PROPOSAL

[11/11/15]

‘6619.52 km’

‘We live in each others brains, as voices, images, words on screens’ – Sherry Turkle / Life on the screen

‘6619.52 km’ will be a book/installation that focuses on the complete digital relationship between family members. The core for the project will be a group whatsapp conversation bweteen my mother, sister and myself called ‘The Very Weird Abnormals’. The '6619.52' stands for the kilometers crossed between Rotterdam, Bonn and Tenerife where the three family members live separately. I will analyze our whatsapp conversations looking at the specific words we use, the emoticons, the pictures we share with each other but also the invisible distance and time that is crossed by the mediation. I will fill in the ‘blanks’: the physical reactions to the messages, or the environment that is happening outside the pictures that are send (BE MORE SPECIFIC). I will look at how the relationship with my family becomes a more individual relationship with digital characters.

The book will exist of one long unfold-able page that is supposed to visualize the distance that is traveled by the exact messages that are send. (On a certain scale)
On one side of this paper will be the entire transcript of the chat, with the analyzing notes. On the other side of the paper will be a small legend with the distance traveled, and the length of time it would have taken in physicality. At this particular side will also be the different variation of archival footage and experiments. The book will be printed in a small actual book form, but next to that it will be an installation.
A larger version of the unfolded book will be spread across a room, which makes it possible for people to walk through it. This allows for the project to have both still images and projections as films are displayed on blank pages, as well as sound of travel connections around you, at certain moments.''

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(BETTER SKETCHES FOR PROPOSAL THIS WEEKEND - BIG PICTURES - )

The surface of our telephone screen is the most intimate access point to the bond with my family in different countries. We can’t see the distance that is crossed, the environment of the spaces where the communication comes from, or the immediate facial responses to messages. What happens when all what we have is memories of eachother, influenced only by text, and certain fragments of video and/or sound. All the while focusing on presenting ourselves within that mediation.

When communicating only through this application, we are in control of how we communicate. We create our own versions of ourselves by not being physically in each other’s presence. Distances and time are never physically crossed, only via typed text and images in a limited yet boundless space, where we can choose when and what we want to communicate. We don’t see eachother physically, but remember eachother from memories mixed with imagination, being fed by each others ‘pretence’ as digital individuals. By looking into a reflecting screen when communicating you are looking at yourself constantly. ’Selfies’ and ‘Emoticons’ are ways to express yourself according to your own needs. This constant self representation towards – in this case, family – is something that influences the ways the others will see you as a person.

Within this book will be different views upon this space and relationship, by means of different experiments I will eventually choose certain ones that fit the critera whereas others will be only part of the process. The experiments are therefore the core of the project. I’m aiming for the experiments to last until feburary/march. Towards the end of november I will start working on the actual book design, because I’m sure I will create different versions as I go along. Then from March on it’s about finalizing everything in the design form and getting the materials together.

EXPERIMENTS:
1.Doodle (Stopped) – Pictures of random moments when a screen is present in the room. Photoshop applications are applied to the pictures, trying to retrieve an effect. - the visual impact of the pictures turns out to be mere experimental.

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2. Old Pictures (Stopped – ready for use) – Old pictures from photobooks where the three characters are present, though distant from each other in the photographs. - These pictures present the last memories of us living together in the same place, which presents the way we remember eachother when talking through mediated communication. They are ready for use, except they need better scans if in fact used.

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3. Screen absorption (Stopped) – Playing with the idea of being absorbed into the screen or vice versa. - absorbtion of the screen is more of a visual effect play on sitting behind a screen, it is more effective to keep it simple and recognizable.

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4. Frames (Suspended) – Using the technical details of the specific phones that we communicate through and make them as a frame through which we see and read everything. - it is interesting that even though we communicate within the same space, the frames and devices through which it is mediated are the same – but always slightly different. I want to build a simple wooden frame for all three different phones so I can use them for whatever comes in the future of the project. Right now they are just paper and are not rigid enough to apply to anything.

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5. Box of space (Suspended) – Box space that visualize different types of pictures that we send eachother – selfies / clouds / etcetera. - Content does not become visible on its own, yet. No by only showing pictures that are send within whatsapp. Maybe if used in combination with a different experiment.

