Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Bournemouth University
Real Snail Mail
Originality.
Real Snail Mail (RSM) developed by Smith and Isley (collaboratively known as: boredomresearch) explored cultural paradigms relating to instantaneous technological communications, creating insights regarding perceived cultural benefits of speed and its impact on social well-being. The peer reviewed Arts Council of England funded project was the world's first webmail service promoting slowness as a primary advantage over competitors.
Significance.
Presented at the British Human Computer Interaction Group Conference, it raised significant questions concerning the value of technological acceleration. Following peer-review, the outputs were exhibited at SIGGRAPH2008 (28,432 attendees). The Process as Paradigm curator selected the work for its ability to present “ubiquitous global paradigms of speed and efficiency in a disarmingly approachable and thought-provoking way” and the accompanying educational program reached 3,282 children. It was further selected for exhibition at: Gateways: Art and Networked Culture, KUMU Art Museum, Estonia (37,208 attendees)and SOFT CONTROL: Art, Science and the Technological Unconscious, KIBLA, Maribor. President of Association for Culture and Education noted the “significant increase in public discussion” during its presentation. The output has had broad dissemination including articles in TIME magazine, Discovery Channel Canada, BBC and New Scientist (see Portfolio).
Rigour.
Smith and Isley's work as boredomresearch here integrated their collaborative creative, technical and artistic research. For RSM, whilst Isley focussed initially on the impact of webmail as a model for communication, a relational interrogation of experience and time, Smith's research engaged Radio Frequency Identification technology. Through this initial focus a critically positioned creative and technical system was realised in which communication over extended time frames and notions of speed and efficiency favoured by industry could be researched. By implementing email communication using biological agents – Snails, the iterative Public engagements with large installations allowed for widespread debate concerning communications behaviours and the role of technology in productivity driven discourse.
