Over the last month we have been writing proposals to produce a large scale installation version of Real Snail Mail where visitors can walk through the enclosure which contains hundreds of RFID chipped snails (Real Snail Mail agents). Portable RFID interrogators will be available for participants to select a snail to carry their email. Displays will output whether that snail is available, if not several agents may need interrogating. Snails’ profile data will be outputted on terminals with delivery times, reports on their performance and predictions. The public can engage with the snails and the system throughout the day – emailing, feeding and misting the enclosure.
We are waiting to hear the outcome of our proposals and in the meantime we are looking after the hundreds of potential snail mail recruits (pictured above in their hatchery.)
Is Sean OK? He seems to have been stuck on 8 deliveries forever.
You people do realize this is kind of sick, don’t you?
I am a composer who is working with snails to compose music. I thought you might be interested in this program note from my 5/20/09 performance in Oakland, CA.
“What meaning does music have to a snail? The snails involved in this project are part of it in as co-composers, and bring their perspective to this music in a very physical way. These snails are common garden snails in California, their ancestors brought here by immigrants to be eaten as escargot.
My pet snails, Nasturtiums, Arugula, and Epazote participated in the making of the pieces by adding their mucus, bite, and excretion marks to pre-written graphic scores as well as creating their own scores by interacting with paper of various thicknesses.
I have observed 8 primary modes of snail behavior since I began this project in 2008 – Estivation (warm hibernation in which the snails seal themselves against a surface to avoid dehydration), Sleeping, Crawling, Eating/Drinking, Excreting, Mating, Laying Eggs, and Tunneling. These modes are used to inform the players’ interpretation of the visual information of the scores. The performers are instructed to read the scores, usually tying their sonic actions to specific visual information (as one does with a traditional score.) “