an exhibition by
Tracey Sanders-Wood
June 2000, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
In the eighteenth century a major programme of road building led to improved transport and mail services throughout Britain: as a consequence more people were able to travel. At the same time developments in technology made it cheaper to manufacture printing presses, making them more widely available. There followed a new widespread interest in printed communications and letter writing became increasingly popular.
The latter part of the twentieth century saw the development of the global system for mobile communication (GSM), followed by the development of the short message service (SMS) or text message. Text messages are like little sugar rushes of contact or postcards for the people's cyberspace. The first month British users started 'texting' 40 million messages were sent in the UK. By April 2000 these figures had risen to 360 million and by the end of 2000 it is expected to have risen to 500 million...
