This work deals with ideas and concerns relating to identity, inhibitions and personal expression, and how they are aided through personal experiences with the Internet and digital technology. Central to these concerns are concepts of a ‘mask’ that we wear, that disappears when we are placed in particular circumstances. This work focuses upon digital mediums such as the computer and the Internet. The Internet offers anonymity allowing self expression in a non-confronting environment, from the safety of one’s home. This anonymity removes the personal ‘mask’, giving us the freedom for a more truthful expression of our inner character.
Online audiences share experiences through networks like “Facebook : a social utility that connects you with the people around you”, “MySpace : A place for friends”, “Flickr : Share your photos and videos. Watch the world.”, “YouTube : Broadcast Yourself”, and also “Second Life : Your world. Your imagination”. These forums enable us to express and communicate more than freely perhaps we would otherwise.
Our modern society trusts opinions or reviews on forums like Facebook or weblogs: statistics showing 61% credibility associated with what we read or hear from our friends, colleagues or even people we don’t know; as opposed to 21% of what we hear promoted directly from businesses, public relation officers or sales staff. We are increasingly dependant upon social forums as two-way portals for entertainment, engagement, self-expression, and as massly-integrated networking and communication channels.
My investigations into personal masks, began in 2006 when I read a book by Walter Sorell entitled “The Other Face : the mask in the arts” of 1973. He memorably quotes Oscar Wilde “…Man is least himself when he talks in his own person … Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth…”.
This work is an interactive installation utilising “iChat” software and the inbuilt “iSight” camera of an iMac computer, networked with an additional two iMac computers. Black backdrops will act as a blue-screen and black-coloured masks will remove part of a participant’s face. These physical masks remove enough of their identity to allow participants to experience aspects of the Internet that are dealing with the same key concerns of the project – identity, inhibitions and personal expression. In replacement of the keyed-out background and mask areas, a moving image sequence of a mannequin is featured. The moving sequence symbolises and contrasts the truth of your own immediate environment with a potentially fake and untruthful display of information brought to your computer, via such forums and chatrooms on the Internet.
Three computers in one room are connected over the Internet, screens and participants face away from each other. One computer features the same headless mannequin sitting at the screen, as per the moving image sequence – and thereby appears as though watching itself. Participants can sit and interact with each other and the mannequin – both visually, through the iSight camera, and also via instant messages from within the iChat environment. A large projection linked from the mannequin’s computer displays the spontaneous and continuous chat between the three computers, utilising the inclusion of an automatic text feed that is misleading to the audience as appears originating from the mannequin itself.
Through the installation of this work, I am looking to gain more animated expressions from participants once they realise that they are central to the work. The work also deals with issues of accessibility of information and intimate details over the Internet, and aims to make a statement about how the availability and somewhat anonymity of the Internet gives accessibility to sharing and experiencing personal expressions. Perhaps more so in ‘real time’ through the live streaming of Internet data, than is possible in ‘real life’. Many chatting communities give people confidence to reveal more about themselves than they might otherwise in person.
My practice is influenced by a number of artists’ dealing with similar concerns. Max Couper’s “Endless Conveyor” reveals footage of people traveling along a conveyor belt. He synchronises six projections of their faces onto the gallery walls – thus resulting in audience and art being the same. Their journey along the conveyor belt, in an otherwise dark and encompassing room, deals with such issues as consumption, entertainment and technology.
Couper’s concern for entertainment provided me with a key focus and consideration for the interactive potential of this work, as much of our time spent on the Internet is for enjoyable experiences and entertainment. Technology is embedded within our lives and this project aims to discuss the caution required for the Internet – and its potential for intimate and social experiences.
Couper inspired in my work a strong and social comment about respecting our privacy online, whether with friends or strangers. His social conscience is applaudable and evident in “Shrinking Beach” where on Chelsea Beach at low tide on an afternoon in September 2000 on the river Thames, London, he lead a round table of figureheads from broad international and cultural backgrounds. Given a couple of hours to negotiate an agreement for land-ownership and development, human-rights and the environment, the discussions did eventuate into an agreement before the tide came in. “Shrinking Beach” was later exhibited as large-scale prints accompanied by a transcript of the discussion.
Barbara Bloom is skillful in observing, having described knowledge as knowing what to observe. Dealing with concerns relating to observations, she creates enigmatic multi-media and multi-layered compositions to investigate ‘fake and alternate realities’ in order to arrive at a ‘true fiction’. It’s this melange of reality and fiction that has helped to develop my ideas and context. Bloom makes art that “…examines the nature of looking” – I found this relevant when examining parts of the Internet, which provide clusters of people that watch and are watched in return – including watching themselves!
Bill Viola’s “Reverse Television – Portraits of Viewers” interrupted the general viewing of Boston television station WGBH-TV by broadcasting the silence and concentration of people in their own home watching television. An interesting statement and powerful self-reflection for society, as it highlighted the dependence upon mass media for one’s entertainment.
Viola’s social commentary and two-way focus of observers and observations, helped nurture my work in its early conceptual stages. Viola derives context and inspiration through a social commentary of the ordinary and familiar routines, with his installations portraying symbollic and emotional arenas within their environment. Just as he looks “…beyond individual limitations toward a more collective, universal mind”, this is increasingly evident through our own everyday online networks. Individuals are providing personal portals to share intimate experiences online with others, just as they relate and proclaim the experiences of others in return.
We have developed the means to broadcast to our own mass audiences in mere seconds – but these audiences are more nichely targeted individuals, with interests, desires and conversations more disclosing than ever before – with the ‘mask’ of the Internet playing a key and vital role in this online evolution. For example, an introvert can become an extrovert behind the safety ‘mask’ of the Internet.
My aim has been to engage an audience through their personal interaction of a familiar medium (the laptop computer), that results in a fun, interactive and thought provoking piece of screen-based art. It will aim to remove one’s personal ‘mask’ and achieve a statement about identity, inhibitions and personal expression through online experiences and digital technology.
As a final stage to complete the circle from watching others, to uploading something myself, I’d like to broadcast a documentary for viewing on the Internet (utilising YouTube and Facebook). This would also give the participants an opportunity to watch themselves on the Internet and gain self-awareness into how they were seen by others within the installation environment.
W. Sorell, The Other Face : the mask in the arts, 1973, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., Indianapolis: 13
