Community of Words ( http://www.e-gallery.com.br/cp ) is a web-art work that happens in a 3D multiuser environment ruled by the Theory of Emergence applied to a community of words formed by the words entered by people who interact with the system. The participant writes his/her poem or text, which is placed in the interactive environment where we can see the interactions happening and other participants, and also navigate in the system.

The work intends to create a community of words that reflects the interactors’ communities and cultures. In this sense, as the work is available on the web, the resulting community of words gets contributions from all over the world, with no limitations of borders or distinctions. The work is ruled by the Theory of Emergence in the same way it rules several phenomena in human social communities (as fashion, music, trends, etc.) and some animal communities (e.g., ants) – with positive and negative feedback provided by any individual, with no hierarchial structure.

The work also intends to point out some possibilities in virtual multi-user environments – such as: the flow between the individual and the collective, alterity and identity, action and fruition. Multiuser virtual spaces seem to create reciprocity, ubiquity, partition and simultaneity states that can not be observed in other information channels. Therefore, that potential of expansion of the shared and distributed space from all and to/between all causes important changes to the individual performances (and/or collective) of each session.

People can interact either entering words or just navigating and exploring the 3D environment where the Community of Words reveals its emergence. According to the participants’ characteristics, their languages, slang, cultures, and preferences, a completely different community of words is formed and therefore the words that emerge within it.

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