Fuck Everything Manifesto
FUCK EVERYTHING MANIFESTO with Mouchette from page 9 to 12
Mouchette.org, a website that violates the syntax of web navigation, though immensely less graphic than the aforementioned shock websites, references darker Internet culture motifs such as suicide and pedophilia. Mouchette.org is meant to embody through web presence only, a precocious (in a creepy innuendo riddled way) “nearly” 13-year-old girl with a fan following, whom she interacts with on the site.
The website itself is intended to be the soul embodiment of her character who exists nowhere else but on, or more appropriately as Mouchette.org. The navigation on Mouchette.org is obscured, with drop down menus, check box forms, hypertext and images that link to pages seemingly unrelated to the associated titles and options.
The aesthetic of Mouchette.org is inconsistent; there are photographs, illustrations, animated gifs and pixel art integrated into a hodgepodge design, that doesn’t attempt to establish any unity though displayed together on one webpage. The website also includes sound effects that typically have a shocking effect on user, like a sudden moan, cry or scream.
Like Fuck Everything, the organization of (or lack there of) Mouchette.org is intentionally deceitful and unspecific in its treatment of site navigation, which encourages users to play, explore, and discover the new rules of an unfamiliar virtual land. The aforementioned “hodgepodge design” also exploits the web pages ability to display a variety of different media all at once. Fuck Everything embraces this aesthetic by layering illustrations, photographs, pixel art, animated gifs, text, movie and sound files to create different compositions and interactive interfaces.
Created in 1996, Mouchette.org could be considered Internet archaeology, or older websites from the early Internet that look outdated, and would seem very out of place on a modern website. Fuck Everything features graphics that appear dated (8-bit, very pixelated, low resolution, intentional use of graphics with gif artifact) to allude to the fact that the Internet has been used as a platform to explore taboo themes because of its ability for users to take on identities separate from their physical self since it’s inception. The dated graphics are also intended to be nostalgic in millennial users, where they might encounter a mash up of childhood Internet graphics from Neopets.com to doll sprites.
One secret room is comprised of a remixed graphic from Mouchette.org that reeks of Lolita suicide
Media artist Manthos Santorineos who conducted an interview with the anonymous persona behind Mouchette.org describes the Internet as an “updated location for both our erotic and intellectual fantasies.” Dating-simulation games, shock websites, screamers and sites like Mouchette.org draw attention to the fact that, in the words of Mouchette the net can “circulate emotions,” and incite the “whole range of human emotions.”
Mouchette describes the process of logging into the net as “connecting to my (her) soul.” Mouchette’s beliefs about the Internet and the human spirit are similar to the viewpoint of the fantasy centered Otaku, who feel they are more themselves through their virtually constructed identities than they are in reality.
I refer to Internet usage as an out-of-body experience, because online persona gives users the ability to be judged by the quality of their soul, rather than their physical body. I believe that this has the potential to contribute to an understanding of gender as a social construction, where the physical body and irrefutable indications of gender (biological build and genitalia) are regarded as irrelevant or even obsolete. As mentioned before, this is why I have the randomized protagonist character selection; so users are forced to navigate through a world with a gender they might not have self-elected, yet discover, after multiple game plays, that this does not change anything about the protagonists attitude, dialogue or plot development of the game; the only differences are the genitals when entering sexual gameplay.
Mouchette cites suicidejournal.com as one of her influences, a journal kept by an anonymous identity who published their suicidal thoughts and contemplations, then eventually announced their suicide, after which their site disappeared, never revealing to the audience if the web presence were a fictitious persona, or if an actual suicide had taken place.
Download the pdf here: fuckeverything-manifesto
A previous entry about Fuck Everything