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6. Technical aspects (Suspended) – Technical aspects of the phones to use for different means. - Could be good background information for whatever uses. It is used for example in the experiment ‘frames’, and for analyzing the size of screens in general.

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(DIFFERENT SECOND PICTURE)

7. Upclose camera (Stopped) – Camera directed towards my face that captures me using my phone. - Didn’t work because I didn’t have the right equipment to keep the camera attached. In the end it does not focus on the physicality of using mediation, therefore I stopped it.

8. 3d versions (Doubting) – Making 3d versions of spaces/people - creating a 3d ‘fake’ world and faces based on the fragments of information within the space of whatsapp communication - Doubting because I am trying to find out the best application or program I can use to make my own 3d versions, currently I have no easy-to-use programs.

9. Reflection with no face (Continuing) – Reflections in reflecting devices without seeing what causes the reflection. - (STILL NEED REFLECTION)

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10. Portraits reflect/frame (Continuing) – Portraits of the characters in their own environment, behind a glass or frame as if looking through a mediation. – I’m currently trying different versions of this idea, mainly with myself as the character. I still want to use my mother and sister in their own environments, photographed through skype, in that way the mediation becomes stronger. I see them through a screen and the frame that they are holding symbolizes another screen for them.

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11. Associations (Continuing) – Associations to virtual environments found in multiple different texts. These associations are photographed in the environment of the characters and used in different other mediums to present the ‘feeling’ of the virtual world. – I’m making general pictures of moments that I experience as an association with the mediation of communication, or of other specific keywords that relate back to digital specifications.

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12. Imaginary Travel (Continuing) – Making pictures from my house to the border that goes to either my mom or sister (Based on travel initiary). From there on I switch to google maps to walk the whole road to their environment. – This works well to vizualise the environment of where my family lives without knowing exactly.

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13. Photos/sound Telephone (Continuing – selecting constantly) – Saving pictures that are send through our groupchat to each other. Some of these pictures are broken digitally and not visible anymore. – These can serve an important role in the project, depending on the way they are presented. I’m printing a few on see through paper to visualize the effect. Nex to that, there are short fragments of sound we occasionally send eachother, I want to put these soundfiles after eachother in a long soundfile, as soon as I find out how to apply the specific file.

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(ONE PICTURE WITH A BROKEN FILE)

14. Physical whatsapp script (Started) – Speaking the whatsapp script to each others face. – I wanted to start with this when I was visiting my sister in Tenerife. She was not really looking forward to participating with the idea, neither did my mother. This brought me to another idea: me speaking my part of the script to the camerascreen AND/OR a mirror (to work with the idea of seeing yourself in the screen reflection). On the moment my mother or sisters texts is supposed to be said, the video cuts to a black screen and shows the text being typed.

15. Sound of connections (Started) – Making soundfiles of the road from my house to either my mom or sister (Based on travel initiary). – Started with this when going on holiday to my sister beginning of November. The most important sound file – the airplane ride – was unfortunately not saved, looking at a way to redo it or fake it. Whilst there I made a few soundfiles of riding there randomly, these might be relevant, I still have to look at them.

16. Visualize rest of pictures (Starting) – Take the pictures that are send via whatsapp to eachother, and try to draw the environment behind it on extra paper .

17. Whatsapp script analysed (Starting) – Analyse the whatsapp group chat script – as far as it goes now -, by writing on the script, giving notes about what is meant, and what the physical expression would appear to be.
(STILL NEED TO ADD: SELFIE BOX)

“..humans have moved so deeply into their own individuality that they no longer experience the reality of other humans..”

