| e-[d]entity
: female perspectives on identity in digital environments Video art and television, the time based media that preceded visual web browsers and the interactive online digital boom, developed an aptitude for believability, and a faith in the impossible, among viewers. In the early years of experimental computer graphics (which parallels video but failed to reach a critical mass of arts consumers), artists worked alongside programmers on the digital construction of human facial expression, and other animation techniques. These endeavors were ensconced in research labs where interactive game design and profitable telecommunications work were in development. Quietly, all media disciplines were converging, but it was not until the late 1990s that the various electronic arts disciplines forged and became known as "new media": a commercially viable artistic focus that provides entertainment and content. Computer images and processes which were "insider stories" two decades ago, available only by access to room sized computers (and top secret military clearance) today are messages delivered as attachments over common telephone lines between individuals communicating around the world in nanoseconds. The digital world is no longer an alternative, it is a daily reality, accessible practically everywhere. Representation made possible with digital processes, especially the identity of women, has been explored by artists working with video, with sound, and other creative experimental technologies. New online communication networks have re-defined what it means to have direct contact between people, in a conceptual and gender-free space, one that allows for the authoring of one's personality as well as identity. A program of video documents, artworks and narratives, e-[d]entity was assembled to give a historic and contemporary view to the various digital methods that women artists have used to reclaim their identity, and by ways not possible without digital media. Over the past two decades, these artists have attained innovative results, and have foretold the future, explored dislocated bodies and telepresence. Dr. Sadie Plant coined the term Cyberfeminism (1) in response to the work of VNS Matrix (2). She noted their special communication practice in mailing lists and MOO's (3), where principles and ideologies were replaced by what she observed as cultural viruses. The link between artists and theoreticians in net culture, made apparent by communication and text production, in MOO's, mailing lists, newsgroups and websites. Gender -- in these special cases -- should be understood as electronic text that is transformed during the online dialogue. The writings of Donna Haraway (4) and Sandy Stone (5) instituted Cyberfeminism as a viable and recognized theme of female practice in academia, where online access was already widespread and available to professors and grad students in the early 1990s. In addition to the early presence in MOO environments by Gash Girl, the theoretical manifesto by VNS Matrix, and net.art fem_net projects like Superfem, Pheminist Cyber Roadshow, and FACES, connected women around the world, and established the artistic and creative influence of women online as a special force, an empowering agent for girls who enter the male dominated world of science and technology. POP~Tarts, a column in Telepolis (1996-1998) written by Kathy Rae Huffman and Margarete Jahrmann , explored these concepts in a series of multimedia texts, in pop~Topics.(6) Even with the growing saturation of internet, the reality remains: more women are offline than online. This prevents most women (and especially women from non-western/non-commercially engaged countries) from experiencing the possibilities of net e-[d]entity. The e-discussion remains the privilege of connected women, women's studies programs in universities, and closed environments where women congregate to study and communicate women's topics. Groups like "F-e-mail and Beyond", were constructed for artists to delve into the borders of Internet technology to attempt the deconstruction of the myths of man, machine, and motors. This network, developed in direct collaboration with the Women's Internet Council (7), is a site for the education of women working in multimedia and net practices, and aims to turn them into assets for social and cultural life. Dr. Deborah Tannen (8), whose books analyze conversational styles between men and women, and subsequently how friends relate to each other, points out the clear differences between male and female behavior in discussions. Her familiar illustrations bring the point to "everyday" reality. She insists that we live in a gendered reality. If this is so, our gendered investigation of data space can only bring a female analysis - by girls for grrrls. Therefore, the female presentation of women envisioned via electronic and digital means is an important area of concern. It is just not anything like male representation. Period. The path to female digital representation -- created by women -- has grown, and become easier to access in the 1990s. Women, however, were a rare presence in the technical laboratories of the 1970s and 1980s. A video by Max Almy begins the search for digital representation in e-[d]entity. It is a prophetic work created during after hours access to a "high tech" effects studio in a commercial TV editing facility in San Francisco. With new (and extremely expensive at the time) digital techniques, Almy was able to explore provocative futuristic questions about the essence of reality, physical vs. virtual presence, as well as to bring about a critique of physical and social space as we knew it. Leaving the 20th Century (1982) both shocked and amazed viewers of the time, not only with its technical excellence but also by the message proclaiming the apathetic view that there was, really "no reason to stay," especially since there was "nothing good on TV." A comment on society, Leaving the Twentieth Century is not only about leaving, but about wanting to leave it all behind and find a new identity, a new environment. Issues of cybernetics and representation by digital means did not move into television programming, nor in any significant way into Science Fiction Filmmaking in the 1980s. The concepts remained in the hands of research scientists, theoreticians, and artists. Rebecca Allen, one of MIT's innovative members of the Architecture Machine Group (9), and Nadia Thalman, then