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Online identity.
So when you use Google, there is essentially a switch
that you can flip, so when you...so that when you log in,
it remembers every search you do.
You can also tell it to remember every webpage you go
to from Google based on it.
And I don't know if you see, but there is like tremendous utility
to that if you have ever lost a webpage or if you have forgotten
or "what was it that I found?".
But that creates record of your interests or at least your sort
of stumblings, through the online search base.
And it reflects very...very significantly on your identity.
Google has a...a very particular about the way
that they put forward the information that they're going
to use, how they're going to use and this is spelled
out in their privacy policy, but the thing is
about privacy policy is they have a tendency
to change over time.
As our understanding of...of information that's being stored
and its usage change, public can have, or can create a situation
where Google then respond by changing their privacy policy.
The first project I want to talk about is
by the artist named Liz Filardi, it's called "facetbook".
When she was...what she became aware of is
that Facebook has a similar, sort of structure to it,
and that what you leave there is what is...what is seen
at that point in time.
So she realized that by, sort of moving through the space
and erasing her traces, she could create this kind
of archive set of personalities or personalities snapshots.
And facetbook really does that,
she created...she created a profile, and she goes through
and erases it, but leaves a link to the archive of it
where you can look through previous incarnations.
In signing up for these spaces, these social spaces,
like Twitter or Facebook,
and so forth...We are creating a record,
we are creating a...there is a buildup of data.
A very interesting project by Keith Obadike
where he created an intervention into eBay and attempted
to sell his blackness.
Now, this one is interesting from several aspects,
the first of which is, of course,
obviously you can't sell your ethnicity,
or your ethnic heritage.
But it created this really wonderful dialogue about
"what is it to be black in this country?",
"What is it to be a black artist in this country?",
"What is it to be...what are, sort of pros and cons of it
as it were, What are the advantages
and disadvantages of it?"
The next piece is by Scarlet Electric,
called Mrs. Cory Arcangel.
And really what it amounts to be is, sort of collection
of items of, and about the artist Cory Arcangel.
And put together in the manner
that really almost approaches like web stalking.
But the collection reflects on the nature of media,
and if you look at, sort of really naive structures,
they are very basic templates in the way
that the things are put together.
You see that this is like...this is the collection,
this can very easily be the collection of an individual.
And it...but it is the collection of somebody else.
So it's interesting from that standpoint.
Now, the aspects, I mean, sort of looking back across these,
the thing that these have in common that relate to this
between Kith Obadike's piece and Scarlet Electric's is
that they really are about manipulation
or quantification of an identity.
In Keith Obadike's piece, it's really about his identity.
And it's a way to create, or to expose his perception
to society's perceptions of identity to the rest
of the world, and to...then also offer some commentary
about eBay, and the way eBay operates.
In Scarlet Electric's piece, it's really about the,
sort of what we leave behind as much as it is about,
like hero worship, and stalking famous people.
And so we see that there is
like an interesting balance between...um...I wanna say
positives and negatives in this.
But there is definitely...a cost to putting
out parts of your identity.