This project goes back to invisible digital spaces, that have a great importance at this time. My graduation project explored the infrastructure that is used by our digital data. This resulted in the photographed documentation book ‘Data Diary’. Exploring the digital world first from the surface, I have developed an interest in the underlying depth of that world, how we relate and interact with digital objects and the invisible world underneath. Where I was interested in a superficial documentation of the digital world before, now I’m circulating the notion of how we see ourselves in relation to our digital components. During the first year at Piet Zwart I made the project ‘The Places in Between’. This project explores the depth of layers that is involved in viewing our digital data. By peeling of layers within a book, you discover all the digital information regarding one day in her life.
Here, I also used my own experience as the background situation: My projects are always about me as an example or as a particular character. The pieces are not really about the content as such, but about the fact that the content is there. Right now there are many projects circulating the notion of a Digital World. Most of these are entirely focused on surveillance, tracking, online privacy etc. But also a lot of these projects are just flat-out facts, and digital. My previous graduation project for example ‘Data Diary’ seems to be one of the many. But where my projects become different, is on the personal note and the tangibility. I apply everything to my personal connections, whilst creating a physical object out of a digital source.
By focusing on the relationship of people with their personal computers, Sherry Turkle has been the first and a prominent writer I enjoyed reading, along with very general books that explain the digital world like they find it (EXAMPLE AND EXAMPLE) With my new project the research field has become smaller, where the relationship particularly between people through their digital spaces: the mediated communication is the main thread. Currently I’m reading 'Together and Alone' by Sherry Turkle and (EXAMPLE) to enhance my knowledge in this subject matter. By making the subject smaller in this way, it will help me better define what experiments will make the cut to the actual book/installation in the end.

"..Virtual environments are valuable as places where we can acknowledge our inner diversity. But we still want an authentic experience of self.."

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[28/10/15] – Gaps
A project that focuses on the gaps left by digital communication between family members that live in different countries. The gaps are the things and moments we don’t text about, the distance that is crossed without seeing it, the environment of the spaces where we are standing at the moment of sending a text, our immediate facial responses to messages. The project is made out of different experiments that try to define these moments. The result will be an installation filled with different results of these experiments within different mediums.

When communicating only through this application, we are in control of how we communicate. We create our own versions of each other by not being physically in each other’s presence, whilst we are looking at our own individuality constantly by means of using ‘selfies’ and ‘emoticons’ to emphasize our words. Distances and time are never physically crossed, only via typed text and images in a limited yet boundless space, where we can choose when and what we want to communicate. We fill up the gaps with our imagination, being fed by each others ‘pretence’ as a digital individual. ‘We live in eachothers brains, as voices, images, words on screens’ – Sherry Turkle / Life on the screen

There are a few different research areas that come together in this project. One of the areas is about the gaps that are left when communicating only digitally. An important part of the counter balance of the project is how these ‘gaps’ were left before the digital time. Now we have framed windows into other lives and areas whereas before there were almost no windows at all. How did families in particular communicate back then, when being in different countries for example. What happened with their bonds, did that make them closer? Did we also live in eachothers brains, but as what? I will find and answer questions like this to both situations. Surrounding this communication are the individuals that represent themselves digitally. By looking into a reflecting screen when communicating you are looking at yourself constantly. ’Selfies’ and ‘Emoticons’ are ways to express yourself according to your own needs. This constant self representation towards – in this case, family – is something that influences the ways the others will see you as a person.

With this in mind, I try to fill the gaps by documenting the ways of our communication in varied ways. The result will end in an installation of different experiments via different mediums, trying to find the perfect way to show these gaps, and the last and final result will be buried between the other versions. This will symbolize an invisible connection between gaps, as a symbol for the connections with the mediation. In background the sound of connections is heard to symbolize the traveling of messages. During the project I will look at these gaps not only from my point of view, but also to how the other characters see these specific moments.

(Excuses?? Irresponsibility?? Creativitiy?? Family??? Escape through mediation??? Time! Document?? Book?? Richard dawkins – the selfish gene! Empathy box? The protean self (Robert jay lifton) – boek! Wim wenders film – until the end of the world! Memory?? – book. Mimesis.)

ABSTRACT: Plan to re-enact a script generated by Whatsapp. Of a group chat between me and my mother and younger sister called the very weird abnormals. I want to see how it feels for me and for the other characters to say certain things out loud to each others face. It corresponds with the idea of gaps left by digital communication, and re enacting your own digital inviduality. It’s part of a group of experiments I have done before and will continue that try to make these gaps visible in different ways and mediums.

