PlaceTent consisted of a web application and a tent that connected to the computer via USB. Logging onto the site, users could choose any place in the world to virtually “visit”. Using content uploaded by previous visitors, the application virtually recreated the desired physical place in the tent using sound, projection, and other environment controls.

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  • Since the introduction of the Internet into mainstream culture in the mid-1990s, many new forms of communication and community have been created. Email and chat allow near instantaneous communication despite physical distance.
    
    Social networking sites offer another means of connecting, bringing people from many physical places together in a shared, modifiable virtual place. These sites offer a whole new set of places to explore beyond those of the physical world.
    
    With so many communities online, is there still a need to gather in physical space? It is now possible to be simultaneously living in one place, working in another, and socializing in another. If we can interact with anyone, anywhere in the world, does physical place even matter?
    
    Upon further research into these questions, I developed PlaceTent, a project that transcended virtual and physical space in an effort to question the relationship between the two. I challenged our reliance on virtual living and seemingly growing detachment from physical places.