diary of a research artist

Dear LiveJournal

2007-09-28T10:52:43Z

Dear LiveJournal,

it's not you, it's me. You have been very good to me over the last couple of years, your easy going nature and focus on social networks gave me the courage to start blogging and helped me develop into the web savvy person I am today. Sure, I was disturbed when you started deleting peoples journals for posting fan fic, and enraged when you started censoring breast feeding mothers, but to be honest, although I would like to say that I am being morally conscious, this is not about that. It's just that I have been hanging out with wordpress and I have found that it is more suited to the way I want to use this journal.

good luck in the future, if you need me you can find me over at http://diaryofaresearchartist.wordpress.com.

love,
Bina_93

Brief Update

2007-09-17T00:53:11Z

I have been working on my ethics clearance, which embarrassingly I forgot all about in the excitement of having my candidacy passed. As of a few days ago the form has been posted and is on it's merry way through the system (after a brief visit with neleh13, whom I would never label as part of "the system" :) )
Am very excited about the prospect of holding a mini con/cyberfeminist get together on the fringes of night's edge in november to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the first cyberfeminist international that was held within documenta x.
DCA project is moving forward, current plan is to launch at cyberfem mini con/night's edge.
I am aware that my project has (as expected) become more finely defined and slightly deviated from original proposal, one of my objectives for the week is to write up a clear project description and post it here.
Participated in ANAT's still/open workshops on the week end and, although it was not quite what I was expecting, have come away completely inspired and met some excellent people. Expanded report to follow.
femmeconne is next week, full draft of the program has been completed and posted, now all that is left is to get on a plane and let the event happen.
Have been doing layout for Borderlands, waiting on confirmation of changes from a few authors, I expect to have it finalised while I am away for femmeconne.

Idea grazing with the Financial Review

2007-08-16T23:35:33Z

Earlier, here, I talked about idea gathering while flicking through a women’s magazine and mentioned that I would try the same thing with a magazine aimed at men. I went back to the same cafe and looked through their stack of magazines, I didn’t find any magazines aimed specifically at men, e.g. Men’s Health, or Ralph etc., so I used the one that seemed the most male oriented out to the selection, The Financial Review. I found this interesting in itself, as there was nothing inherently “male” about the magazine, it is really a gender neutral topic, yet the look and feel of the magazine – in particular the advertising – appeared to be aimed at men. I think this illustrates the way that ‘neutral’ in western culture actually means ‘male’. Male is the default, this is particularly obvious when you look at clothing that is perceived to be gender neutral, it generally male clothing that women are permitted to wear. Even more interestingly, as I pondered this concept and scanned the contents page I noted that the majority of staff and contributors to the magazine are female. It is nice to have your assumptions shattered once and a while.

Like the last exercise this is just a stream of consciousness, random thoughts and ideas for further investigation and possible projects.

New school meets old school, email merges with post, mash up life and elife, sending gifts from second life; identifying as woman + or - , is being gendered getting in the way? Is thinking about gender preventing me from joining the ‘real’ world; email and legalities, the perceived safety of the written world, what can you say in writing that you can’t utter with your voice – post secret; clothes maketh the man (and un-maketh the woman?); story telling, myths, oral tradition, ‘tell me a story’, getting people to share stories, using common audio tech i.e. mobile phones as recording devices, a blog that accepts audio comments? Wikimedia? Make things as easy as possible for people to share; “Blink – the value of quick decisions” Gladwell, M.; nomclamenture, naming/not naming/naming and power; use of quotes and poems as tools for context; reflect discuss – reflect and create; is technology a distraction from social issues? i.e. Iraq war?; “the fact is you aren’t really in control of anything”; networking/e-networking; wireless, out and about, am I wireless now? Surely being wired is the new thing, being wire-less is hardly a revolution; must buy tech; sperm – news or not? Yes; cloting again, I suddenly feel the need to wear a suit – can I be taken seriously other wise? Why does this matter? Why does this keep drawing focus?; mixed media.

I found that this time I wrote a lot more, with a greater number of high concept ideas, but overall with less clarity and less ideas that jumped out at me as must dos. The end result – I am left with a desire to be sculpted, in control, to be full of ideas and to have meetings and coffee. I feel like I want to record ideas on an ipod, to take notes and to make snap decisions. I want to work in a funky/minimalist/organic/retrofit/city central office.

It is all still about image, just a different one.

cute flash/flickr video thing

2007-08-04T09:40:44Z

Via Boing Boing, Felix Jung has made a cute flash video thing that illustrates Dan Frick's song Astronaut by grabbing public photos from Flickr that are tagged with key words from the songs lyrics, cute!

