Privacy, Intimacy and Interaction in a Post Digital Age

One of the most discussed consequences of the Digital Revolution is the breakdown of geographical barriers to social interactions. The world is flattened through connectivity and accessibility. While human ability places some constraint on the number of relationships an individual is capable of creating, nurturing, and maintaining, cyberspace exponentially increases the possibilities for people in different places, geographically and otherwise to connect and engage. However, with lower barriers to social connections, comes the expectation for individuals to produce representations of self within cyberspace and a reduced sense of privacy as cyberspace continues to blur the lines of public and private. In this paper, I will explore the concept of technological spaces and highlight the works of a few artists offering answers to the questions of “how, why cyberspace”.

In Part II of The New Media and Cyberculture Anthology, author Stephen Graham presents a number of the various definitions of cyberspace, including professor of design Michael Batty’s definition, which describes cyberspace as, “a new kind of space, invisible to our direct senses, a space which might become more important than physical space itself [and which is] layered on top of, within and between the fabric of traditional geographical space.”[1] While I find a world in which cyberspace is more important than physical space somewhat disconcerting, I believe cyberspace often serves to enrich the physical space. However, understanding the vast enormity of cyberspace can be problematic so many people opt to use spatial metaphors to describe activity within and around the subject of cyberspace. While spatial metaphors help with visualizing the abstractions of cyberspace, Graham raises the contention that arises with tying such abstractions to “’real’, material spaces and places within which daily life is confined, lived and constructed.”

Artist Jill Magid has used performance and art to explore the relationship between technology and material space in a number of her pieces. “I seek intimate relationships with impersonal structures” is how the New York based artist describes her artistic intentions.[2] The spawning of technology in material public spaces lies as the foundation of Magid’s work and echoes Stephen Graham’s description of the concept of the co-evolution of technology, in which he explains, “that both the electronic ‘spaces’ and territorial spaces are necessarily produced together, as part of the ongoing restructuring of the capitalist political-economic system.” Magid’s work dissects the role of technology and authority in political and economic systems and illustrates her intrigue with hidden information, the concept of being public as a condition for existence, and intimacy in relation to power and observation.[3]

With her 2004 project, Evidence Locker, Magid engaged the CCTV surveillance system of Liverpool, Citywatch, which operates the largest surveillance system in the world. She gained access to images and video from the system through a “loophole”. Wearing a bright red trench coat over the course of 31 days, she would call the police on duty with details of where she was and ask them to film her in particular poses, places or even guide her through the city with her eyes closed. In doing so, Magid formed intimate relationships with many of Citywatch’s officers and collected the footage of the incidents by submitting 31 Subject Access Request Forms, which she composed as love letters that expressed what she was thinking, feeling, and experiencing in each individual incident. This exploration of technology and space broke down barriers of authority and allowed Magid to form intimate relationships with the officers she interacted with, bonds so close Magid likened them to love.

Incident_Retrieved. 7:oo loop. | Final Tour. Police CCTV footage,audio track. 2:14 min.

Magid took advantage of the opportunity that reduced privacy and greater connectivity sometimes makes available: increased social interaction. Magid’s pieces, which question authority, seem to have a strong influence from one of the core tenets of Wired magazine’s 1996 editorial, The Wired Manifesto. The piece, written at a peak moment of the digital evolution, commanded readers to adhere to the following:

If someone has information about you, demand to see it. If there are cameras on your street, demand to look through them. No CCTV system of the sort that British politicians dote on so should be in use unless the people it watches have some way to access its imagery, both directly, through nearby screens, and indirectly. That's what public space is all about: a place where one can see - and be seen.[4]

Magid has explored the private as public and public as private in a number of works. Her efforts link back to Graham’s writings, particularly his concept of the recombination perspective in which a fully relational view of the links between technology, time, space and social life is necessary to understand how social and special life are subtly and continuously recombined in complex combinations of new sets of spaces and times, which are always contingent and impossible to generalize. [5]

Design student Michele Chang and Elizabeth Goodman respond to the intersection of cyberspace and material space through the creation of “asphalt games”.[6] An “asphalt game”, or Digital Street Game is a hybrid game of misadventure set on the streets of New York. “It's a battle for turf, a contest of wills - in short - an excuse to explore the city.” The rules are outlined as follows:

Players compete for turf by performing and documenting 'stunts' on the physical streets of New York in order to claim territory on a virtual map. Stunts are comprised of a random combination of 3 elements: 1) an object commonly found in the city (e.g. bodega) 2) a street game (e.g. stickball) and 3) a wildcard/urban situation (e.g. happy hour). Players interpret these elements as they wish, then stage and photograph their stunt in order to claim a spot on the map. The more stunts players perform the more turf they claim. But of course some players may want to compete for the same territory. In order to hold on to territory, players' stunts must score high with the rest of the game community. [7]

Constructing more of an interactive framework than Magid, Chang and Goodman have created an interface for people to engage in the material world through the portal of cyberspace. While less transformative than Magid’s passive aggressive questioning of authority in Evidence Locker, Chang and Goodman tap into the human experience of play. Enabling the location as a communicative medium, Asphalt Games created emergent experiences for members of the games’ community. Their games were able to have more of an experiential effect than Magid’s solitary play with Liverpool’s Citywatch.

