Monday, May 14

3 Interventions: Undermining the digital landscape

Came up with a few ideas last weekend on actions to highlight power structures in the online space. If Web 2.0 means the Time Person of the Year is me, then how can I use my authorship as an activist? (3 of 6 total)


Me vs. Google AdWords. Works like Google will Eat Itself and Cory Arcangel's Kurt Cobain's Suicide Letter vs. Google AdSense exposed the weaknesses in keyword based revenue. Exploit.

Mistag Flickr images. Most tags for photos are relatively benign and objective ("red","apple","landscape"). What happens when these becomes value judgements ("freedom","terror", and "perfect")?

MySpace puppet. Users on sites like Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace manipulate representation and identity to show themselves as they want others to see them. NZ/London artist Leon Tan has proposed a single identity/page controlled by many, while NYC artist Derek Lerner has extended this to his "sock puppet" Robin Astro, giving out "Robins" login info to Digg, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Second Life. Exploit.

1 comment:

Luke Munn said...

Yeah I guess in myspace there would be few limitations. If myspace conveys who I want to be, why not open it up to whoever 20 people want to express themselves as?

Wikipedias freedom seems pretty contingent on the topic you're on. Math and science authors seem to come down hard on unreferenced statements, where an entry on a company or individual is given free reign. Same effect seems to happen with hot topics, like Bush, Virginia Tech, etc.