MySpace is the poster child of a new cultural landscape shaped by the democratization of digital content-creation technologies. In this brave new reality, many choose to parade their intimate lives for their "friends" or the world to see. The act of exhibiting, in this instance, seems less of a representational than a presentational one, ranging from wishful image projection to conspicuous identity experimentation.
Interestingly, while the dynamic between the see and the be seen has been tipped toward the individuals, we suspect that the fundamental driving force for the eager participation in authorship—and too the spectatorship for that matter—is much less individualistic than it appears. As John Henry Clippinger pointed out, our personal identity is derived from our relationships to others. In other words, how a MySpacer crafts his or her Web page, how the circle of peers responds to it, and how the public subjectifies it are all part of a cycle: a cycle that constructs and calibrations out recognition of one’s self identity, of each other’s, and of our collective heredity.
If you are interested in learning more about the development of this net art installation, please contact frank [at] compustition [dot] com.
Summary
We'd like to reconstruct the most popular MySpace pages in physical space, thus highlighting people's identity formulation, appraisal, and recalibration process amplified by the online social networking environment.
I. The Website
Website visitors can nominate MySpace pages that interest them.
Within the nominee list, visitors vote for the pages that they'd like to see being realized.
*The tally of votes is done in real-time, therefore one can see the updated results immediately.
II. The Software
A top 10 MySpace pages list is created and constantly updated based on the latest votes.
Each of the top 10 pages is retrieved and its content parsed. Page components such as portraits, messages, music, and wallpapers are extracted and stored.
*The software application monitors the top 10 pages frequently, therefore any changes made to them should be recorded fairly quickly.
III. The Installation
Each aforementioned page component is recreated in the gallery space using a corresponding equipment. E.g.: Portrait to digital photo frame, message to LCD display, music to boombox, and wallpaper to projector (projects to walls).
Putting them together, a MySpace page is herein realized in the physical space. (The following 3D rendering is based on this real MySpace page.)
*Each "page" on the top 10 list is shown for a few minutes before the next one kicks in.
