maggierosecofa1002-blog

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b i b l i o g r a p h y

In order of appearance on this tumblr =

-        http://youarewhatyoulike.com  - date last accessed: 07/09/2014

-        http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/ - date last accessed: 07/09/2014

-        https://medium.com/@schmutzie/i-quit-liking-things-on-facebook-for-two-weeks-heres-how-it-changed-my-view-of-humanity-29b5102abace date last accessed: 07/09/2014

-        http://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2014/04/or-not-%E2%80%93-how-facebook-affects-our-sense-of-belonging - date last accessed: 07/09/2014

-        Catfish, Joost, Henry, & Schulman, Ariel, 2010, (87 minutes)

-        http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/03/i-am-gaming-legend-on-virtual-identities/ - date last accessed: 08/09/2014

-        http://www.edibleapple.com/2009/04/20/the-evolution-and-history-of-the-apple-logo/ - date last accessed: 08/09/2014

-        http://reverttosaved.com/2011/02/23/an-interview-with-rob-janoff-designer-of-the-apple-logo/ - date last accessed: 08/09/2014

-        http://www.vice.com/read/how-to-prepare-for-your-digital-afterlife-joe-zadeh-212 - date last accessed: 10/09/2014

-        http://www.deadsoci.al/ - date last accessed: 10/09/2014

-        http://eterni.me/ - date last accessed: 10/09/2014

-        http://mashable.com/2014/06/24/social-media-death/ - date last accessed: 10/09/2014

-        http://www.paolocirio.net/work/hacking-monopolism-trilogy/ - date last accessed: 11/09/2014

-        http://www.face-to-facebook.net/ - date last accessed: 11/09/2014

-        http://www.riic.ca/the-guide/in-the-field/aboriginal-customs-and-protocols/ - date last accessed: 12/09/2014

-        http://blogs.reuters.com/photographers-blog/2011/05/12/capturing-souls/ - date last accessed: 12/09/2014

-        http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/JONTOT.html  -date last accessed: 14/09/2014

-        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_pole - date last accessed: 14/09/2014

-        http://www.experienceketchikan.com/native-american-totem-poles.html - date last accessed: 14/09/2014

-        http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/culture/totem-poles.html - date last accessed: 14/09/2014

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i d e a d - c o n c e p t s t a t e m e n t

The contemporary self could be said to be quantitative. We produce a constant stream of data that is collected, projected, and stored which determines our daily existence. To what extent has this ‘quantitative turn’ changed our understanding of self?

My original interest and summation of the question I had chosen for this task was that we lead splintered lives, one in the physical or ‘real’ world and one online where we update, upload, post and share consistently about what is happening in our ‘real’ lives. These lives overlap, but what I was really fascinated with was the ‘gap’, the small distance or perhaps huge disparity between these lives.

I had no idea how much my research for this task would snowball, splintering itself into multiple avenues which were each incredibly thought-provoking, as well as again offering the potential to further engage with another endless ‘stream’ of potential research topics.

The notion itself of our contemporary self being quantitative, and my inherent response to it was incredibly engaging for me as it questions the digital age we are all an active part of and which we are all contributing to, particularly for younger generations. It is a question I was motivated to explore due to its relevance to most people I know as well as myself. What is our current state and what will become of us?

My thought process began with the idea of a digital identity and how it affects our ‘real’ selves, investigating the importance of a ‘like’, whether or not we are defined by these ‘likes’ along with other social media indicators, and how would our ‘digital selves’ be represented? This mode of thinking then led into questions about the ‘realness’ of an identity when it is a false projection in the terms of ‘catfishing’ and misrepresented identity. Why was the misrepresentation of a ‘digital self’ viewed as stealth if nothing tangible about one’s self was stolen or compromised? All of the questions I had about what it is that makes our digital selves really a part of who we are were never really answered, but they did lead me on to bigger queries. As much as I was interested in a digital life, the concept of a ‘digital afterlife’ was much more captivating.

‘We produce a constant stream of data that is collected, projected and stored which determines our daily existence…’ What if we were to produce a stream of data that is collected and projected as a means to determine what was our existence? This is the vision behind my proposal for an artwork.

After researching at great lengths the necessary methods social media sites have in place to manage the accounts of deceased people, new projects designed to protect ones digital identity and websites offering people eternal digital ‘life’, I knew I was interested in the future of remembering the dead.

I was really inspired by totem poles, both for the meaning they can communicate and for the aesthetic impression they deliver. Totem poles, and indigenous peoples views of photography and cameras influenced the development of my process about the future of mourning.

The final work produced for this assessment task is composed of three sections. The first being the research process, which, I found to be the most thrilling, engaging and extensive aspect of the project. The second is the collection of portraits that were products of several experiments I designed to engage with and respond to notions I was developing about the contemporary self. These experiments dealt with the notion that ‘we are what we like’, ‘you’re only as good as your last like’, and the value we each attribute to our social media profiles. The third is the idea for, or perhaps prediction of, a potential future of commemorating the dead.

