The Divine Rise of the Prosumer

In previous projects my attention has been focussed on the negatives of digital technology. I generally tend to concentrate on the ominous presence of computerisation throughout society. As we move through the precession of simulacra we have now entered into the era of simulation. In the last 3 decades our global economy has shifted from an industrial based culture with the production of physical goods, to an information based society where the collection and manipulation of data is dominant. The pervasive nature of digital media’s has led me to view interaction with such media’s as obligatory rather than participatory. I regard our surveillance society with caution, not the common hyper-paranoia but well aware of the value and danger of personal information to companies and the availability of this private data.

As a reaction to this, I propose to look at the creative possibilities that the digitalisation of media has opened for everyday consumers. With the development of digital technologies and the advent of Web 2.0 the states of user and producer become synonymous, allowing anyone with the money necessary for equipment, to become authors, artists and designers in their own right. In addition the internet gives them unlimited exhibition space to display their works.

I want to exploit the positives of digitalisation, centring specifically on the evolution of Web 2.0 and its consequential endorsement of the user. The virtual world online is the paradigm playground of semiotics with the constant manipulation and subversion of signs.

“The end of the obliged sign, reign of the emancipated sign, that all classes will partake equally of.”
(BAUDRILLARD, 1983, p. 85)

Sites’ content is generated by the users who are afforded as much anonymity as they wish; arguably levelling the difference between the bourgeois and the proletariat, though of course an idea of elitism still survives. This advancement of the virtual world has opened up the platform for the divine rise of the prosumer. Users are increasingly empowered and relatively free to do as they please online. Machinima is a technique where artists use game engines for cinematic purposes, manipulating game play footage to tell a narrative other than that of the intended story. With this in mind I will explore the idea of experimenting with existing online and digital semiotics and reconfiguring them for my own creative means expressing the above statement from Baudrillard.

The Digital Revolution will be Telekenetivised.

Media technologies continue to necessitate themselves in our everyday lives. The majority of the developed world relies on digitalism 24/7. Emailing documents to your boss from your laptop via wifi. Confirming boardmeetings with your peers on your mobile phones. Paying for your dinner with your credit card via chip and pin. Listening to Mr Tambourine Man on your MP3 player. All these things and more depend on the transfer of information via digital networks.

The paradigm of our time, the internet. The information superhighway has fast become the personal information superhighway, where we are willingly displaying our private lives for all the online public to see. Not to mention the corporations buying, selling, and categorising our data to the best advertising bidder. In the last two years we have seen a massive increase in cases from the web spilling into our first life law courts. Online paedofilia, information vandalism and employees losing their jobs after superiors have an unannounced browse on their Facebook profiles, are all prime examples of how virtual world causes are having real world effects. Second Life is facing tax potential because it is possible to make serious First Life money from the online Linden Dollars.

Real world ramifications from virtual activities. As the fourth order simulacrum spills into the original model of the real we are faced with a big issue. Not simply how do we police the net - a problem our govenments are still nowhere near capable of. But where is the line drawn? How do we establish an online judicial system that is and will continue to inevitably seep into our actual one? What is the difference between online racism, plagiarism or extortion, is there one at all? If so, is it dealt with online, or in the real world? The answer is both. But how?

In a few generations time our children will see very little difference between existing in Second Life and online in general, and existing in tangible realtiy. This is not to say that they won't "know" or be able to define the inherent differences between the two but the way in which they distinguish the idea of living in one and the other and the social relationships between the two will be of such an advanced understanding that their perception of both will amalgamate so that they are intrinsicly linked and naturally considered synonymously.

Terror Tactics: Binary words of warning

The more you read the news the more you realise that the news is reading you.

Not only do we have the issue that our own government is arrogant enough to gather all of our personal information in a central database that they claim can be made hack proof. Nothing is that secure, if it exists someone will find a way to break into it - end of. We've got ID cards and computer chipped passports. How invasive will it get, condoms with secret cameras?

Unfortunately we ourselves aren't that bright either. With the explosion of the blogosphere (yes i am aware of the irony here) and social networks we are creating a digital Big Brother. Facebook and Twitter, the social networking sites of the internet and mobile-scape are platforms on which anyone and everyone can communicate and share vast amounts of private data. Information is the most lucrative market of the 21st Century. Character profiles are sold to the highest bidder and the profession of data collector is an ever-expanding field.

In addition we have the regular passing of acts which allow police and parliament to detain terror suspects without any evidence but on suspicion alone. This law was under debate in the House of Commons to be extended to a length of 42 days. After 42 days of interrogation and potential torture people will admit to anything to bring an end to the ordeal. The public must not become complacent on these matters. Civil liberties are in jeopardy, basic freedom is highly threatened.

We've moved from an industrial society to an information society, the problem is that the digital model is a lot more vulnerable to manipulation and vandalism than the physical. But there's no point getting paranoid now, the information on you is already out there and there's very little we the poor lowly public can do to retrieve it. What you want to be asking yourself is this; how hard is it to disappear?