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"Until The End of The World" and Digital Identity

Bala

Thursday, Mar 15, 2018 - 02:11:53 am

@ Bala's OSS

1.0 Background

“Until the End of the World” is a 3D animated video work by Carla Gannis, for which her solo exhibition is eponymously titled. It is inspired by a a sequence in the 1991 Wim Wenders film “Until the End of the World” where a woman is addicted to watching her dreams on a screen.  It converges a Read more →

Categories: Research
Bala, this is an exceptional critique of the work of Carla Gannis and her "Until the End of the World" project. You went way beyond the requirements of this assignment and I am so impressed! What I would highlight in your essay, is the way in which Carla used the "medium" of the selfie as a tool for identity construction, critique and analysis of the digital condition and our future as a human species. Your essay is so unbelievably well referenced and superbly documented, including the references to the various technological, aesthetic, and appropriated classic art motifs that are incorporated in the work. This is very high quality work, congratulations.
Hi Bala! I think your research critique actually helped me understand Carla Gannis' work better; it went into a lot of detail and drew comprehensive links between the topic of Digital Identity and the content of her artwork! I was having trouble writing much about her artwork because I didn't really understand the video but after reading your research critique, I can really appreciate the works in her exhibition now! Great job :D
Thanks Mr Packer, I'll continue to do my best!! :-)
Thanks Yue Ling, glad it was of use to you!!! :-))

The Ghosts only your Phone can see

Elizabeth Quek

Thursday, Mar 15, 2018 - 01:59:59 am

@ A blog for Liz

The art work

(source is taken from: http://carlagannis.com/blog/)

Gallery name: Until the End of the World

Artist: Carla Gannis

Year:  2017

Carla Gannis’ “Until the end of the World’ exhibition is executed like the ancient Greek theater where the ‘actors will speak through a mask’. in this case the ‘mask’ is her virtual persona, one like our social media, and how we portray ourselves on that Read more →

Categories: Research
Very good. I particularly liked the definition you found of digital identity, which set a good foundation for your critique. I also thought that the way you employed the quote by Wittkower about the way we use social media to shape our digital identity was a very good use of the reference. Perhaps a bit more commentary about "Until the End of the World," particularly of the video piece which is the heart of the show, would have strengthened your essay. But overall it is very good work and research.

Facebook and Reality

Su Xian

Wednesday, Mar 14, 2018 - 07:27:58 pm

@ Shu

Many of our Facebook actions are like this. They might seem to mean nothing, and yet be taken to mean something. They might seem to mean something, and in fact mean something else

A Reply to facebook Critics D.E. Wittkower

Facebook has almost become the holy grail in which we document our lives. We are documenting our reality through posts comprising of Read more →

Categories: Research
Excellent Shu! You are very right about the fact that Elahi is camouflaging his true actions and online digital identity, by oversharing his daily actions. This is a true action of online curation, and one that makes a political statement as well. It is captivating indeed to see how he has carried out this project for 15 years! Very well written and researched post.

#life

Bella Dai

Wednesday, Mar 14, 2018 - 06:49:22 pm

@ belladaiyunlang

https://www.ted.com/talks/hasan_elahi#t-618239

Hasan Elahi, a Bangladeshi-born American interdisciplinary media artist born in 1972. He is currently working as an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland. His artworks focus on technology, media, issues of surveillance and etc. In 2002, he was added to the US government’s watch list, after The September 11 attacks. He flew back from the exhibition overseas and taken Read more →

Categories: Research
Very good! You made a strong correlation between the "meaninglessness" often associated with social media, and the way in which Hasan Elahi provided so much information about himself, but without the meaning of the personal or even context concerning his real life. And good observation about the difficulty of the Website navigation/interface, which is also as you point out a kind of hidden trick that contributes to his critique. I want to emphasize that one of the important aspects of Elahi's work is the way in which we give up our data, willingly and easily, which lies at the heart of Tracking Transience.

Faceboook?

Jocelyn

Tuesday, Mar 13, 2018 - 05:29:36 pm

@ hello

Face to Facebook is an installation piece that highlights the problem with the lack of privacy because of the influx of social media, in this case, Facebook. The work takes one million Facebook profiles from the database  (and processes them through a facial recognition software) and creates an online dating platform which then allows users to ‘date’ these profiles and Read more →

Categories: Research
I really enjoyed your personal assessment of Facebook, and how you have used it over the years to communicate with friends and to share (or not share) information about yourself. It sounds to like you are a very careful and thoughtful user of social media. In regards to Face to Facebook, you captured the essence of the fake dating site very well in your opening paragraph, however since the research critique is indeed to be a focus on the assigned artwork, I think more analysis of Face to Facebook would strengthen the research critique. But I am glad to see that you have used the work to trigger an interesting discussion about your own use of social media.