The bestest blog name in the world?

2007-08-01T01:07:10Z

I am finding that my procrastination streak is coming out at the moment, I am all set to start doing the creative project, I am feeling creative and I am feeling motivated (despite a small lapse in confidence that lasted for a week or so) and I am ready to go. All that is holding me up is a name. Such a small thing, yet so powerful, as someone who has been inclined to change their name by depoll I understand very well the power of a name, whether it is other people who judge you differently or you yourself, a different name can make for a different life. But do I really really need the bestest blog name in the world? No. It just needs to be good enough.

A short list of names I am considering:

intimate and subversive (intimateandsubversive[dot]net): 'intimate and subversive' is how Sadie Plant describes women’s relationship with technology, I really like the sound of it and I think it describes the relationship very well, and since this project is about that relationship I think it fits really well.
machine mother (machinemother[dot]net): this I like as well, it has a nice set of layered meanings (and as you know it is all about the layers for me :) ), giving birth to machines and being a machine, and it sounds kind of hard rock :P and suggests creative birth as well. On the cons side it does sound a little simplistic and pretentious.
these days are numbered (thesedaysarenumbered[dot]net): as suggested by whooz_queen I love it, it is poetic and it is a lovely reference to both the timed nature of the project and also life itself. Cons, it is a little ominous and it scares me a little in terms of being confronted by my own mortality.
fiftytwo (most variants are taken): 52 is a nice 'tell it like it is' name for a 52 week project. Cons, most variants of the name are taken so it makes both getting a domain harder and potential for misdirection greater. Also, it is maybe a little too generic.
fifty two ways (fifty2ways[dot]net): fifty two ways to represent one’s self as a cyberfeminist online. The more I say it the more I like it. Cons, may be mistaken for this, maybe a bit too generic still.

any thoughts, comments, preferences or suggestions of other names please comment.

New Icon

2007-07-23T12:41:41Z

about time really :)

Does art require an explanation?

2007-07-23T01:13:33Z

I am finding many blog based art projects* less accessible than I would like, which means a reduced likelihood that I will return to these sites. This has me thinking about the idea of art rationales, the explanations that you often see in a gallery on the wall next to a piece or in a catalogue, I often find that I enjoy reading the rationale as much and sometimes even more than the art itself. The extra information – what the artist was intending, other influences that surround the work etc. – definitely enhance my enjoyment of the work. Similarly if there is a tour going at the gallery I will always join and I really get a lot of value out of those audio guides galleries sometimes provide. However, I am wondering if it is fair to always expect artists to explain themselves, part of the reader process is figuring this all out and drawing your own conclusion. Many artists deliberately do not supply rationales or even titles for this very reason (Mark Rothko for example). Is expecting an explanation just lazy on my behalf? Maybe, but if I am someone who is actively interested in new media art and *I* am finding these sites inexplicable then the chances of the average internet user enjoying the work are pretty slim.

Now, I don’t expect you to explain your every idea in great detail, however, if you give me a hint or two, just a little background or explanation the likelihood I will be engaged and interested enough to take a closer look and form my own opinion is much greater. I think this is probably even important for internet artworks since when I go to a gallery I already have a set of expectations, I have a place of reference and a framework to start with. Most people who enter a gallery will get there through the front door. With internet art people arrive from many different directions and they are seeking and expecting many different things. Of course the fact that people are expecting a certain thing within the internet is a good opportunity to play with those perceptions, and to use those perceptions against the reader in a judo-esque manner, yet I think that opportunity is often lost as it is as easy to leave a site as it is to stumble across one.

*the blog-art blog is a really good reference for art blog links.

Brainstorming for Art Ideas

2007-07-18T01:41:07Z

I spent this morning brainstorming for art ideas, I am definitely keen to invest some more time into practice right now. I jotted down ideas as they came to me, and then jotted down some more as I sat in a cafe flicking through a ‘Marie Claire’ magazine that I picked up of the cafe shelf. Of course the magazine was really just a catalyst for jotting down ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while, an extraction tool of sorts, yet I am thinking about repeating this process on Friday morning, but instead of looking through ‘Marie Claire’ selecting a magazine that is aimed at men instead and see if/how the themes that strike me differ.

First I had a think about what kind of things I want to make– video and audio, come to mind as places to experiment, but only with vague ideas of how. Blog art, community and collaboration also are very important to me right now. The staple of my art practice, and still the one I am the most keen on and comfortable with is ‘layering’ – digital layering in photoshop, mixed media layering, layers of meaning, layers layers layers. Layers of layers.

