Web 021. . . is an interactive walking tour of the real "social web," designed to provoke an awareness of the extent of virtual space in the built and natural environment. Using stickers, cellphones, and 2D barcodes, Web 021. . . challenges the viewer to peek under the construction of daily life to reflect on his or her own role in that construction.
Stickers are posted throughout the city, and each sticker refers to a different URL. To activate a sticker, your phone needs to have a 2D barcode reader installed. Then, simply point your cellphone at the symbol and take a picture. A webpage will appear with a message.
Free downloads of 2D barcode readers, and a list of supported cellphone models, can be found here.
The messages invite the viewer to reflect on the combination of technology, economics, politics, and fantasy that produce the actual experience of a place, as well as the forces that attempt to package and sell it back to you. Web 021. . . highlights individual experience, and the strength of the virtual component of actual locations. The virtual has inhabited the real since we have been able to tell ourselves stories and leave pictorial signs, long before VR, 3D avatars, or mySpace pages. Web 021. . . re-activates the secret history of our virtual heritage, locates its presence in the physical environment, and hints at how much of that might be available for individual creative manipulation.
Web 021. . . was included in the COLLISIONeleven exhibit in the MIT Stata Center Balcony Gallery, as part of the 2007 Boston Cyberarts Festival.