Marco Poma who has just finished exhibited his work in Palazzo Pancrazi and during the inauguration launched his concept of Slow Art (article here) was delighted this week to find that one of his smaller works of art which was included in the cultural geocache in Barga is now on the other side of the Atlantic as an American geocacher who came to Barga found it and decided that it was a perfect gift for his wife.
In its place he left a geocoin which has been gradually travelling round the world since it left Switzerland back in 2009.
The coin has travelled from Europe across the Atlantic, right though the states including Alaska and up into Canada before once more coming back to Europe and will hopefully finally make its way back up north to its original starting place in Central Switerzland.
What is a Geocoin?
A Geocoin is a special coin created by individuals or groups of geocachers as a kind of signature item or calling card.
Each Geocoin is assigned a unique tracking ID which allows them to travel from geocache to geocache or to be passed amongst friends, picking up stories along the way.
How do Geocoins work?
Because each Geocoin is assigned a unique tracking number, its progress can be tracked online through logs posted by the finders. There are different types of logs that can be made on a Geocoin’s personal home page, including picking up or dropping off the coin, and “discovering” the coin.
GEOCACHING is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world.
A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. After signing into the log, the cache must be placed back exactly where the person found it. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.
The cultural geocaches of Barga are somewhat different as they in fact do contain objects of value.
The caches contain signed original artworks, drawings, charcoal drawings, prints and etchings by 35 artists working in this area.
There are also mini poems and short stories in Italian and Latin
Professional musicians have prepared a series of cards containing QR codes which when scanned by smart phones will play music specially written for the project. The music includes classic, jazz, piano, tango, rock and folk.
The project is an attempt to “raise the bar” on the level of objects which can be found and exchanged in geocaches.
We hope that the people who find these objects will enjoy them as much as we have in preparing them. (the map for the first cultural geocache can be found here)
The first of these cultural geocahes was hidden in Barga Vecchia recently – it was found just 4 hours later by “Red Luke”, one of the enthusiasts of this new pastime who left the following message in the log book:
– A good chance for coming again to Barga Thank you very much for a different kind of cache!
and again just a few days later, another searcher from Hannover, Germany left the following message:
Wonderful holidays in the Toskana and the STF in this cache here. Thanks for showing us the beautiful town of Barga. Without your cache we wouldn’t have seen it. We enjoyed the old houses and the ice cream in the centre of the city. TFTC or better: Mille Grazie per la cache si dice brisen60 – Germany/Hannover