The proposal for a work, the ‘idead’ is a reimagining of how we should remember the dead. The ‘i’ of the title is one last nod to Apple Mac as an allusion to the hardware we use to update our digital lives, and in this case our digital ghosts. (Apple might even be the force behind this project one day). Saying the title ‘idead’ sounds as though one is proclaiming ‘I am dead’, which suggests a really daring ownership of the event of dying, surpassing the fear that so many have of the inevitable. The ‘id’ part of the title would be underlined or highlighted as both a reference to ‘i.d.’ as in identification as well as ‘id’ as in referencing Freud’s three-part model of the human psyche.

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Series of portraits produced as a body of work which displays my research and experimentation process.

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etotem / idead = draft design / proposal for a work

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e t o t e m

My final design for a work is to have something along the lines of an 'etotem'. A tall structure / tower of monitors or screens stacked on top of each other, with each screen being the interface for a different aspect of a deceased person's digital remains.

One monitor may be a person's DeadSocial account, one may be their Eterni.me profile and another might be their memorialized facebook profile. Perhaps nestling amongst these glowing screens of remembrance is a box which contains the ashes of the deceased person. The idea is that these towers, or rather contemporary totem poles, are created very much with the involvement of the person that they are designed to commemorate. A project which would therefore require the cooperation of individuals who wanted to be really involved with the very morbid awareness of momento mori, and as well who wanted to be involved with how they were remembered.

Potential names for the work could be etotem, edead or idead. idead is the one I feel is the most appropriate as it almost sounds like the proclamation 'I am dead' suggesting a real ownership of the event of dying. The 'id' part of it would either be underlined or highlighted as both a reference to 'i.d.' as in identification as well as 'id' as in referencing Freud's three part model of the human psyche.

This reference to the 'id' is ironic in the sense that according to Freud the id is the only aspect of ones personality that is present from birth, it is what feeds desires and drives and can be described as 'instinctual'. The active construction of such a structure of commemoration for oneself is entirely removed from such a notion, and yet at the same time plays into those instinctual desires to be remembered.

(http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/personalityelem.htm)

Ideally a collection of these totems would be displayed within a really solemn and respectful space, almost temple like; high ceilings, blank canvas - a gallery space would be ideal. The glowing personifications of these people that they commemorate would hopefully create a sense of spirituality in the space, despite being so non-spiritual in their medium. I say spiritual as well and not religious, I would want this space to transcend beliefs or denominations.

(Kiffy Rubbo in You, Them  & Us Video installation by Judi Stack and Bob Weis, September 1977 - touch of inspiration)

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e tomb

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e t o m b

Throughout the process of this assessment task I have tried to wrangle with different ways of viewing the real self / digital self dichotomy I seem to be so fascinated with and where I have ended up is with a suite of drawings that experiment with these different approaches / ways of thinking. However this is more a body of work reflecting my process rather than a final piece.

My idea for a final piece is one which would require time, money and a lengthy cooperation with willing participants. However I feel my process of research and initial drafts for a possible design of the work will be enough for this assessment task.

Since I am interested in creating a new way of mourning I had to look into what already existed or was being generated with this same notion behind it. It turns out something is in the works and it is called the eTomb, introduced by Yanko design, which has been gifted the catchy slogan 'Social Networking from Six Feet Under' by The Week. The eTomb is a fusion of traditional ways of mourning - through the iconic gravestone style design, to the future - with it's dealing with ones 'digital remains'.

The tombstone is solar powered and includes an in-built server which holds digital information about the deceased. The tomb stone, very much designed to appear to be a stone slab, would be equipped with a blue tooth chip so only friends and family would have access to the information held within the grave marker.

'It satisfies both traditionalists and futurists, says Aaron Saenz at Singularity Hub, in that it acts both as a "well recognized physical symbol" and an "online memorial."'

'says TechNewsDaily's Fox, "this kind of memorial may be the best way to remind future generations about your mighty deeds, epic life, and that one time in college you got so wasted."'

Although this product is not yet available it really only seems to be a matter or time before thinking about our 'digital remains' as well as our 'physical ones' become more of a conscious concern.

'While the eTomb is still a concept design, the granite data tags can be bought for just $225 each.'

Here are the links for more information about the eTomb:

http://theweek.com/article/index/209678/the-etomb-social-networking-from-six-feet-under

http://www.livescience.com/9001-etomb-tweets-grave.html

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cleverbot

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her

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h e r

It was impossible for me to be dealing with the digital self and the 'realness' of this self without looking at Spike Jonze's film 'Her'. I knew the preface - a man falls in love with his computer.

But it was so much more than that for me. Set however far in the future this film seemed to be addressing so many of the questions my mountain of research had interest had forced me to ask. Living how much of our lives digitally is too much? Does an identity need a body? Is a relationship with somebody who's profile does not match their 'real' self a 'real' one? What is the future for our sense of self?

The engagement with the artificially intelligent operating systems is really intrinsic to where my research has been leading me because it really questions what it is that we think makes up who we are, why is the 'body' / the 'real' so important for our mind and spirit?

