NetArtWorks: Identity Works
Published on January 28th, 2011
By: Annet Dekker
Project: SKOR
Theme: Body, Internet, Politics
Type: Exhibition
SKOR has a superb reputation in the field of art and the public space. Until now artworks and discussions about them have mainly focused on public art in the ‘real’ world. Although just as real, the virtual world has received little attention. New technologies and online services, together with the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections and mobile Internet connectivity, have radically changed the public space over the past few years. The most important change is the merging of the real and the virtual worlds, which has significantly influenced the ways in which people communicate, as well as on their experience and use of spatial and public dimensions. For SKOR the connection between the offline and online public space is an interesting area to explore.
By commissioning new content/artworks that address or exploit the online space and the characteristics of networks, SKOR wants to critically engage with this space. The SKOR NetArtWorks are a place for project-driven exploration through digital media. This includes artist commissions, interface experiments, community discussions, essays and interviews, filtered links, and collaborations with others.
NetArtWorks: Identity Works
For the first commissions of NetArtWorks, in 2011, SKOR asked artists to address the notion of identity and power in relation to the net. The critical power of the masses through the Internet and social media networks is being acknowledged more and more and is viewed as a very positive development. The acclaimed critic Henry Jenkins has stated that, ‘popular culture can enable a more engaged citizenry, by allowing people to play with power on a micro level’ (Convergence Culture). What has social media brought us, five years after it was introduced (starting with the introduction of You Tube)? How are we using and dealing with its intricate structures? At the same time, what is the other side of social media and similar networks, how do they influence our identity, our sense of self and our relationships with others? How much power do we really have? Are we using social media and networks for our benefit or are they taming us? The issues of identity and power and their relation to network structures are critically analysed and explored by the selected artists in unconventional ways. SKOR NetArtWorks also focus on the broader aesthetics and history of the Internet by highlighting each time an older web work.
ARTISTS
Heath Bunting, Identity Bureau
An identity is a mutable object it’s negotiated between people, organizations, and institutions, formalized in documentation, actions, and possessions. Heath bunting now shows how you create your own legal identity. At the first Identity Bureau hosted by Transmediale Festival in Berlin Bunting was selling two transferable, conveniently packaged, ready-to-use identities for a mere € 500,00. In September during PICNIC in Amsterdam, Bunting will set up a second Bureau Identity with the same mission, to sell his identities. As Bunting project demonstrates, identities can be constructed over time by developing relationships to place a given “person” within a web of shopping cards, cell phones, bills, government correspondence, and other “personal” data. Identity Bureau challenges the idea of personhood by showing how materially produced an identity is.
Lernert & Sander, Pay with Your Privacy
Lernert & Sander have been making commercials, leaders, art movies, documentaries and installations as a team since 2006. Their aim is to make simple and communicative works that try to bridge the barrier between contemporary art and commercial projects. Their highly aesthetic, humorous and dedicated works often challenge the media and viewers in simple but very effective ways. They created Pay with Your Privacy for SKOR’s NetArtWorks, as a follow-up to their earlier film I Love Alaska (2008).
Martine Neddam, Mouchette
Mouchette.org is an interactive website created in 1996 by a pseudonymous character, an Amsterdam based artist who calls herself Mouchette. With her innocent salutation and claims to be nearly thirteen greeting us from the introduction page, what initially appears as a personal website of a pre-pubescent female artist, evolved into darker themes in the subsequent pages.
