In September of 2008, my collaborator Will Pappenheimer and I were working on a version of the Virta-Flanuerazine drug trials http://virtaflaneurazine.wordpress.com/ at Fringe Exhibitions http://www.fringexhibitions.com/sept08b_2.html in Los Angeles. Will was on his way from his studio in New York to LA. He was to arrive early in order to get the installation under way and I would go a few days later. I knew he had boarded his flight because I had talked to him a couple of hours before. I was working on the Second Life clinic from my office in Boston. All of the sudden Will’s avatar starts rezzing up in the clinic. At first I thought someone had hacked into his account. The funny thing was that he had a connection, but it was very weak. So instead of his character rezzing, the avatar was represented as a ghostly white cloud. It was truly one of the most disorienting and profound experiences of telepresence I have had on the internet, having a disembodied interaction with someone flying 40,000 feet over the rocky mountains. Best
wuttup words