(EXPERIMENTS SO FAR) 1. Doodle (Stopped)

2. Old Pictures (Stopped)

3. Screen absorption (Stopped)

4. Frames (Stopped)

5. Box of space (Suspended)

6. Technical aspects (Suspended)

7. Upclose camera (Suspended – will definitely come back)

8. 3d versions (Doubting)

9. Reflection with no face (Continuing)

10. Portraits reflect frame (Continuing)

11. Associations (Continuing)

12. Imaginary Travel (Continuing)

13. Photos Telephone (Continuing – selecting constantly)

14. Physical whatsapp script (Starting)

15. Sound of connections (Starting)

questions maybe - Are they experienced as an expanded self or as separate from the self? Do our real-life selves learn lessons from our virtual personae? Are these virtual personae fragments of a coherent real-life personality?

....TO BE CONTINUED

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[07/10/15] - The Very Weird Abnormals

When my mom, my sister and me lived together we were very distant to each other. There was never any intimacy towards each other and we all were self-involved. When they both moved to another country, the connection between us went from bad physical to purely digital. It has changed our relationship in both positive ways and negative. Someone asked me last week if I’m like my sister. I didn’t know the answer to that question. Within my project I want to tackle the idea of how technology has changed relationships, for this I will use my own relationship with my mother and sister as an example: As our relationships are built upon and through our technologies I will make these technologies visible as spaces in which we get to know eachother. (Or do we?) Next to that are the actual physical relationships we have when we are together, are we different then? How is our physical relationship changed during the built of our digital relationship? The title is the name of our groupchat in whatsapp: The Very Weird Abnormals

1. When I started this project my intention was to completely focus on the communication through technologies, which creates a isolement between people. I was completely focused on using a script which acts as a conversation between the technologies, that I forgot what in fact the trigger was for this interest in the first place. The moment my mother came to visit me, with whom I have a complete digital relationship, but even then we talked through our telephones. I have to go back to this exact moment, this is what I find interesting, and therefore precisely that relationship is the one I have to focus on. I will visualize these spaces of technology in which we have built relationships, with our conversations as the interweaving thread/script.

I have tried analyzing and drawing the spaces as flatly as possible. In this way they are still two dimensial. This does not create any relation or understanding. I need to move to three dimensial spaces.

But because I already initiated a different approach, I’m continuing with that as well. Maybe I can find a moment in which I can combine both.
2. This other approach is to built a script and let people act out that script by means of their technologies, within the medium film or theater. Now, what will be the content of that script? After some discussion with different teachers the general decision was that building a script from scratch is almost impossible, because it’s a whole different art form. But, using an existing script is. What I’m trying to do is find a dialogue from a film that ‘fits’ and use that script as the basis.

After trying this approach in livingroom setting, it seems this is too distant to find the intimacy towards the actual messages, finding this out however led me towards focusing on the relationship with my mother and my sister. I will try the existing script approach again in theater setting with different people and a more specific script with small hints towards my own relationships.

[This script will document the conversations between a person and her communication windows. The person acts as a modem through which these communication tools reach out. She tries to make connections between them but keeps failing. The spaces of these different communication tools will be defined within the re enactment of the script. Every tool is a different space, and they meet each other within the big Space, the Modem.]
[The script will be the basis for a film/theater. The film style will be like a blackbox theater., which will represent the modem. The different spaces that communicate will be presented in different parts on stage, outlined by white tape. (dogville)]
[The exhibition will be filled with different kinds of installations. Every installation will present the space of a laptop, a computer, etc etc. This can be formed from different mediums. Between these installations cards with parts from the script will float. (hanging on strands of string) ]

The field that I’m researching is what happens to our relationships with others through technologies, but also with ourselves.
(I’m looking into quantification, which is a term used to describe people that document themselves constantly. This group of people is continuously in conversation with their tools. )(Next to that there is the side of digital data that we do not control, but in which we are pulled, which are based in the ‘surveillance’ tools. The cameras and SCHOTELS, social media, that record us and keep us in their database.) (How do we relate differently to each type of documentation? Is there a difference? Is it even important? Is Quantification a risk, or an improvement?) MAYBE THIS IS MORE RELEVANT TO THE OLDER PROJECT: PLACES IN BETWEEN: This project is still under construction but will not be my main focus for the graduation proposal.

