Words: Lani Heywood (she/her)
Welcome to Cyberspace, I will be your guide.
In its advent, there was a vision of Cyberspace existing outside of governed borders. A free body, immune from sovereignty and control, in which each person is free to enter ‘without privilege or prejudice.’ A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, written by poet and Internet philosopher John Perry Barlow in 1990, captured these hopes for a positive digital future, one in which this virtual space can be harnessed for intellectual freedom and human connection without borders. The virtual world offered an unparalleled opportunity for community.
Today, the tech-utopia we were promised now seems like a galaxy far, far away. The digital environment is ruled by the same forces that arrest our lives elsewhere, and the magic of this lawless space is a dimming light.
But this place is still ours; we can still take back control and grow our little digital gardens with love, compassion and care. Your screen can still glimmer with connection, community and wonder – I promise.
You don’t believe me? Come with me…
Welcome to Cyberspace, I will be your guide. The exit is in the top right corner if you ever need to get out and, don’t forget to look out the window sometimes – the real world is out there – but it can be beautiful here too.
The first stop is, The Unsent-Message Project: a digital archive of anonymous messages which were never sent. Appearing as early-internet style messages, gridded like a pin board on the site, they document unexpressed emotions – often to past lovers. The community began as an art project, devised by a group of poets, writers, and artists in the hope of creating a space of collective ‘solace and healing.’ The website never fails to make my heart hurt – a little bit always, but sometimes a lot. My favorite one from the last time I looked just read ‘my my my,’ never sent to ‘C.’
If a new reality is what you are looking for, Fractal Fantasy has got you covered. An audio-visual platform that houses interactive experiences and visual experiments. Their virtual spaces are heavily influenced by music – the soundtrack for their Virtua fly through club experience was released as an album, heavily influenced by lockdown, as an imagining of a physical world that could not be realised at the time. Their club simulator is a similar concept, allowing you to jump, dance, and collect CD’s which download mixes for you and help you keep the good times going.
In a similar vein, Queering the map is a perfect example of the hope that a digital environment can bring. A big map of the world, marked with pins, the map is home to anonymous messages posted from somewhere in the world, marked with a pin that says – ‘I am here.’ The messages are about love, acceptance, first dates, last dates, mundane days, the love of first families, the love of second families, and cries out for connection. The hordes of black pins, far reaching and numerous, are proof that queer people are ‘Here! There! Everywhere!’ The page is an homage to the physical places where people’s identities have been formed and where love has been found and forged – yet its virtuality gives people a freedom that these physical places may not afford them. It’s a bridge between these two realities. It’s a ‘hi, hello, over here, I exist, you exist– we’re everywhere!’
UNESCO’s Museum of Stolen Objects is magical in many ways. Not only are its visuals magical, UNESCO’s efforts to replace what cannot be in this digital environment is the work of wizardry. Described as ‘turning absence into presence,’ the museum allows these objects to be honored and represented for a virtual audience, thwarting the aims of their theft in the physical world by reclaiming their existence and the voices of the cultures they belong to in a space that pays no heed to their sovereignty.
Via radio waves, for however long you listen; you are connected to someone cooking their dinner or driving their car or watching the rain fall outside when you listen to Radiogarden. The site allows you to listen to Radio from all over the world. Whether you’re looking to get back a bit of home from your local station, practice listening to a language you’re learning, or expanding the 2026 playlist, it reminds you that there is traffic in Cairo, a storm in LA, and also that it’s Maria and Mattia’s Golden Wedding anniversary and their kids wish them a lovely day.
There is so much more I could show you, like ‘eel-slap’ and ‘pointer, pointer,’ NASA’s interactive solar system, the internet map, window swap, My90stv and Randomstreetview. But I think it’s time for you to see for yourself. I’m going to let go of your hand, okay? You’re a “Cybernaut” now, go explore!
