There are times when you look at something that someone has created in SL, and realise that once you embrace the framework of this virtual world we live in, we are only restrained by our imaginations, and that this place gives us the ability to make breathtaking things that would be impossible in the restraints of the real world. "Resonating-With-secondlifeWind" (Click here to teleport), the latest installation by Edo Autopoiesis (Edo Paulus in rl, an Amsterdam based sound-artist who uses generative processes to create sound-compositions), is definitely one of those times.

High above the sim of Harmonia, Edo has placed 100 working windmills, twirling row upon row above the clouds. These windmills are all detecting sl wind, moving to point in the direction of the breeze, and spinning at different speeds, depending on the wind speed. On the mast of each of these windmills are red markers, which raise to the tops of the mast, rising quicker the faster the wind is blowing. Once the marker reaches the top, it drops back to the bottom of the mast, ringing a different pitched gong, but only if there is another nearby resonator making a noise, providing a linked rhythm between the windmills, rather than just a collection of random noise. A relaxing music is created, generated by the wind and the windmills interaction, soothes you, as you sit on the provided tour disk, which slowly floats you through this majestic scene.

This is a wonderful piece of art that is both visually stunning, aurally beautiful, and makes you think about both the beauty that random generation can create, and also the wonders that can come when an artist lets their imagination loose, in this brave new cyber reality.