Poke, Spam, Tag, Friended

Cecilia HyunJae Cho

Thursday, Mar 08, 2018 - 11:57:18 pm

@ C.C.H.J.CHO

A Response to a Response about a Response

Facebook. The original superficial website transformed and metamorphasized into something completely new and surprisingly meaningful. That is to say that Facebook has forged an entire generation of users connected together by a mere “www” on the internet. FaceBook at its prime was the main source of communication among friends and family, especially those Read more →

Categories: Research
Very good analysis and I was pleased to see you prefacing your critique of Tracking Transience by discussing Facebook as a medium for sharing. I think it's important to note that the while Hasan Elahi is constantly sharing and "super-participating," that at the same time he doesn't reveal much about himself on a personal level. It would be interesting to note if this form of self-surveillance is similar to Facebook. The question we are asking is about digital identity. Elahi creates a very specific, impersonal digital identity, but how do we shape our identity through social media? Do we also filter out things about ourselves? These would be some interesting questions to consider and we will discuss them tonight in class.

Boundary-Meeting Waves; or, the Identity as it meets the Edge of the Digital

EC Chee

Thursday, Mar 08, 2018 - 05:10:51 pm

@ 遠き世に

In 2015, Carla Gannis released The Selfie Drawings, a set of digital drawings expressing “the self”. It was then expanded in 2017, forming the narrative basis for Gannis’ 2017 exhibition: Until the End of the World.

From the Origin to the year 10 000, the exhibitions shows an imagined evolution of humanity, a sort of apocalypse in which “you ain’t Read more →

Categories: Research
I am very impressed with your comparison of Gannis' work with the inspiration of the project, the film by Wim Wenders, "Until the End of the World." Just as Claire seeks to find herself in the imaginary construction of her dreams, Gannis looks to her digital self for introspection, analysis, and prediction of our future. So one thing I would have like to have seen you discuss here, is how Gannis' artistic critique of the self as portrayed through her selfies by situating them in virtual environments, relates to the malleability of identity whether portrayed in the digital realm or in the space of our dreams. Very well researched and written!!

FBI, here I am!

Nadiah Raman

Tuesday, Mar 06, 2018 - 11:53:22 pm

@ ♡♡♡♡♡

In this link, you will see random images of food and places as well as Google map with an arrow pointing to one location. Those pictures belong to Hasan M. Elahi, a Bangladeshi-born American who is a interdisciplinary media artist. Those images are a part of his still on-going project called “Tracking Transcience”. Why could he possibly want to show the Read more →

Categories: Research
Very impressive critique of Tracking Transience and its connection to our everyday social media experience. You are absolutely correct in saying that Elahi foresaw in his work the way we would all be surveilling ourselves by sharing through social media. He was clearly ahead of his time. And you made some excellent points about how we curate what we share and by referencing this idea to the essay by Wittkower. One thing I want to point out: Elahi is also heavily curating his sharing. As I pointed out in the interview, despite the abundance of information he provides about all sorts of places he visits, beds he has slept in, etc., we know very little about him personally. That is a conscious decision he has made to share everything about where he goes, but nothing about himself. That is also a form of curation and is important to the analysis of this work.

Who Are You?

Jasmine

Tuesday, Mar 06, 2018 - 11:36:51 pm

@ Jasmine

I feel like there is just so much to say regarding our digital identity because it is something so relevant to us right now in this time and age. We all hide behind social media platforms with an identity that we put forth on the web for everyone all around the world to see.

If we choose how we present ourselves, Read more →

Categories: Research
Very interesting remark at the end and I think you are right! We do construct, form and shape ourselves throughout our lifetime and then we take the identity with us into the grave. It may be gone but certainly it leaves a trace in others who we have known throughout our life. Very good observation! While you say at the beginning that there is much to say about digital identity, perhaps it would have strengthened your essay to discuss how "Until the End of the World" critiques and observes the construction of digital identity well into the future. That's exactly what the narration is alluding to, though I admit, it may be a bit hard to understand. But perhaps a review of the video, as well as a discussion of her selfies might reveal much about the fantastical ways in which Gannis masterfully portrays her own digital identity.

Exposed!

ROS FARZANA

Tuesday, Mar 06, 2018 - 04:13:46 pm

@ Farz

Our identity is what makes us uniquely different. In today’s day and age though, we might choose to replicate or imitate someone else, especially with the flexibility and freedom of social media. We might choose to be ‘someone else’ by filtering out what we post, control what we share or use an overly-flattering selfie. As mentioned by Wittkower, ‘[t]his is Read more →

Categories: Research
Excellent! You captured the work of Hasan Elahi perfectly. As you discuss, he filters his work such that we know his whereabouts, but nothing about his personal life. This is an ironic tactic of deception but also a profound critique of how we curate what we share through social media in order to shape our digital identity. The only thing missing from your critique is this notion of identity, but otherwise, it is extremely well done and researched.