working in Canada, were two of the first women to delve into issues of representation, especially of facial expression, by digital means. Some of the first computer representations of the body took place in their respective research centers. At the MiraLab in Geneva, Switzerland (10), Nadia Thalman directed pioneering explorations of 3D representations and animation from the late 80s. Her lab has produced prizewinning works, and was the location -- and locus for -- research into Tele-presence, and interactive networked VR worlds. Arghyro Paouri, a participating researcher at MiraLab, created the videotape Etant donne le bleu [Given the blue] (1992). The two minute animation is one of a series of QuickTime files preserved on video, that explore the relationship between known identity and unknown observers. It uses a likeness of Marilyn Monroe (a popular image at MiraLab) in a short narrative that observes the effects of desire and the practice of imitation in the field of visual research. Marilyn, the [im]perfect model - and the ultimate woman, held in high esteem by the unknown and faceless women viewers who might trade their anonymity -in a moment- for the rare chance to ride the high swing as a star, and tower over others with grace and power. Made in collaboration with MiraLab's team at the University of Geneva, (LIG/EPFL & Geoff Wyvill) this work was part of a series of research explorations on gesture, movement and expression via computer graphics. Delving deep into female representation, through many media, Lynn Hershman-Leeson has explored identity and consciousness throughout her body of video and interactive media work (11). Between 1979-83, she developed an interactive installation artwork exploring how a woman perceives herself - and how she expresses her sexuality while she remains captive to her condition of Agoraphobia. "Lorna", the interactive videodisc at the center of this work, was a predecessor to Seduction of a Cyborg (1994), Hershman's videotape about a woman who is transformed by technology and ultimately enters a digital reality. This work, created at CICV, Center for Video Creation, Montbeliard/Belfort, France, symbolizes the digital process used to restore her sight, with the images she witnesses. These are far from the images her technical support team experiences. Hershman's exploration into the female point of view, and her ongoing placement of women as heroines in narrative structures that focus on the world of technology, has engaged her artistic energy into research topics that evoke SciFi from a female standpoint. Chat forums and online discussions are among the most unconstrained avenues where individuals communicate on the Internet. There, in so-called "genderless space", one can establish oneself as any gender one desires. In the early days of chat activity, this virtual space often revealed more of men's fantasy interests in women, than any other topic discussed. But women quickly gained experience and power to create alternative responses, as evidenced in the work by Julia Meltzer and Amanda Ramos, chatlandia (1995), a work that examines male/female communication practice. Originally a sound installation and recreated as single channel videotape for this selection, based on the various computer voices that transcribe actual online chat dialogue. It offers a reflection on the competition between men for female attention, the flirting and gender fantasy in chat rooms, especially "date rooms" where women are often greatly outnumbered, and the question whether or not they are actually women in real life -- by men with specific ideals -- is moot. Desiré, a female persona, takes them on, one at a time, evoking tremendous response from her suitors. They like her "spunk". Rebecca Bollinger looks at the male point of view and male references in her videotape Alphabetically Sorted (1994). This straightforward representation of 'keywords' taken from a men's discussion group evokes strong conceptual roots from language based performance. In a simple format, she presents a scrolling text of these keywords, from A-Z. The discussion, "Plain Brown Wrapper" was once available on CompuServe. The visual words are repeated and emphasized without emotion by Victoria First Class, a speech synthesis program, and gives evidence of the male response to photographs of women, sent in by the chat group members, and which they have all observed privately. Their public response, truncated in this way, gives a new focus to their observations in the online 'safe' environment. Games and girls mix into the frenetic pace of game parlors, but interactive games players do not fit the stereotype of feminist females. But, these young grrls have discouraged that stereotype, anyway. Kristin Lucas, in Watch out for Invisible Ghosts (1996), has created a low tech, black and white videotape that seems to document a game session. But Kristin is in the game, a mix of TV, film and shoot 'em up Nintendo style bag the enemy scenes. We sample how she navigates quickly, plays, and communicates in the environment, loses control, begs "somebody, reboot me!" and realizes that in order to win, someone must "go the layer" for her. Ultimately: it is "game over", but only momentarily. Ericka Beckman, a filmmaker to works with topics of myth and reality, brings together a cast of characters who live spuriously in Virtual Reality in Hiatus (1999). A work that includes animation mixed with live action, it is a 16mm film released as a video. The heroine is Madi, a gamer, and a player who gets captured by the evil "Wang". This experimental narrative reveals the trials and tribulations of a young woman enjoying her on-line interactive identity as "Wanda" (a Go-Go cowgirl construct powered by her computer corset). She enters the game world Frontier regularly to challenge her skills and personal power. After negotiating with the local VR Indian community, Wanda is trapped and overtaken by Wang, a real horse-thief varmint, who detains her against her will. She outwits her evil predator, and discovers her ability to grow a garden that expands her Tool Kit capabilities. code switching (1999) explores the processes of representation, interpretation and the multiplicity of identity formation", proclaims Erin Seymour, who created a software program that can re-draw the image of person. We can watch her image evolve in a video version from her two-channel computer installation. code switching, by definition, is a term