http://www.nypost.com/seven/05232008...on__112143.htm
PEEK & SAY: I SEE LONDON!
B'KLYN 'SCOPE' OFFERS UK VIEW
FARSIGHTED: Ashley Gonzales peers into the Brooklyn "telectroscope" yesterday.
Pals (above from left) Lorena Yeves and Elizabeth Castillo "reflect" with Londoners.
By RITA DELFINER with AP
May 23, 2008 --
Thanks to an artist's tunnel vision, a New Yorker can stand in Brooklyn, wave to someone in London - and see the Brit waving back.
The jolly good show is made possible by a huge optical device called a "telectroscope" created by a sculptor who has also invented a tale about its origin, claiming it was made possible by a long-lost secret tunnel.
The gizmo, which looks like it dates to Queen Victoria's time, was placed at the Fulton Ferry Landing by the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday - and an identical one was set up across the pond on London's South Bank by the Tower Bridge.
Step up to the person-size lens of the brass-and-wood device and you see a life-size view in real time of whoever is gazing through the lens on the other side.
The work by London artist Paul St. George looks like a giant telescope burrowing into the ground.
Publicists for the project would say only that the scope works by using fiberoptic communication.
St. George offers a more creative conceit - saying he just carried out the dream of his great-grandfather Alexander Stanhope St. George, who began excavating a secret tunnel under the ocean over a century ago.
His relative planned to put a telectroscope at each end that would magnify the view through the tunnel and let people on both sides see one another, according to the tale.
Yesterday,
spectators used wipe-off boards provided at both sites to exchange messages.
Some used the scope to swap cellphone numbers with strangers so they could hear as well as see one another, said the project's spokesman, Adam Bricault.
"Other people who know each other are setting times to meet up," he said.
There's even talk of marriage proposals by long-distance couples.
"We've heard rumblings of boyfriends and girlfriends and possible engagements," he said.
The scope will operate until June 15, and seeing is believing. Or is it?
The artist is "fascinated by the overlapping territory between illusion and reality - between optical effect and perception," a press release says. "He delights in mesmerizing his audience."
The Telectroscope, which can be used by New Yorkers to see their English cousins, is framed by the Brooklyn Bridge.
Londoners gaze into the Telectroscope near the Tower Bridge.
Lorena Yeves, left, 21 of Manhattan, and Elizabeth Castillo, 21 of San Pedro, Ca. are reflected in the Telectroscope glass as they exchange phone numbers with Tyrone in London.
Friendly New Yorkers communicate by way of signs and smiles at their counterparts in London.
The London end of The Telectroscope sits by the Tower Bridge.