SPOTLIGHT EXPERIENCE

The Wind Terminal

A quiet side quest at the festival

Located in the Grand Foyer, you will find the Wind Terminal - actually two. Somewhere between a museum piece and a working machine, the Wind Terminal invites you to send a short message into the “ether” — a gentle, text-based echo inspired by the Wind Phone tradition. A familiar terminal, placed somewhere calm.

If you experienced it last year, you'll understand why we asked Vinn & Milly if they were up for doing something a bit bigger than their table display in the exhibit hall last year. They were, and we're happy it can be shared with more people. We'll let them take it from here.

What It Is

The Wind Terminal is a repurposed public terminal shell, rebuilt as a calm interface for sending short messages. It’s part installation, part prototype, part love letter to systems that didn’t need your data to function.

The project is inspired by the Wind Phone — a private, intentional way to speak toward someone who is no longer present. The Wind Terminal adapts this idea into a text-based interface designed to feel familiar, minimal, and deliberate.

What Do People Use It For?

You can write a name, a sentence, a memory, a thank-you, or something you never had the chance to say. The terminal acknowledges the transmission — then the moment passes. Message length is intentionally short, and the system does not interpret it. Nor does the system retain the message. Once sent, it is lost to the wind.

Type a short message. Send it. Let it go

Why It’s Here

Vintage computing isn’t only about restoring hardware. It’s also about restoring ways of being: attention, patience, curiosity, and the quiet joy of a single-purpose interface.

Restoration usually means returning machines to their original purpose. The Wind Terminal asks a different question: What else might these machines be good for now? By stripping away metrics, notifications, and permanence, the terminal becomes a quiet counterpoint to modern computing.

No accounts. No signups. No tracking. No analytics. No archive.

Just a moment, in plain text. A space for focus, reflection, and brief intention.

The act itself is the experience.

How Can I Experience It?

In the Grand Foyer, far-to-the-right of the Registration Table you will find the Wind Terminal exhibit. We'll be happy to share our exhibit with you on a demonstration terminal and answer any questions. Then, we will point you over to one of the two Wind Terminals to have a moment from the crowd, touch an old machine, and leave something behind without leaving yourself behind. It’s meant to be encountered rather than announced.