Art inspired by "Wired Love"

Cory Doctorow 8:00 pm Fri Jul 26, 2013

Silvia Ruzanka saw yesterday's post about the 1880 novel "Wired Love," about a romance carried on by telegraph; she writes:

I've been fascinated by this book for years, and have been using it as an entryway into art and research about the telegraph as the first cyberspace.

"Dots and Dashes" is a VR art piece inspired by the novel. It was made for the CAVE, and we've also exhibited it using a head-mount display setup, and is an attempt to imagine the sense of space created by the telegraph overlaid on the space of VR.

"Sounder and Relay" is an installation piece which features virtual version of Nattie and Clem talking to each other across the gallery using real telegraph equipment, based on the part of the book where they set up their secret wire in the boarding house to subvert the strict Victorian rules that keep them apart.

"The Spiritual Telegraph" is the latest work in progress in the series, and explores the connection between the telegraph and Spiritualism, which again resonates with the mystical, transcendent turn in VR of the 80's and 90's.

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