Self Presence and Expression as "We're Surfing on the Internet!" (27th Spetmeber)

Cybernetic Self, as the brief is titled, is a project in which we are to represent the concept of self representation on the internet, and how we interact and ultimately change ourselves as more and more of our social lives depends increasingly on the internet.

The project can be broken up into three distinct angles;
Network Self, Autopoiesis and Sociomaterial.

Our Network Self relates to how we present ourselves on the internet, be this how we choose to behave to others, or just the websites we choose to interact with. This has huge impacts in both how we, as humans, socialise with people and spend our time, as well call into question how private our social lives are if we are constantly sharing it with the world, and how ultimately all these things alter us as people.

Sociomaterialism is the concept used to describe how technology and social interaction are both intrinsically linked in the workplace and our day to day lives, and whilst technology cannot be reduced to the social, and vice versa, they are almost inseparable in the way we approach both.

Finally, Autopiesis is the theory and practice of people defining themselves in a social environment, that without social interaction we are no one. People build themselves as autonomous and as though they are completely in control of their own self, but their own self is built purely for interaction with others, and therefore can never be truly autonomous.
So what happens when the human element is taken away and replaced with a computer?

 

This project personally appeals to me greatly, as it allows for a lot of interesting ways to express different sides of people, and the interactions people can have. 

The idea I'm currently investigating, after spending time in the studio, will be a multi-layered print out, using clear UV paint over a printed document, which, when exposed to UV light, will reveal the self that comes out when exposed to a computer.

The current decisions I need to make whilst developing this idea are what styles do I use, using real photos of people or illustrations for the base layer, beneath the UV paint, and if the subjects be fictional and highlight more extreme cases of differing behaviours on the internet, or use real life people and have the internet selves be comparatively more normal.