Etheric Oasis
Etheric Oasis is a small interactive artwork for the web. The page is the view from a bench at the head of a long
wooden pier in a round green harbour. Touching or clicking the water sends rings
across it. While the surface is disturbed, nothing can be read. When the
water settles, a line of writing rises and holds for a while before fading.
It is a quiet place to pause for a minute. There is nothing to buy, nothing to
sign up for, and no account of any kind. The site collects no personal information
and shows no advertising.
The writing it draws from includes lines by Laozi, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus
Aurelius, Blaise Pascal, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and others, along
with a handful written for the piece:
- Be still, and know.
- Muddy water clears if you let it sit still.
- Nature does not hurry, and everything is accomplished.
- We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.
- Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
- A man is rich in proportion to the things he can let alone.
- You get better at whatever you practice, including hurry.
- You are allowed to stop before you are finished.
There are two other pages. Sculpt is a small world of sand
seen from above: drag a finger to raise land out of the sea, tap the ground to plant a
tree, tap the water to make rings, and once there is an island a little sailboat
comes, to be towed to wherever she should anchor. Rest is the
view from her foredeck at that anchorage: drag to look around, and the sky symbol in
the corner changes the weather, round a day from golden hour to a moonlit night and dawn.
There is also an about page. The artwork needs JavaScript in
order to run.