Relation to previous practice
My graduation project explored the infrastructure that is used by our digital data. This resulted in the photographed documentation book ‘Data Diary’. During the documentation process of ‘Data Diary’ I had a feeling that I kept myself too much on the surface. The more I discovered about the data world, the more interested I became in the depth of it. Understanding why I became interested in, or better: obsessed by, my own data is the most essential question I need to answer in order to see what’s the next step for me.
During the first year at Piet Zwart I made the project ‘The Places in Between’. This project explores the depth of layers that is involved in viewing our digital data. By actually peeling of layers within a book, you discover all the digital information regarding one day in her life. The book ‘The Places in Between’ is an encrypted documentation of one day in my life. The content of the book is hidden behind stripes of paper. These are metaphors for the privacy and accessibility levels you go through to get to my information. I used key loggers and codes to automatically get data from the devices I use daily in access to the digital world. For instance: I coded my webcam in order to let it take short clips of the view on every hour. All the digital information was stored on my computer daily. I decided to put all this information together in a book, as the opposite metaphor to the digital interface. I wanted the project to be as common as possible and use devices that everyone has access to. It seems logical that I had to get deeper inside the code based world to retrieve this data faster and more efficiently. There is something still missing from the project, though nearly finished.
Exploring the digital world first from the surface, I have developed an interest in the underlying depth of that world, how we relate and interact with digital objects and the invisible world underneath. Where I was interested in a superficial documentation of the digital world before, now I’m circulating the notion of how we see ourselves in relation to our digital components. The projects become more psychologically invested, and in that way demand more depth of knowledge in the research up to the end result. “…computers closely resemble people in their ‘thinking’ and differ only in their lack of ‘feeling’ supports a dichotomized view of human psychology.” (The Other Self, Sherry Turkle)
My projects are about me as an example or as a particular character. The pieces are not really about the content as such, but about the fact that the content is there. Maybe a quote taken from Sherry Turkle’s book ‘The Second Self’ can make my position clearer: “My method shares the advantage of using ‘ideal types’ – examples that present reality in a form larger than life. Ideal types are usually constructed fictions. My examples are real. Yet they isolate and highlight particular aspects of the computers influence because I have chosen to write about people in computer cultures that amplify different aspects of the machines personality.” (Turkle 9)

Relation to a larger context
Right now there are many projects circulating the notion of a Digital World. Most of these are entirely focused on surveillance, tracking, online privacy etc. But also a lot of these projects are just flatout facts, and digital. My previous graduation project for example ‘Data Diary’ seems to be one of the many. But where my projects becomes different, is on the personal note. I apply everything to my personal connections. This is where I hope the uniqueness lies. Focusing on the relationship of people with their personal computers, Sherry Turkle has been the first and a prominent writer I enjoy reading, by adding for example: “The Patternist, Mind of my mind” by Octavia Butler, and “The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age” by Allucquere Rosanne Stone, creates a larger overview instead of only one. Next to that I think it’s important to keep reading more general texts about the participatory digital world: “The Work of Being Watched”new – Mark Andrejevic and “Bastard Culture!” - Mirko Tobias Schafer. [LITTLE SYNOPSIS OF THE TEXTS HERE - AFTER READING THEM] How to get rid of Big Brother, which talks about how to control your online and offline connections. You won’t stop the saving of your data, but you can control the connections. “Whatever I’m doing, it has nothing to do with me – it has to do with what they’re thinking I am, and, that is what they are” (Reality TV, The Work of Being Watched, Mark Andrejevic)

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[23/09/15] - Spaces of Communication

A script as basis. This script will document the conversations between a person and her communication windows. The person acts as a modem through which these communication tools reach out. She tries to make connections between them but keeps failing. The spaces of these different communication tools will be defined within the re enactment of the script. Every tool is a different space, and they meet each other within the big Space, the Modem.

[(One of the options)The script will be the basis for a film. The film style will be like a blackbox theater., which will represent the modem. The different spaces that communicate will be presented in different parts on stage, outlined by white tape. (dogville)]

[The exhibition will be filled with different kinds of installations. Every installation will present the space of a laptop, a computer, etc etc. This can be formed from different mediums. Between these installations cards with parts from the script will float. (hanging on strands of string) ]

In control of your traces. Plugin.

