Space and Time

Identity and Net realities

Digital critique and parody

Interactive Net Art

IDENTITY and NET REALITIES project guidelines:

Identity on the Internet is a complex and ever changing issue. Among the most commonly discussed issues of identity on the Internet, is the question of truth behind user identities. Whether one uses the Internet to realize personal fantasies, or present invented identities, the Internet can be a method for users to remove themselves from reality. Many questions arise from this, among them: should this impersonation be monitored and regulated, and what would be the repercussions of policing identity?

Identity issues pertaining to the Internet are largely unresolved and will remain caught in a discourse between user intentions and technological merits. One needs to address how and what new identities and cultural patterns will emerge as a result of global interconnectivity increases. The Internet has broken geographic boundaries by its instant distribution of information to any web enabled user. Is this new communication path, information travels without borders and with indifference to local ideologies. Is Internet use and knowledge distribution creating a new form of global identity?

Internet based coomunication models such as relay chat, online blogs, and website forums, are allowing users to assume and create virtual identities. No address is checked nor photo ID is required to participate in an online forum. While a large percentage of online identities are be true to life, an equal percentage may be misleading. By assuming virtual identities, online users may feel the Internet world is a safe place available to express and attain total freedom. With this in mind, artworks that argue or agree with this concept of virtual freedom are being considered. Is cyberspace truly free from assault, fraud, and surveillance? The committee is also interested in artworks commenting specifically on how and why these identities are formed online and how or why these may function within society.

Television broke the geographic boundary (with an author-viewer relationship), but the relatively new medium of the Internet can break even more barriers. The potential of the Internet to break boundaries far surpasses that of the
television. The Internet knows no bounds except for those that are imposed on it from outside governments and parties, while television is limited by the reach of the broadcaster’s signal. Anyone with a computer and internet access can be
an author and publish content, breaking given local and geographic social and political restrictions.

The Digital Visions committee is furthermore looking for net art submissions that deal with issues about media distribution and consumption. What effect is media, specifically the Internet, having on cultures around the world? As cultures share aspects of themselves with each other, are identities being blurred and hybridized? Are E-technologies contributing to the emergence of a new globally (consumer) shared or E-Internet based culture? Within the techno-cultural time frame: what effects are distributed communication channels having on the individual and/or the subject's relationship between his or her own identity and culture?