Babelswarm has a way with words

by Brenda Holloway on Apr 16th 2008 3:45PM

Real life, Culture, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds

Letters pummel you as they fall from the heavens, struggling to form the words you just spoke. Any casual utterance leads to another cascade of letters; you see some jostling letters fall into place before you -- "hello". Are you talking to Babelswarm, or is it talking to you?

The Australia Council for the Arts awarded a $20,000 artist-in-residence grant to three Melbourne artists last year to explore interactive art in Second Life. Christopher Dodds, Adam Nash and Justin Clemens -- visual artist, musician and writer -- created Babelswarm to combine swarm theory with the story of humanity's effort to build a tower to the heavens.

Terrestrial visitors can view and contribute to Babelswarm at the Lismore Regional Gallery, where the words they speak will become a part of the ever-building, ever-collapsing virtual tower. The installation opened simultaneously in Second Life and at the Lismore Gallery April 11th. If you have Second Life installed, why not stop by and help create the tower with your words?

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Tags: adam-nash, artist-in-residence, australia-council, babelswarm, brisbane, christopher-dodds, justin-clemens, linden-lab, lismore, lismore-gallery, lismore-regional-gallery, mashup-islander, melbourne, second-life, second-life-places, sl, the-australia-council

Reader Comments (1)

When I first saw this I thought someone had gotten creative with spam. Rather than bombard residents with annoying, self-replicating objects, why not have avartar communications trigger annoying spam. Don't want to see it? Don't talk. I am both glad and sad that this is not the latest tool of spammers and griefers. Thanks for the info!