Michael Takeo Magruder is an internationally renowned artist and researcher using digital technologies and systems to examine our networked, media-rich world. Visions of Our Communal Dreams is a newly commissioned work by Michael and his creative team that blends virtual, physical and networked environments to explore issues of hybridity, embodiment and collective creativity in the information age.

The artwork's virtual component is an imaginary forest landscape constructed with the 3D application server Open Simulator (an open source equivalent of Second Life). During the Robots and Avatars exhibition, the virtual forest will be woven throughout our galleries and public spaces as a series of live mixed-reality 'portals'. The portals will provide visitors opportunities to explore and interact with the synthetic realm in surprising and unexpected ways.