Line
line investigates the physical, emotional and virtual
architectures that both connect and contain us. It questions who we
are, and how we communicate as subjects of the cyberpolis.
Line : Mute Subjects of the Cyberpolis
In the immersive environment of the internet, where everyday people
display the most intimate fragments of their lives on world wide web pages,
how do we delineate public and private space? When our simple electronic
lines of connection become shifting nodes in a fluid network, how do we
define who and where we are? How is self-identity and the recognition of
others re-coded in virtual space? How do we 'reach out and touch someone'
digitally?
Line questions how cultural, capital and philosophical values are
mutated, warped and curved in the infinite virtual space of the cyberpolis,
investigating theses sensory and spacial dilemmas through an interactive
web site tracking the virtual relationship between two people whose
physical locations includes the Illawarra coastline, inner city Sydney, and
a business district in Tokyo; On-line their intimate communications and
private images become public property, their fantasy of each other fuelled
by a lack of physical reality, their personal boundaries blurred in the
virtuality of the screen domain.
The original accompanying gallery installation, now document on the site,
reconstructs fragments of locality and identity through photographic
architectural and landscape imagery, and illuminates the transparent lines
that connect, disrupt and discipline our lives with laser light.
Melinda Rackham
1998
http://www.walkerart.org/gallery9/beyondinterface/rackham_artist.html