European New Media artists Franco Birkut and Eva Mattes launched a project in 2000 entitled Life Sharing that explored the concept of digital transparency, specifically playing on the term "file sharing", by breaking through the wall of individual safety and private identity in the internet world. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, these two artists designed a website (0100101110101101.org) that allows anyone to go to its home page, encounter an interface that resembles their own computer directory through which you can click and navigate, seeing images, text, software, and even personal e-mail. By putting their personal data onto public display, Birkut and Mattes investigate the relationship between files on a computer and the reflection of the computer's owner in such intimate information. They make themselves vulnerable to things like viruses and identity theft, not to mention putting themselves out there for the public eye.
information taken from:
https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/0100101110101101.org
The ramifications of this piece are highly controversial. The artists become way more than just two identities among the masses of other identities that peruse the internet daily. And at the same time, the viewers that browse this website and see their personal files and information are almost forced to become voyeurs that would otherwise be violating some level of personal privacy in a normal circumstance. This makes the idea of publicly displaying your privacy on a specific website for anyone and everyone to see pretty daring and thought provoking.
I really admire the way that this work seeks to transcend certain personal boundaries, not to mention safety measures, that are otherwise emphasized at every chance in society. I immediately think of what I have always been told since I can remember, especially since I have had continuous access to the vast world of internet communications in such a growing technological age - to never give out personal information to anyone or anything on the internet (full name, address, phone number, etc.) Although computers have provided a definite means for fast and easy communication for people all around the world, they have also greatly advanced our abilities to seclude ourselves off from those around us by having these personal computers that we spend so much time on and often depend on for personal gratification, getting work done, communication, entertainment, etc. The fact that we devote so much time and energy on computer and internet technology, yet still maintain this distance between ourselves and our digital identities by keeping as much personal information away from others' viewing makes this project quite ironic and intruiging.
These two artists are obviously interested in exploring the concept of a digital identity as a representation of an actual person. Something that makes this idea interesting to me is that it relates a great deal to what makes something a portrait of a person, specifically how every piece of information on someone's personal computer can define some aspect of their identity, what they are interested in doing or seeing, and how they go about navigating through the world digitally. As an artist who is very drawn to individual identity and portraiture, this is something that I would like to explore further.
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