Screenshot of online gameboard representing play in New York City’s East Village. Players lizg and pachanga have recently completed stunts, whereas piQued and maverick are about to stage new ones.

Screenshot of a rumble taking place between current champion, Monkey, and his challenger, Parade. After a rumble stunt is completed, voting is open for 72 hours, after which the player with the highest score claims victory.

For those heavily engaged with social media, Chang and Goodman’s games seem like an almost linear parentage to geolocation applications such as, Foursquare and Gowalla. These applications allow participants to take ownership and leave digital trails of their physical presence through checking into places on the app. Individuals often report the experience of greater interpersonal connections through further connecting into the grid. Through weaving identity and activity through cyberspace, leaving cookies and bytes to be stored in clouds and servers, they become the authority that surveys and creates logs of activity in material space.

Screenshot of History screen on Foursquare, indicating the place where an individual “checked-in”. The individual is encouraged the visit the location numerous times to become “Mayor” or leave tips and photos for others interested in the place.

This evolution of technology and space and place is further enhanced through Stephen Graham’s third perspective on technology and space, which describes the concepts of substitution and transcendence, or “the idea that human territoriality, and the space and place-based dynamics of human life, can somehow be replaced using new technologies.” With the grid of cyberspace interconnected with physical place, there is more space than ever to communicate, engage, and play.

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[1] Stephen Graham, “The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing space, place and information technology.” In The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology, edited by Pramond K. Nayer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.

[2] Jill Magid http://jillmagid.net/writings.php

[3] Neuberger Museum of Art. http://www.neuberger.org/events.php?type=category&yy=2011&cat=3&catname=Lectures%2C+Panels%2C+and+Dialogues

[4] “The Wired Manifesto”. Wired Magazine, Issue 2 (10). 1996.

[5] Stephen Graham, “The end of geography or the explosion of place? Conceptualizing space, place and information technology.” In The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology, edited by Pramond K. Nayer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.

[6] Michele Chang and Elizabeth Goodman, “Asphalt games: enacting place through locative media.” In The New Media and Cybercultures Anthology, edited by Pramond K. Nayer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2010.

[7] Tisch School of New York. http://itp.tisch.nyu.edu/object/itpnews_asphalt.html. 2003.

Google Art Project

Taking the virtual art experience to the next level, Google's recently unveiled Art Project offers one of the best digital experiences with traditional art. Participating museums have allowed Google to bring selected pieces of their collections to life virtually. Art Project allows you to visit Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, The National Gallery in D.C., and the Uffizi in Florence in only a matter of minutes. With Google street view technology, you can experience the layout of the museum and use zoom tools to get closer to the paintings than you might be able to physically. Although, I believe nothing compares to standing before art physically, this experience is quite incredible in it's own way. The ease of accessibility makes art available for anyone able to point and click.

From Virtual Reality to Augmented Reality

Experiments with augmented reality in the hands of cereal marketers...

What, Where, and Whose is Cyberspace?

Technology as an Agent of Cultural Transformation

Technology enters the inmost recesses of human existence, transforming the way we know and think and will. Technology is, in essence, a mode of human existence, and we could not appreciate its mental infiltration until the computer became a major cultural phenomenon. (Heim, 61).

In an attempt to define the parameters and ownership of cyberspace, various writers have explored both abstract and literal interpretations. Though various lenses have been applied to illuminate the concept of cyberspace, themes of duality of form and time seem fairly universal across texts. While Wole Soyeinka and Linda Henderson’s interpretations of cyberspace present the concept in a more abstract form, with cyberspace or “hyperspace” as a fourth dimension with mystical/spiritual implications, Michael Heim conceives of cyberspace in a more literal, technological form, presenting the conflict between man and machine. My interpretation is likely somewhere between the two camps, with a higher regard for Heim’s interpretation, which allows for greater accessibility. Cyberspace is a medium for communal use and individual expression that is in all places that offer the means and ability to access cyberspace. Admittedly, that definition solves no looming questions over the space, as the space is constantly changing and bring about change.

Soyinka and Henderson discuss the fourth dimension in a manner that benefits from a strong background in ancient history and knowledge of artistic and philosophical movements. The readings themselves presented a learning curve to reconcile the abstraction of cyberspace as a mystical environment. Henderson’s literature builds and comments on the work of nineteenth century author Charles Hinton, while referencing twentieth century philosopher Peter Demianovich Ouspensky. Hinton was the first to describe the fourth dimension as a curvature of time in which space is relative. Ouspensky posited the fourth dimension as a space with a mystical force centered around an “eternal now”. The concept of an “eternal now” proposed that true informative experiences could occur with a certain degree of artistic sensibility and mystic insight. Users of cyberspace must sort through axioms of logical interference to craft their notion of perception in the fourth dimension. Henderson’s notion of hyperspace philosophy uses Einstein’s comment that, “we cannot attach any absolute signification to the concept of simultaneity, but that the two events which, viewed from a system of coordinates, are simultaneous events when envisaged from a system which is in motion relative to that system.” (Henderson, 345) The curvature of cyberspace allows for forms to change shape in the continuous motion of mutually existing realities.

