Task 8 - 3.5.11

Hi Liz, what aspects of user generated content interests you?
Could you name any sites or spaces online that produce data or information that you find particularly interesting? What elements of this data do you engage with most?

I will have a think, and a search and post...

Jenny:  I initially became interested in information from digital interfaces, when I started stitching evidences of online communication in 2007.  Previous to this, I had based a body of work on written communication, such as letters and other ephemera.  As the majority of my own personal communication then began to be online - the internet screen seemed to be the instinctual place to draw from.  In addition to textual information through hotmail, I also started recording messenger conversations, and mobile texts through stitched textiles, and printmaking.

'Messenger', 2007

'Account', 2007

'Text Message', 2007

Ultimately, I became interested in the landscape of everyday digital interfaces, which is at times banal and jokey.  I had a desire to make features and icons of digital interfaces into physical forms - tangible objects -trying the humorous and useless process of making these objects 'real' again, often in three dimensional installations.

'Solitaire Game', 2007 (from Installation 'From the Other Side of the Screen it All Looks So Easy'

'Briefcase Icon', part of 'Desktop Diorama' Installation, 2007

My recent practice explores navigation of a multitude of digital spaces, particularly veering towards juxtaposing digital and physical architectures.  However, I am interested in the myriad of opportunities online to self publish and create - however, so many of these 'platforms' sit within a generic predetermined framework, or architecture.  For example, Blogger allows us to design our blog we are now working within, and there are of course, millions of variables, in how we could design our site, and yet, we are limited to its facilities, but many aesthetics of a 'Blogger Blog' appear similar.  I am interested in the tension between our considered 'user generated content', and how much our use of the site, and production of it is controlled by the designer of the software.


Hi Jenny : I had a very sudden relationship with on-line identity and user generated content. In my photography department I was one of only a handful of students who was not working mainly in digital - I very much found my home in the darkroom, especially colour - and for me this was the beauty of being able to study at GSA - being able to use the classic photography equipment. So generally I was quite stubborn with changing technology - and this included on-line usage.
It was only when I graduated that I suddenly had to consider how to go from 'student to professional', and then it dawned on me I needed to exist where everyone else seemed to home their professional identities - on-line!

Firstly it started with the change of my teenage and stupidly named hotmail account to my professional googlemail account, then came the 'artist website', and then finally I joined up to the world of facebook - which had both personal and professional perks.
Then I guess I became hooked, constantly sending, receiving and checking for emails, checking who is where and doing what on facebook, writing for the CAC blog and actually enjoying it!

For me I find the blog a very recent but interesting area for user generated content. Facebook has its purpose but I am always scepticle of a site that allows you to assign yourself a 'relationship status'.

So after a lot of ranting, I would say it is the blog that is most interesting for me, I like the idea of an on-line diary, sharing ideas, images and conversations with others - it is like the ultimate way of getting things off your chest! I am pretty new to the world of blogging but I am very much enjoying it, and in terms of identifying myself as an artist, it is a very free and open way of expressing my ideas.

Goolge search image for blog