The relationship between 'real' Theodore and operating system Samantha is so 'real' is so many ways and yet the 'physical' / 'mechanic' differences between them leads to their eventual demise. You expect it to her 'her' lack of humanity, and yet is is actually Theodore's limiting human capabilities which prove to be insufficient to sustain the relationship. He is so often asked / asks himself whether or not the relationship is a 'real' one. What would make it either real or not real.

The film was based on the development program Cleverbot - but expanding on the idea behind it exponentially.

'The site Cleverbot.com started in 2006, but the AI was 'born' in 1988, when Rollo Carpenter saw how to make his machine learn. It has been learning ever since!

'Things you say to Cleverbot today may influence what it says to others in future. The program chooses how to respond to you fuzzily, and contextually, the whole of your conversation being compared to the millions that have taken place before.'

http://www.cleverbot.com/

This film really encouraged my desires to propose an artwork which addresses the future of grief, mourning and commemoration, since it already depicts such a future where I feel this approach to mourning could exist. I have seen watching this film as a major push for my proposition for a new age way to grieve!

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van de Born's digitally manipulated travel photographs

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f a k e f a c e b o o k

This doesn't so much influence my own work that much but I just found it really worthwhile to add this article to my tumblr because it involves the work of a university student who is looking into the falsity that is present on people's social media profiles, which reminded me of my initial interest in the gap some people have between their real identity and their digital identity.

The student Zilla van de Born also embarked on this experiment for university and fooled her friends and family into believing she had embarked on a five week trip through Asia, where really she had just taken herself off the grid and used photoshop to manufacture fake 'travel snaps'.

Here's a link to the article about her experiment:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2749306/What-scam-Student-boasts-friends-trekking-Asia-visiting-stunning-beaches-tasting-local-cuisine-meeting-Buddhist-monks-using-FAKE-photos-taken-home-town.html

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experiment #5

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d i g i t a l g r a v e s t o n e - e x p e r i m e n t # 5

Are websites such as Dead Social and Eterni.Me generating a new, and potentially more meaningful way of remembering the dead? They don't at all have any relationship to the physical side of a person, there is no corporeal link between these projects and your physical body, & yet they engage with a person's self in a whole new level. Icons and grave markers only hold the identity of that person, because we believe it does.  I am interested in looking into the possible futures of grave markers, commemoration and remembering the dead.

  As a response I have created this small drawing of a gravestone for the digital afterlife, the grave marker which embodies a person’s online existence by labeling their facebook features, rather than mentioning and of their 'real' achievements or the 'real' family she would be leaving behind.

I also considered engarving the tombstone with 'user since - ' as a way of highlighting this 'profile versus life' idea.

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value - experiment #4 - part 2

(It is worth noting that as a trend all of the portraits I have made are of females, I didn't intend to do this it just happened naturally, but it probably just a sense of recognition. I have a female face, I study female faces more, thus making me more able to want to depict a female face. I do also though really like the uniform gender that all of my drawings have taken on. That teamed with their lack of eyes - and really a lack of identity - links back to the idea of anonymity, with so many people on social media, and so many people adopting patterns of recognisable photos and data, as explored in the Face to Facebook project, these 'girls' are really just one of a bunch.)

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v a l u e - e x p e r i m e n t 4 - p a r t 1

Trying to keep in tune with thinking of our different weekly topics for the course, I began to try and attribute value to my way of thinking about our selves (real and digital). I came up with this small survey which I asked a few of my friends, where I wanted to find out the price/value people placed on their facebook accounts.

Question #1 - What is the minimum amount of money you would accept to delete your facebook account? (You are allowed to re-create one, re-add all of your friends, re-tag all of your photos, but it can't simply be de-activated).

Question #2 - What is the minimum amount of money you would accept to delete your facebook account forever? (You can view others' facebook profiles eg. restaurant pages, but you can never have a facebook account under your name or a pseudonym again).

I also wanted a 'why' with people's answers.

Answers:

Sivan #1 = $5000, because she is super lazy and would not want to waste her time making her facebook account the way it was, and the amount would pay off her credit card and give her money for a holiday.

Sivan #2 = $50,000, because it's a years salary for her.

Emily #1 = $50, as that would probably be the standard rate of pay for the amount of time she would put into reinstating her account.

Emily #2 = $60, as she said she's pretty poor so it wouldn't take much to convince her.

Blake #1 = $50, because it would take him a couple of hours to ammend.

Blake #2 = $500 because it'd be really difficult to pass up $500 for such minimal effort.

Katie #1 = $250 because it would give her the funds for a really great night out.

Katie #2 = $2000 as it would buy her great return flights to somewhere on the other side of the world.

Claira #1 = $0, because she would see it as a really great detox and way to get rid of 'friends' she wasn't actually friends with.

Claira #2 = the only thing she would be concerned with is the loss of photos, so as long as there was time to save all of them before she deleted her account she would settle for $240 because it would get her a new outfit head to toe or it'd buy her a Strawberry Fields ticket.

Will #1 = $0 because he really wouldn't mind if his facebook was deleted, he would be able to start of with a clean slate.

Will #2 = $100, mainly because he likes using facebook as a means of sharing his art and staying in contact with people, which is convenient for work and study, and finding an alternative for these would be inconvenient.