Wunderkammer 2.0

Oh The Spectacle!

An interactive website made in response to contemporary cabinets of curiosities.

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Me, Myself & I (password: facs1939)

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

The multimedia performance piece of Me, Myself & I, stems from the overarching question of “why do we do what we do?” The piece is a collaborative attempt in exploring the human obsession with memory and the archival of memories. Hence, in attempt to answer the central conundrum of why humans are so obsessed with the archival of memory, the performance positions this question in the context of contemporary web culture, where millions upon millions have become active archivists, storing private memories in public spaces like video recordings on YouTube, photographs on Facebook, as well as diary entries on Twitter. In reference to these digital technologies, Me, Myself & I’s digital zeitgeist asks more directly whether these archival technologies make us more empathetic or increasingly narcissistic? All in aims to answer humanity’s true motivations for the persistent archival of memory throughout human history.

Me, Myself & I acts as a kind of cultural critique, passively suggesting an answer through a kind of montage of digital-social-zeitgeist-montage, highlighting the irony in the banality of the narcissistic cultural behavior. The extraction of the predominant ‘web user content’ points to the fundamental dreams and desires that underly the basis of much of humankind’s history. As a result, Me, Myself & I suggests that humanity’s compulsive-obsessive drive to archive its memories is not a contemporary phenomenon. It is not a result of technologies bending and manipulating humans to their will. It is a result of a simple desire that I believe existed embedded in the human race from the times of our ancestors, to the times of Caesar and Napoleon, and all the way to the present day. It is a dream not exclusive to those in positions of power. It is a dream shared by all classes and all races. It is a dream shared by both you and I.

“What I dream of is what all humans dream of, the dream of eternal life promised to us by our Gods. I want to live on like our memories of the Great Romans. I want my footprint to be immune to the high-tides of the sea. I dream of being relevant.’

Media Performance: Me, Myself & I

Assignment 2: Lab 4 Group 4 from FACS 1939 on Vimeo.

Facebooking or Vaguebooking? NATIONAL POST

When you blitz your social network with a purposely vague news flash on your life, you’re begging for attention

“What’s on your mind?”

It’s the question Facebook asks millions of people every day. And it’s a question that many choose to answer with obscurity.

Steve is wondering if it’s all worth it … Rebecca shouldn’t have done that.

This kind of indeterminate status updating hardly answers the Facebook question. If anything, it elicits more questions in return.

Enter vaguebooking: the act of posting an unclear status that prompts, even dares, friends to ask you more. The term was originally coined on UrbanDictionary.com — an online collection of slang terminology created by the people, for the people — and gained attention when it was featured as the site’s word of the day earlier this month.

Vaguebooking’s core concept lies within the status writer’s ability to bait its readers while still remaining elusive. It is always confessional, provocative and indeterminably sly. Bob was wrong to do that. Jane should have handled that better. These phrases are consistently open-ended but hint at something more just below their surface. For example, Stephanie

is late … and worried could simply mean that Stephanie is late for school or work. If accompanied by inside knowledge about Stephanie’s sex life, though, it could imply something much more pressing.

Specificity is forbidden in vaguebooking, and one certain rule is never mentioning anyone by name. However, the use of Vaguebooking to message other (often unwilling) parties is common practice, whether the person is directly mentioned or not. Therefore the posting Liz shouldn’t have slept over last night holds special meaning to someone out there, while the rest of us get to indulge in asking questions about where Liz slept (or who she slept with) last night. Occasionally Vaguebookers will also mention a person in terms of their role, often as a cowardly way of confronting them. Trudy wishes her boss hadn’t done that. Steve isn’t sure about his wife.

In its simplest form, vaguebooking can be used to celebrate, Jen just got some great news; to grieve, Jen will miss her; or to bitch, Jen hates this. Sure, Jen could have just told us her big news, or who it is she will miss or what it is that she hates but then, that’s the whole point to Vaguebooking: Why just tell people when you can get them to guess?

Upon reading these statuses, we can’t help but ask, “What’s the great news, Jen?” or “What are you late for, Stephanie?” They compel our curiosity and appeal to our desire for drama.

Facebook has created the ideal platform for our ego — that little (or in some people, big) part of our psyche that is immersed in self-importance. In the social networking realm, our audience, those handpicked people — whether it’s your ex, your high school crush or your mom — are always ready to read whatever it is you have to say. With vaguebooking, it’s easy to create suspense. Martin isn’t

sure if he should tell you. And just like that, within the span of a short unclear phrase, a regular event becomes mysterious and fully exposed people become enigmas.

However, all ego-stroking aside, there must be a larger reason behind all this ambiguity. With virtual soapboxes at our disposal every second, why then are we purposefully failing to communicate?

In its extended definition, vaguebooking can also be used as “a cry for help.” Statements like Ann just

doesn’t know anymore or Brian is

wondering if it’s all worth it could easily be interpreted as depressive projecting at its very saddest. So why post it online then? Perhaps technology has created a protective veil, allowing us to engage in emotions we otherwise wouldn’t have without our third-person (Steve, Jen, Stephanie, instead of me, myself and I) anonymity. Could it be that vaguebooking allows us to reach out in a safe way? For example, through the use of song lyrics: Ciaran … lonely, lonely, that is me. Kim Why are you lonely? Ciaran It’s a lyric from Feist. I’m

fine!

In this case lyrics further protect the writer from vulnerability because even though the lyric obviously means something to them, they can quickly change their tune if anyone out-and-out asks them about it.

Then again, maybe vaguebooking is much simpler then all of this. Perhaps, in this online world where everyone has an immediate voice, a problem has arisen: No one is listening. As a result, people have started to yearn for the dialogue lacking in our one-way communication culture. Maybe people aren’t vaguebooking for attention, but are simply doing it to elicit a response. Maybe Facebook, Twitter and all the other social sites have in fact painted us into a lonely corner and this is the social butterfly’s way of inducing good old-fashioned conversation in a new world format.

Or maybe we’re just a bunch of egomaniacs.

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I am not relevant

Mark Making through the digital world

I find 'Facebook' really quite remarkably beautiful. There is something poetically beautiful to see all your friends update their status. A window into tragic and not so tragic lives.
I just want people to realize that when there seems to be nothing there, look closer and you will find beauty.

Life through the lens of facebook

the cool thing about the internet is...

Sunday February 10, 2008