How we have realised this concept in SL

This exhibit is well-suited to a community/village setting as it has two faces to it, and can therefore be approached from either of two directions. The main part of the exhibit is at the front, with additional media at the rear. The main part of the exhibit has the following components. Central is a replica of a LFC (Large Fog Collector). This has fog billowing through it, which creates the water that runs down the mesh and along the trough into the water collection barrel. This illustrates the practical workings of the LFC’s and has been carefully modelled on real Fogquest installations. Behind and below it are backdrop screens of one of the Fogquest sites in Guatemala. As the avatar steps onto the ‘ground’ the billowing wind sound file is activated, adding to the foggy and windy atmosphere of this exhibit.

To the left of the LFC stand three barrels of water, each serving as a display for data. The sites used in this exhibit are Fogquest sites at El Tofo Chile, Mejia Peru, and research carried out at Monterey California. The level of water in each barrel is in direct proportion to the amount of liters of water collected at each site. If the barrels were full they would hold 12,000 liters each, thus a site which collected 6,000 liters would show the barrel half full. Clean water is obviously very important to human survival. To illustrate this importance and the benefit of the Fogquest operations, I have chosen to display data on the barrels that clearly shows the link between the lack of abundance of water – even from fog – in each of the featured countries, and the percentage of children in that country with access to safe drinking water.

The third component of this exhibit stands to the right of the LFC. A large plastic water bottle carries hover text with the information that the average American consumes 500-600 liters of water a day. This puts the 9,984 liters collected in Mejia Peru, which may initially sound quite a lot, into a different perspective. At average American consumption rates, this amount of water would only support approximately eighteen people. Beside this is a human form made entirely of small water bottles, urging us to recycle. Using fewer resources means that less precious water is used to create more resources.

Above this hovers a cloud, heavily laden with moisture. When touched by an avatar, it sends out billows of fog, can you actually taste the fog? Touch this cloud and see!

To the rear of the exhibit, is the fourth and final component. Here stands another LFC, and this one shows six still shots taken from a video of Fogquest LFC’s in operation. The stills tell the story of fog collection from the first shot of the foggy elevation taken from the distance, through the water collection process, to the people who benefit from this.