In his chapter titled “From Interface to Cyberspace” in the book The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, Michael Heim explores the effect of cyberspace on individuals, real and virtual. Cyberspace existing as a represented or artificial world made up of information both inputted and downloaded through an interface consisting of the digital and the human. (Heim, 79) Heim puts his definition of cyberspace in the context of a world in which, “Nobody knew what the future would hold, only that the future would be unimaginably different from the past.” (Heim, 74) Life in the post-digital world is certainly different than the pre-digital one many of us struggle to remember or even conceive. As we continue to colonize digital territories, questions of property ownership and identity arise and call for discussion of this evolving space that is, at once, both communally owned and individually leased, a space, which allows for a utilitarian function in the lives of users or, even, offers a mystical higher power.

The past three decades have witnessed the spawn and proliferation of digital space and entities as an interwoven part of society. Despite ongoing cyberspatial socialization, the prevalence of what Michael Heim describes as “technoanxiety” perseveres among users of and within cyberspace. Initially thought of as an agent of advancement, there is a persistent friction between man and machine. The anxiety stems from the possible passivity that cyberspace presents to its users. As processes become automated, users begin to believe in the promise of ease and escape from everyday responsibilities. However, despite this ideal of escapism, users often become more reliant on technology than before. With some users’ reliance bordering clinical addiction, a fair amount of skepticism at technologies’ benefits is expected. This anxiety is taking place within social scenes, as well as academic arenas. There is an uncertainty over whether technology acts as an opponent or component of human lives.

As opponent, Heim suggests technology “appears as a rival intelligence that challenges the human being to a contest.” (Heim, 59) Similar to an arms race, humans race to acquire digital property and produce propaganda at alarming rates. This propaganda manifests itself in the form of social media sites and blogging platforms, through interactions with news and information sources, and through commerce of physical goods in virtual space. Technology empowers individuals to create identities and communities as an extension of self. Programs such as Second Life enable people to represent themselves in a virtual reality. Within this reality, avatars become expressions of either real or imagined selves.

With this power comes the option to operate within actual social norms and the morality of actual reality. Conversely, people may choose to alter their expression of self to deconstruction social norms of actual reality. This can take the form of people expressing different genders than their actual gender or transforming their concept of personality with some people exhibiting heightened extroversion or introversion, illustrating extreme political ideals, or revealing unpopular fetishes. This freedom of expression can show bare a dark underside as people are unable to reckon discrepancies of their fictional and actual identities. Heim expresses this phenomena by stating, “We find it difficult to become aware of our own internal states without the objective representations of the interface.” (Heim, 80) From one perspective, cyberspace allows individuals to explore their desired self and project their inhibitions into a virtual reality. This interface between actual and virtual provides an opportunity for users to inch towards self-actualization. Alternately, the friction caused from conflicting representations of self can have a harmful effect on users sense of self and ability to relate to others. In this way, cyberspace bares both communal and individual consequences.

Cyberspace is at once yesterday, today, and tomorrow that thrives through interaction and engagement. Despite the positive offering of cyberspace, the concept ultimately raises more questions than answers. Questions difficult to address without historical distance. And, yet, we will observe cautiously and engage with an open mind to realize the ongoing effects of cyberspace.

Bibliography

Michael Heim, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Linda Henderson. The Fourth Dimension and Non-Euclidean Geometry in

Modern Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983).

Soyinka, Wole. “Appendix: The Fourth Stage,” Myth Literature and the African World, New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990, pg. 141.

The Wilderness Online

Throughout my graduate studies in the field of advertising, many courses have discussed the impact digital technologies have had on the advertising industry and the field of communication. While these theories and discussions have helped to inform the rationale I use when crafting strategies for the practice of advertising, I've been interested in exploring how the proliferation of digital technology has affected other fields. While I do not self identify as an artist, I have a modest artistic background in both visual art and performance art. Additionally, I have taken numerous courses meant to explore the relationship of creativity and the artistic process. These previous experiences are primarily what attracted me to the Visual Cultures in Cyberspace course.

With regard to visual art, I am especially interested in how emerging technologies have enabled artists to think differently and approach their work with a constantly growing tool set. Most recently, I was extremely impressed by an interactive film created in promotion of the band Arcade Fire’s most recent album The Suburbs. The interactive film The Wilderness Downtown was created by video director and photographer Chris Milk and utilized HTML5 to personalize a location-based audiovisual web experience in the form of a music video for Arcade Fire’s single “We Used to Wait”. Web experiences like this and those similar push the limits of what’s possible in cyberspace and create a sense of wonder to art online. However, I often wonder in what ways digital has disabled the artistic process by only creating two-dimensional interactions. Are there instances where “rich media” creates poor experiences with art?

I look forward to exploring these questions and others that arise through the course of the semester. Additionally, I look forward to gaining an informed opinion on art in cyberspace.