An artist in Bournemouth has decided to comment on the need for immediacy in today’s always-on, speed-of-light hyper-connected communication culture by turning email into snail-mail, literally.

Emails are delivered to an RFID chip in the snail when it passes in front of sensor number one, which sits on one side of the tank. That email will be stored on the snail and instantly retransmitted across the internet when said Gastropod passes across sensor number two – on the opposite side of the tank. The time it takes the snail to amble between the two sensors is your delivery time; averaging 1.9 days. Snail mail. Geddit?

Frankly, anyone who thinks this is slow clearly hasn’t tried sending a 20 meg PDF via our email system. I’d give it a week,

I wonder…. If I send files larger than the capacity of an RFID chip via snail-email, will the snails explode? It’s gotta be worth a go.