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The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG Project

One box in particular is sure to grab the viewer's attention and that is the creator's. In boc #20, Aceti reveals some very personal aspects on his persona which gives us a further glimpse into the aims and thoughts about the piece. Aceti's box titled "If Elizabeth 2" contained personal attributes which Aceti offers up to the prospective buyer. Conveniently divided into categories for easy browsing, Aceti speaks of his practical use at "social functions" and the status of his physical health. Most intriguing was the box's title, and while interviewing Aceti, I probed the meaning behind his choice. Not expecting a typical response, I was hardly disappointed in discovering the reasons behind such a title. If Elizabeth II represents a personal story of encounter with authority through an art piece, and how this acts as a "[representation of] the idea of a never realise possibility of a humane exercise of power which, far form enslaving becomes an opportunity of freedom, reconstruction, negotiation, and reconciliation…"

In viewing this online piece, it is important to keep in mind the fact that this is not the piece in its entirety. "Slaves4sale.com" is only a portion of what Aceti terms a "hyper media" structure, an organic entity composed of several differing media. Aceti sees his 'hyper-media" phenomenon as a continually developing experience, subject to interactivities as an integral factor in the effectiveness of the piece.

Aceti's work is on of many layers and to those foreign to the many deep-rooted influences form which it derives, &qumany deep-rooted influences form which it derives, "www.slaves4sale.com" may be overlooked or unappreciated for its true depth which his entire work conveys. This is a potential vulnerability, or a factor which could quite possibly affect the product of the piece itself as the work relies so much upon the viewer's interactivity and their response.

However, Aceti seems to have taken this possible consequence into consideration, for when asking the artist about this issue, he responded by stating that although potentially problematic, a viewer experiencing the piece in "fragmented 'bits'" is much reflective of our everyday existence; "experiencing just one part of something that we know as a whole somewhere else is what we do constantly in our daily lives." An example of such, being our brief interactions with others, ones in which we only experience a portion of their multi-layered existence. "We know [this]… but we tend to disregard it." Thus eve if people lack the familiarity with Aceti's art form to properly recognize its many dimensions, this is yet another interesting manifestation of the piece as it relates to the real world.

In fact, Aceti is quite happy with the response from viewers thus far with the piece continuing to generate fascinating responses. There are those who take the website too seriously and find interacting with the piece "unsettling and puzzling," fearing real consequences of their actions in the virtual realm. This, Aceti points out, is of course quite a commentary itself on "society and out relationships with reality and virtuality."

Through crating an online site in which an ironic twist of slavery and the purchase of slaves potentially has a result of setting a real slave free, Aceti touches upon a very real and political issue. Perhaps what is most striking is the fact that through the interactivity of the website, there is a reflection of the past and hope for the future in the real world as it is situation now.


 
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Site: http://www.slaves4sale.com