The Pilot Project of 6th Feb. '98:
The first collaborative effort that took place on the 6th of Feb this year was to test out the technologies that will likely make such an exercise viable across the envisagd project-period of the year and a half ahead, leading up to the eclipse in Aug '99. Those involved in this pilot project were: (1) the initiators of this project - the Falmouth School of Arts (FCA), a university college located in Cornwall in southern UK; and from India: (2) the Industrial Design Centre(IDC) which is a part of the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Bombay, India.

The pilot project scheduled for the 6th of February (from 2.30pm to 4.30pm,IST and 9.00am to 11.00am,GMT had 8year old school children from Kendriya Vidyalaya and design students from IDC collaborating through the information technologies with school children from Cornwall, UK and design students from the Falmouth School of Arts, UK; and in the process interactively building a mural of size 8ft x 8ft at each of the two places (mural on Mumbai at FC and mural on Cornwall at IDC) through the exchange of ideas in the form of text, images, sound and video.

The Collaborative Mural: The more immediate mandate for the pilot project was to construct a mural - 8ft/8ft or more in size - at each end of the participating locations, with help of information generated across the wires synchronously, over a two hour time-period ( 9:00 to 11:00 am GMT for FCA, and 2:30 to 4:30 pm IST for IDC ). While school children from Cornwall and design students from FCA would construct a mural on Bombay with the help of text, images, audio and video-captured inputs sent across through the following technology-modes: fax, telephone and the internet, school children from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Powai, Mumbai and design students from IDC in Mumbai would do likewise but construct their own mural based, instead, on the theme of Cornwall. In other words, the information sent to each other synchronously through the 'virtual' would find a certain assigned form of physical abstraction in each of the participating locations. And it would then be our collective endeavour, post-pilot project, to interpret the objectives that have been realised or have remained unrealised through this certain combination of technology, teamwork, synchronicity of time and a set of physically disparate locations, all aimed at connecting up communities.