Seven Mile Boots

http://randomseed.org/sevenmileboots/

In the case of Seven Mile Boots, [http://randomseed.org/sevenmileboots/] it is precisely a lack of control that provides a sense of excitement and discovery. Laura Beloff and her collaborators Erich Berger and Martin Pichlmair have created a pair of shoes that allow for physical wandering through virtual space. Deriving their title from a folktale about a pair of boots which allow the wearer to walk seven miles with one step, the striking red shoes allow the wearer to cross vast distances on the Internet by browsing through active chatrooms while the wearer walks. A text-to-speech engine broadcasts the contents of the online conversations out loud, allowing the wearer of the boots to eavesdrop on them while stationary. The wearer does not know where each step will take them, yet a sense of opportunity and surprise springs to the fore as the person becomes, in the artists' words, a "digital flaneur". In likening online Internet chatrooms to the urban spatiality of the city, Beloff and her collaborators present a novel method of browsing information, and create a compelling relationship between the activity of the online world and the physical world surrounding our bodies. The open channels that the boots create are referred to as "holes" that provide vantage points from which to view distant activity - and yet, these connections also become ingrained in the individual wearer's identity and experience.