used to describe the passing of an individual between cultural personas. This piece revolves around that definition while addressing the idea of physical representation. The artist states: "We all have codes by which we interact with and interpret others. Depending on what situation we are in, we adopt the appropriate persona to fit the occasion, constantly creating representations for others to read appropriately." The piece is silent. Any information given is mediated by reading. As the sketch develops, the viewer reads the facial features of the person forming in front of them. The only representation of voice is given through sub-titles, again as a mediated voice. The text address the viewer directly causing a flux in the locator from monitor screen, to artist and then to the viewer - directly. A parable [for teens through adults] for the "information age" Branda Miller explores what is buried beneath the "hype" of cyberspace and how personal identity and privacy can be profoundly affected by new interactive technologies. In her video U&I dOt cOm (1999), an experimental narrative/documentary hybrid, the curious teenage Zoey negotiates her identity in cyberspace. A web contest sweeps her into a dreamscape of desire and deception, as hidden mechanisms of e-commerce, data-mining and consumer profiling monitor her every move. When Zoey rebels, she is forever transformed in the new cyber-cultural domain. "I pushed the boundaries of documentary form to most appropriately represent the themes for a radically transformed audience", those who inhabit cyberspace (in particular teenage girls). We follow two real life characters, 15 year old Zoey and her mother Jane, in a "fictional" journey through real, on-line environments with advanced computer graphics, a complex soundtrack and a fast pace. The work creatively explores how our identity, fantasy and privacy can be invaded through the use of new interactive technologies. What is virtual reality? How does it define the individual? Marina Grzinic and Aina Smid, in On the Flies of the Marketplace (1999), examine the roles and relationships of the past and present, of sports heroes and of pregnant women. All will exceed the expectations of society if they manage to live out their full life in Eastern Europe. The question: Real Space - Virtual Space, is asked in a series of vignettes that propose a memory overlap between past and present. This is the real virtual reality. An empty swimming pool and a chessboard are the recurring metaphors of the game of life, and in this videotape, the players are at the mercy of the eternal, unanswered riddle. Grzinic says: "Experience may also be re-constructed, re-membered, re-articulated. One powerful means of doing so is the reading and re-reading of fiction in such a way as to create the effect of having access to another's life and consciousness, whether that other is an individual or a collective person within the lifetime called history." In our era of focus into the digital and virtual, it is a wake-up call to the priorities of now. In parallel realities, Linda Wallace brings together her discovery of Japan's urban landscape and the female exploration of virtuality in lovehotel (2000) (12). Using excerpts from a forthcoming book Fleshmeat, by Australian internet artist Francesca da Rimini, and in her own words, we hear details from her online life from 1994-1997 in a series of poetic stanzas. These bits of personal reflection, woven with the investigations of Tokyo by Wallace's digital video camera. Da Rimini, one of the pioneers of cyberfeminism (and original VNS Matrix member) has brought the sexual and erotic focus of female sensuality to the online audience by her participation in MOO environments, and in her websites. The side by side exploration is what Wallace describes as 'Aberrant Intelligence" referring to the multiplicity of narrative lines and semiotic elements - or, an 'aberration of the conventional". Although hacking is a field completely under male domination, Cornelia Sollfrank (13) interviews, 'under conditions of strict secrecy', a female hacker in have script, will destroy (2000). The result is a highly theoretical point of view about current forms of political resistance, in the digital realm. An artist living and working in Hamburg, Germany, Sollfrank participated in the infamous annual hacker convention, organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). In 1999, this convention provided Sollfrank the opportunity to introduce new hacking principles bringing female presence to the forefront of a male stronghold. Her subsequent research into female hackers, redefined hacking as a principle of behavior, not only as a mode of operation. Clara G. Sopht, the subject of this taped interview, remains a low-tech profile, consistent with the identity she herself constructs. As Sopht begins her discussion with Sollfrank, she says: "....[I] guess there are some hackers who would call me a "hacker," others would call me "cracker" and others just "lazy-assed destroyer." There are a lot of dirty names for people like me, but I don’t care." Digital processes have been attractive to women since the earliest days, and in the early 1980s a new line of investigation began among media artists. Artists, scientists, and communicators could see clearly how the manipulation of appearance and identity offered the opportunity to alter the perception and position of females politically, psychologically and socially. The early days of online presence, primarily among academics, and MOO environments (that are well documented elsewhere) provided a research platform for identity. Women who inhabit the online 'world', find a digital landscape that provides a completely new interface for communication, where one can participate as whatever gender is desired. This fact alters the future with an e-[d]entity that is forever flexible and creative. "The changes undergone by the body - at times acting as an obstacle to intelligence, at others, as a springboard - are quite real. The human body is not so much the history of its representations as of its modes of construction."(14) Kathy Rae Huffman "e[d]entity" was originally curated for the Maribor Computer Art festival (1999) where it premiered in Maribor, Slovenia. It was amended for distribution by the Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, as a compilation video program. Excerpts of the tapes can be seen at: http://www.vdb.org Footnotes: |