.
Photograph by Mathew Andrews
