PHAGE/CURSOR: Bio-Organic Phase

Functions as an intelligent agent. Main navigational tool. Will change in relation to the terrain being explored. Indicates most relevant information within any given zone to the user. There are various ways to use the cursor. The first is to catch, click and drag, releasing over the information you want to access (which hilights as the phage nears). Another requires the user to use a command-key sequence that enables her or him to access a user-history, continually mapped during the user's journeys. The navigator is always able to be opened out into a reference chart of the different information zones, and will take the user back when selected. The three main terrains, an extensive help file, a powerful search engine, and a link to Professor Hawking's lecture are always available once the phage's head is opened. Hierarchical menus branch of each of these elements. As the user explores more information, the history file becomes ever more alive with color, sound, and motion.

The user operates as an information parasite, a kind of virus, whose object is to gather enough information to be able to access additional navigational zones. Users are effectively creating their own project history based on their path through the CD-ROM/WWW materials. Information about where users go, when they go there, and what they access, is written to a user history file. Eventually, the user's viral construct is uploaded to the Net, and influences their appearance to others online.