Artists: Yael Kanarek, World of Awe, The Traveler's Journal

Worldofawe.net, the Traveler's Journal is a New Media art webpage that centers around storytelling and narrative via the idea of the journal. The viewer is placed in an interface similar to a computer's desktop, where hidden in the desktop icons and menubar are links to journal entries, stories, images, and interactive pages where the user has to figure out a puzzle to get the next piece in the narration. The premise of the website is that you have found this laptop, belonging to an anonymous journeyer in a desert land called Sunrise/Sunset, and the files in the laptop allow the viewer to explore the electronic thoughts and love letters of this lost person. In the background, a loop of blowing wind is played.

This project is very reflexive, the viewer is placed in a layout that mimics a computer desktop, and is then explored in desktop icons and the menubar, just as you would explore your own computer. I was drawn to this, and to the ability to explore and gain a story from my exploration of the site. The interactivity of the user with the site is what creates the narrative in this project