Rara Avis, Eduardo Kac, 1996. The screenshot above shows simultaneousaccess to the Rara Avis Web and live color videoconference. Those who loggedon in color could see grayscale participants, but the reverse was not true.This was an intentional aspect of Rara Avis, meant to highlight how softwareprotocols reflect hierarchies that prevail outside of cyberspace.

Most windows above reflect a straighforward camera view of the participant.The color window on the top left (a woman's face) shows a participant whologged on with a live television feed. The color window on the bottom left(in green) shows the image of a participant in the process of being formed.The larger window on the right shows a live feed from the left eye of thetelerobotic macaw. The gray image embeded in the browser shows the mostcurrent still picture seen from the right eye of telerobotic macaw. Stillswere updated on the Web every five seconds.


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