The Letter Well
a kinetic communication installation


The Letter Well is an exploration of creating an experience that utilises the unique aspects of Second Life. Simulated Physics, online communication and avatar interaction were the vital parts of producing this telepresent installation work.

Initiated by the Avatar's Chat, the Letter Well listens to what is spoken and reproduces the message as individual phyiscal letters, that float up into the sky.

These letters eventually reach a receiving platform, where the letters are recombined and relayed as the message back to the public chat. In a crudest sense, the installation is a play on the world of data transmission, each letter being a packet of infomation that makes no sense until it is put back together.

What facinates me as an experimentation within the work, is that an avatar can interfere with the transmission of the letters, corrupting the message in transit, making the avatar a physical filter or censor of the message.

The Well itself as an image, references the ideas of magic. A symbol of wishes, words are made mainfest from its mystical waters.

<<back