LOVE LETTERS IN YOUR E-MAILBOX
http://www.worldofawe.net

New York, NY, June 19, 2001 – Treasure/Crumbs is pleased to announce
the launch of the Love Letters Delivery Service. Not a virus, this
feature of World of Awe (WOA) will enable subscribers to receive love
letters via email approximately once a month through 2003.

WOA is an ongoing cross-media project since 1995. Conceived by artist
Yael Kanarek, it is based on an original non-linear narrative that uses
the ancient genre of the traveler's tale to explore the connections
between storytelling, memory & technology.

To subscribe: http://www.worldofawe.net

About the Letters In the Sunset/Sunrise, a desert terrain locked into
the mindframe between night and day, a traveler searches for a lost
treasure. According to the website, the traveler's journal and the
letters were found on a laptop. An examination of the letters
demonstrates that they are all addressed to an absent lover, though,
both the traveler and the lover remain obscure in their identities.

The letters are reminiscent of 19th century romanticism infused with
magical realism. Whether it is the lament over the absence of the lover
or a comical declaration of loyalty to the floppy disk, the collection
of letters portray a wide range of themes joined by the unusual
signature: "Yours forever, your sunset/sunrise forever yours, yours
forever yours."

The Network The Love Letters Delivery Service expresses the capacity of
the Internet to reappropriate and recontextualize artistic content. Such
metabolism of content is also built into the underlying mechanism of WOA
as a cross- media project. While the web requires a person to visit, an
email reaches out, thus enhancing the sense of personal intimacy to the
threshold of eerieness.

"The Love Letters Delivery Service furthers the manifestation of WOA on
the Internet and regulates an activity that was practiced spontaneously
as early as 1996," says Ms. Kanarek. "Viewing a web page and reading an
email are two different network events and this service as an extension
to the website responds to these differences."

About World of Awe A treasure hunt takes place in a desert terrain
called the Sunset/Sunrise, where the determination to find the lost
treasure meets nostalgia for speculated technology and longing for a
loved one left behind. Treasure crumbs found in excavation sites, oddly,
resemble candy sprinkles. Written in the literary style of magical
realism, WOA contains a collection of love letters that open from
digital landscapes and journal entries that describe events occurring
through the expedition. Also included are detailed technical
descriptions of three navigation tools: The map, the moodRingBaby and
the magnifying glass.

About the Artist Yael Kanarek is a media artist who has been developing
WOA for the past six years. The latest rendition of the website was
launched in July 2000. Previous versions have been archived in the
Rhizome Artbase. Ms. Kanarek is a recipient of The Alternative Museum
Digital Commission 2000 and NYFA fellowships award 2001 in the computer
arts category. Currently, an artist-in-residence at Harvestworks, she is
collaborating with composer Yoav Gal to create a music CD. WOA has been
included in festivals around the world. Yael Kanarek is represented by
Michele Thursz gallery.

The Love Letters Delivery Service is programmed and executed by software
artist & Rhizome editor Alex Galloway.