World X is a virtual exchange project between a group of young people from Eltham Hill Secondary School in London, England, and from Westland High School, Hokitika, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The central goal is to build a virtual community that represents the best elements of life on earth as seen from the viewpoint of young people in the year 2004. The dominant themes, identity and place, are expressed through IT and virtual performance techniques using our new performance software, UpStage. (www.upstage.org.nz), together with an online discussion forum.

The young people create World X via avatars, props, jpegs, journals, mpgs, texts and live discussions, improvisations, performances. During this 15 week long project, each school groupst will meet once a week after schoolto learn about the software, build their avatars, props and backdrops, exchange ideas and information through the forum, and experiment with virtual performances and storytelling on UpStage. Because of the large time lap between the two countries - at present 13 hours, dropping to 11 hours after BST, the two groups will come together online three times during the project, at 8am UK, 7pm NZ. It is anticipated that the World X will culminate in a celebratory festival/performance where visitors from around the world will beinvited to witness and participate in the life of World X.

In the UK, the artists-in-residence & project tutors are Karla Ptacek and Surya Gupta. Funding and project management by Independent Photography, Greenwich, and Charlton Athletic Race Equality Team (CARE), Greenwich Council, and to the support of Eltham Hill Technology College for Girls, the citizenship department at Eltham Hill and the school's technical staff.

In Aotearoa/New Zealand,