HYPE

An artist of the floating world
Hype interviews Heath Bunting.

Ver. 1: As printed in "Concrete" 21/2/96

"Equality is deceit." he explains, "The illusion of
rights/fairness/justice are only possible due to the
enforcement of borders with the violence of our military
thought. What we are suffering now is the shock of reality.
Shock horror! Not every white body can have a car."

Iconoclast, subversive, shit-stirrer, jester. It is
difficult to know how to define the catalyst that is Heath
Bunting. The London-based artist uses phones, faxes and
computers, as well flyposting, pirate radio, performance and
graffitti to twist perceptions and shift paradigms. Past
projects have included an interactive theatre piece in which
the performers were controlled by commands faxed in from
around the world, and a tin LAN (Local Area Network - such
as the ethernet system here at UEA) constructed entirely out
of baked-bean cans and steel wire, complete with dial-up
access (a mobile telephone placed inside one of the tins).

Heath cites the most enjoyable event as being the one that
he arranged at King's Cross station. Then, to achieve the
desired effect, he copied down the phone numbers from a
whole bank of pay-phones, and distributed them far and wide
over the internet, with instructions for people to ring in
at a certain time. Having thus managed to link the virtual
and physical worlds, he stood back and watched as his
uncontrolled happening took shape. As an extension of the
idea, he is now aiming to compile a global public telephone
directory.

As an ongoing project, he runs a "technology access centre"
- a skip in central London where people are invited to
upload and download old hardware, with no on-line time
charges. Remote access is available by posting any
contributions to British Telecom Skip, Bankside, London SE1.

Heath's methods are not always viewed kindly by Her
Majesty's Constabulary, however. As well as being shaken
down several times after rescuing a large fax machine from a
City skip ("lesson: smile and tell all"), he was nearly
arrested while installing home-made stained-glass windows
into a derelict building, as the police thought that he was
stealing them instead.

He has been using the Internet for several years. When asked
how things have changed on the networks, he replied "It's
harder to believe you're a unique cyber punk hacker when
your Dad is on it too."

One of his projects is the Cybercafe, a text-only bulletin
board (tel: 0171 439 3998) that Heath set up last year. He
also maintains a website of the same name, where he provides
photo-art such as his Visitor's Guide to London (billled as
an anti-historic psycho-geographical tour), and The
Corporate Skip Raider's Manual. Although he originally
intended the on-line version to become integrated with a
real-life cafe, he has been unable to find backing for the
type of venue that he wanted, stating that it "would only be
interesting if it collided the separated elements of the
previous media in an explosive fusion."

Instead, his most recent activities have occurred in Tokyo.
After being flown out there, Heath set up a website where
readers were invited to submit messages which he then
printed out onto flyers and handed to passers-by at busy
train stations. He also provided a free fax, email and
postcard service, as well as a form letter with options to
be selected for those too dull or too busy to write their
own.

In the bland corporate future that awaits, let us hope that
there will always be a place for people like Heath Bunting,
continually disolving thresholds with their own brand of
gentle subversion.

As well as providing links to all of the artist's pages,
Hype's website will be providing a complete transcript of
the 3am interview, where Heath discusses everything from
caniballism to cellphones. Reach us by going: UEA
Information > Students > Campus TV, Radio and Publications
HHype.

tristan roddis