Calligraphing beyond space and time

All this talk about Ghana you’d think I wasn’t on the cusp of launching the biggest project of my career. The virtual world recreation of the Forbidden City in Beijing, known as Beyond Space and Time, is made public on Sept. 17. Right now we’re in the final stretch of feature implementation, content loading, stress testing, and general cleanup.

One of the many small joys of the project has been meeting Wendy Wu, a friend of a project team member who is also an accomplished calligrapher. A few years back she designed the first project logo, a calligraphed depiction of the words “beyond space and time” which, in Chinese, is a phrase used to convey something superlative or exceptional. Of course, it is also an apt description of a virtual world in English.

Yesterday on a trip through Chicago Wendy was kind enough to offer a demonstration of her calligraphy technique. I’ve sped up a video of her in action — mostly to come in under Flickr’s 90 second limitation — but even in fast-motion you can see how deliberate and fluid the strokes are. Truly a wonder to watch.

A few photos here.