[spectre] The Salt Satyagraha by Joseph Delappe- review by Natasha Chuk

[marc garrett]

The Salt Satyagraha by Joseph Delappe- review by Natasha Chuk

Realized in several stages, DeLappe's virtual re-creation of The Salt 
Satyagraha, Mahatma Ghandi's Salt March to Dandi, a journey 240 miles 
long, is part installation and part performance art. His historical 
re-enactment reveals more about how virtual space is navigated from real 
space than it explains the politics of Mahatma Ghandi's protest against 
British salt tax in 1930, utilizing travel in real space, a blog, and 
images from the journey housed on Flickr.

DeLappe's re-creation relies on Second Life to provide a virtual 
landscape of India and an avatar that sports the likeness of Ghandi. 
DeLappe's role in this excursion is to propel the avatar through this 
space by means of his own physical movement in reality, creating a 
visceral connection to the march and providing a personality to an 
otherwise soulless avatar. As part of DeLappe's mission, he welcomed 
strange participants along his path to join him in his peace march by 
offering a walking staff. These participants met him on Second Life 
while real-life participants also served as spectators of his journey at 
Eyebeam's Chelsea gallery.

A custom-designed treadmill in Real Life provides movement through 
Second Life. DeLappe, the avatar's human counterpart, takes the journey 
seriously, wearing comfortable shoes, a T-shirt, and gym pants for the 
stretch of the march, which he achieves over the course of 26 days. The 
treadmill has a wooden desk for his laptop, a bottle of water, and a 
coffee mug; a leather cushion at abdomen height provides ample comfort 
for his journey through cyberspace. His activity through cyberspace is 
projected onto a wall.

More of the article:
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=308

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