Snails used to deliver emails

With the arrival of email, nearly all other forms of communication were consigned to the category of 'snail-mail', but until recently nobody had ever actually tried sending messages by snail.

Now a group of artists from Bournemouth University working on the Real Snail Mail project are using snails kitted out with communication backpacks to send electronic messages.

Boredom Research, the group behind the snail-mail project, want to challenge the idea of the efficacy of electronic communication.

To use the mail-by-mollusc service, users first send a message to the Real Snail Mail website. This is routed to the snails, which are gathered in a tank.

One of the snail agents collects the message via their RFID (radio frequency identification) kit, that is if they are not already burdened with a message.

Once picked up by the snail, the message needs to be delivered to the other end of the tank, where it is again picked up using RFID and forwarded to the recipient's email address. This all depends on the snail making it to the other end of the tank.

Eight snails are currently employed in the snail-mail project. They all have code names beginning with the double 00 digits, made famous by James Bond.

Agent 007, also known as Sean, is one of the fastest carriers in the tank, with an average transfer time of just under two days.

Real Snail Mail is currently on show in an international exhibition of slow art in Los Angeles. To send an email on a snail, log on to the snail mail website. Just don't expect it to get there today, or tomorrow.

www.boredomresearch.net/rsm/index.html
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