"p-Soup", a multiuser piece, uses algorithms to generate graphical events on screen whenever a visitor to the piece clicks within the art-work. There are nine graphical "flavors" that the visitor can choose from, but there are endless possibilities to the way these can be combined on the screen.
"p-Soup" is about the human creative impulse, the desire to touch and affect the world. The idea of touch plays a large part in the work. When humans communicate through electronic media like the web, we lose the sense of touch; there is nothing for us to get our hands on. Similarly, when we view art (another medium of communication), we are not allowed to touch the art-work; the object may be altered by the visitors hand. p-Soup is about creating a touchable artwork in a world where there is no physical object to touch. In p-Soup, a virtual surface is disturbed by the click of the visitors mouse, as if they are touching a surface of water, creating pulsing ripples that spread and decay over time. Visitors create a design that grows and then fades away. They do not own this design, as it will fade in minutes, and may be altered by other visitors that are using the piece at the same time. p-Soup creates a place where artwork can exist for a fleeting moment, created between people as they touch a shared virtual surface. The work is blank when people arrive to it, and is activated, turned into art by their touch. When the people leave, the artwork returns to a still quiet blue, and waits. (source: file:///C:/Dokumente%20und%20Einstellungen/guest/Lokale%20Einstellungen/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/S9UB0DY7/napier%5B1%5D.html)