I want to make a conceptual art piece through the use of a digital social network (Facebook) as a medium, as well as the medium of real-life personal relationships. I still need a name for this if you can think of any.
My plan is to start a Facebook group that will enable participants to question the nature of reality and the way we represent ourselves to others, others perceptions of us, and our own perceptions of others as we experience them through social networking media, in this case Facebook. We have all become experts at persona management through digital social networks, and I want this project to subvert the system of self-conception as it exists on Facebook.
Here are the steps I think I will need to follow to realize my project:
1. Create a Facebook group that will be used to house the documentation/interactions.
1. Post the “Questions” that will be used by participants to obtain their introductions on the page along with an explanation, instructions, and my own example (the video from my class introduction, which I will re-edit to make more sense in this context).
2. Contact participants and invite them to join the group.
3. Ask participants to find a friend to answer the questions about them. Introduce them the same way my friend introduced me. They can add or change the questions however they wish, and the speaker does not have to stick to the questions. They are just there to get things started.
4. Have the participant film the interaction in real life or ask their friend to answer the questions and film themselves with a webcam
5. Have participants/ introduction makers upload their videos to the Facebook group.
I’m interested in exploring collective histories among friends. I’m interested in how well the introductions do or don’t line up with the Subject’s conception of self and if the things their friends say about them are the same things they would say about themselves in the context of an introduction. And ultimately, does what the interviewees say about the Subject really tell us more about them than it ever really could about the Subject?
Once I have obtained the introduction videos, I might edit them into a similar style as the one I used for my own introduction, or I might leave them as they are. I think for the purposes of this class I will only ask my group members to do this. And based on how that goes I can refine the procedure for the project before I expand it, or open participation up to a larger population.
Through the processes of social interaction in virtual space and the medium of real-life personal relationships the introduction project relies on the use of Facebook as a digital platform. My hope is that participants can explore the nature of reality, social relationships, perception, identity, and place through their use/interpretation of the concept and the process.