The field that I’m researching is the consumption of digital data. How we deal with digital data and how it effects us. I’m looking into quantification, which is a term used to describe people that document themselves constantly. This group of people is continuously in conversation with their tools. The tools are reminding them and reading them. They are aware of them and talk to them, they chose them and are in control. Next to that there is the side of digital data that we do not control, but in which we are pulled, which are based in the ‘surveillance’ tools. The cameras and SCHOTELS, social media, that record us and keep us in their database.

How do we relate differently to each type of documentation? Is there a difference? Is it even important? Is Quantification a risk, or an improvement?

Within the script I want the modem to be effected by both and acknowledge there is a difference.

Relation to previous practice
My graduation project explored the infrastructure that is used by our digital data. This resulted in the photographed documentation book ‘Data Diary’. During the documentation process of ‘Data Diary’ I had a feeling that I kept myself too much on the surface. The more I discovered about the data world, the more interested I became in the depth of it. Understanding why I became interested in, or better: obsessed by, my own data is the most essential question I need to answer in order to see what’s the next step for me. This project explores the depth of layers that is involved in viewing our digital data. By actually peeling of layers within a book, you discover all the digital information regarding one day in her life. The book ‘The Places in Between’ is an encrypted documentation of one day in my life. The content of the book is hidden behind stripes of paper. These are metaphors for the privacy and accessibility levels you go through to get to my information. I used key loggers and codes to automatically get data from the devices I use daily in access to the digital world. For instance: I coded my webcam in order to let it take short clips of the view on every hour. All the digital information was stored on my computer daily. I decided to put all this information together in a book, as the opposite metaphor to the digital interface. wanted the project to be as common as possible and use devices that everyone has access to. It seems logical that I had to get deeper inside the code based world to retrieve this data faster and more efficiently. Data about myself. Data about my daily life. My projects are about me as an example or as a particular character. The pieces are not really about the content as such, but about the fact that the content is there. Maybe a quote taken from Sherry Turkle’s book ‘The Second Self’ can make my position clearer: “My method shares the advantage of using ‘ideal types’ – examples that present reality in a form larger than life. Ideal types are usually constructed fictions. My examples are real. Yet they isolate and highlight particular aspects of the computers influence because I have chosen to write about people in computer cultures that amplify different aspects of the machines personality.” (Turkle 9) I have my mind-map in the middle of my living room wall. The mind-map is always there and it keeps changing: becoming smaller and sometimes bigger, pieces are deleted, crossed out, rewritten and/or added.

Exploring the digital world first from the surface, she has developed an interest in the underlying depth of that world, how we relate and interact with digital objects and the invisible world underneath.

Relation to a larger context
Focusing on the relationship of people with their personal computers, Sherry Turkle has been the first and a prominent writer I enjoy reading, by adding for example: “The Patternist, Mind of my mind” by Octavia Butler, and “The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age” by Allucquere Rosanne Stone, creates a larger overview instead of only one. Next to that I think it’s important to keep reading more general texts about the participatory digital world: “The Work of Being Watched”new – Mark Andrejevic and “Bastard Culture!” - Mirko Tobias Schafer. [LITTLE SYNOPSIS OF THE TEXTS HERE - AFTER READING THEM] How to get rid of Big Brother, which talks about how to control your online and offline connections. You won’t stop the saving of your data, but you can control the connections. Looking at previous projects it seems that the digital world as a whole seems to be an interweaving thread. Where the projects used to be focused on the surface of that world, and of how we are surveyed by that world, they now become more intimate not only in their outcome but in their topics and concepts. Where I was interested in a superficial documentation of the digital world before, now I’m circulating the notion of how we see ourselves in relation to our digital components. The projects become more psychologically invested, and in that way demand more depth of knowledge in the research up to the end result. “…computers closely resemble people in their ‘thinking’ and differ only in their lack of ‘feeling’ supports a dichotomized view of human psychology.” (The Other Self, Sherry Turkle) This I believe will be the way I’ll be leading towards my graduation year at the Piet Zwart Institute. “Whatever I’m doing, it has nothing to do with me – it has to do with what they’re thinking I am, and, that is what they are” (Reality TV, The Work of Being Watched, Mark Andrejevic)