Exporing the World of Awe

"Through a portal on 419 East 6th Street in Manhattan, a traveler passes into the sunset/sunrise--A desert terrain locked into the mindframe between night and day--in search of a lost treasure" |Yael Karnek|

So begins the preface to { World of Awe } where I have lately been poking around to explore Yael's project. An expedition throughout the digital terrain is where Yael takes us at first glance. But to me, it is also an exploration of the inner terrain of the human soul which she presents in the form of two lovers--one who travels and laments the absence of the other lover in the form of written love letters signed perhaps at the moments of extreme loneliness.

Yael explains World of Awe as "a collection of love letters that open from digital landscapes and journal entries that describe events occurring through the expedition." Various chapters hightlights poignant themes. For instance, Chapter 2 (which was commissioned back on June 10, 2002 by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), " is loosely based" explains { Yael }, "on the theme of destruction and mending, establishing relationships between skins: human, interface, and land..."

"Chapter 2 begins the dissemination of The Journal over the network. Thus, the relationship to travel and the imagined geography of the Internet as well as the Sunset/Sunrise is further enhanced"

There are several things I like about World of Awe. Firstly, not only is it interactive it is also highly immersive. You become part of the expedition and you are almost sure to request that the Love Letter Dispatcher sends out it's weekly letter to update you on the progress of the hunt. Secondly, there is also the map that you can generate to give you an idea of where you began and ended as you trekked throughout the world of Awe landscape. Thirdly, what I found most interesting, is Yael's attempt to capture and present a particular moment in time. She has latched on to the space between Sunrise and Sunset. Somewhere between those two fragments of time is the climax-- the precise mommet at which the anonymous traveler signs the letter to the anonymous lover. Not even is the signature revealing for it is usually signed in the following manner: "Yours forever, Your sunset/sunrise forever yours, Yours forever yours."