I then moved on to subjects that interest me as starting points (in no particular order, just a random group of thoughts) – domesticity; adaptable clothing; sex positive/sex performative art, objects/objectifiers; beautiful/useful; women actually doing stuff; craft/auteur, distinct/mass; replication; monsters; mother/monster/machine; angles/mechanics/representations; bling; functional/beautiful, re-presenting functional items in beautiful ways (tampon sculpture?); re-mix culture; make over culture; steam punk; post apocalyptic; fat; sculpting/manipulating/changing; new from old; layers; fabrics; sum of the parts; home; inside/outside.

Today's reading: Sollfrank and OBN

2007-07-06T01:43:35Z

This morning was spent reading Conelia Sollfrank’s Cyberfeminism: Revolution; Tactical use of terms a presentation given in 2002; and the almost identical The final truth about cyberfeminism, and then having a general look around the OBN Reading Room. I will write a more comprehensive review and post to No Una Banana, but some quick notes that struck a chord with me:

Sollfrank mentions Sadie Plant’s description of women’s relationship to technology as "intimate and subversive" – I really like this idea. I may have to give Plant’s ‘zeros and ones’ another look now I have a bit more time.
DIY is an essential part of cyberfeminism – "The idea of taking the term Cyberfeminism and filling it with one's own vision instead of complaining about what predecessors had done wrong, was central. Cyberfeminism as something you cannot learn, you cannot read, you cannot understand, but that you invent and do yourself, brought back agency to many women/feminists who had felt they had arrived at a dead end." – this is something I need to remember when defining my methodology, I will need to make it explicitly clear that I am not defining ‘the’ cyberfeminist methodology, but rather ‘a’ cyberfeminist methodology. This is not a particularly shocking revelation for me, it is part of what attracted me to cyberfeminism in the first place, and I documented that in the candidacy proposal, but it is always good to have a reminder.
Sollfrank also talks about the essential nature of networking to a cyberfeminist practice. Again not a new concept for me now, but a good reminder. This is definitely my weakest point as a cyberfeminist and is something I need to actively work on.

Conference Hunting and Mapping Frameworks

2007-07-04T01:31:40Z

I have spent most of this morning (and a good deal of last night) hunting for potential conferences to attend and other related artistic opportunities. This sounded like an easy task, but proved to be more difficult than I had thought it would. I think the problem was one of not knowing the exact language to describe what I was looking for - this is a problem I am finding more and more frequently as I expand my areas of interest, there is much information out there, but unless you have the right map or phrase book it can be really really hard to find. I found some useful info at the Curtin uni library site, but still having limited success in tracking down conferences that relate to my particular field.

I have also been doing so more thinking on my last post about using 'a cyberfeminist approach'. There is an opportunity here for me to develop a cyberfeminist methodology as one of my objectives, a major objective in fact. It is what I have been doing anyway, but saying it like that makes it much more organised and focussed.

Taking a Cyberfeminist Approach

2007-07-02T01:43:39Z

(x posted to No Una Banana)

When I talk about my thesis I often say I am taking a cyberfeminist approach to Web 2.0, and I think this is most often misunderstood. While this does mean looking at the web through a feminist lens, it also means much more than that.

So here is a brief description of what a cyberfeminist approach means to me.

Step 1: Know your product.
Ask the big questions – what is it? who says so? Who uses it? who doesn’t? why? what is different about it? Why is it special? What is not so great? To whom does it give a voice? Whom does it silence? What privilege is inherent in the medium?

Step 2: Engage
After all "cyberfeminism is not using words without any knowledge of numbers" so it is crucial to a cyberfeminist approach to not only be familiar with the theory, but to get in there and use the technology.

Step 3: Hack
While the term hacker (in the media at least) usually refers to an elite and mischievous computer programmer, I use the term in a broader sense as a person who, when not content with a system or a process, will actively seek to change and redefine said system. To me hacking means taking everyday things and changing them so they work for you. Cornelia Sollfrank gives a good definition of this in her lecture women hackers as “One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations… to generalise, one could say that hacking is all about learning and free inquiry”. I am also fond of Jon Ippolito’s description of techno art as "Creative misuse of technology".

Step 4: Play
Play is an important part of a cyberfeminist approach because "cyberfeminism is not boring!" The playful use of both irony and art have been inextricable from cyberfeminist theory since its very inception.

Step 5: Share
"Cyberfeminism is not a single woman", not is it "without connectivity". Communication, networking and collaboration are key cyberfeminist principles.

So in a nutshell what I mean by taking a cyberfeminist approach is to fully engage with the web in both theory and practice, creatively misusing it in a deliberate and playful fashion, while all the while collaborating, communicating and sharing the experience.

Where I make my private conversations public

2007-06-27T01:11:03Z

Thanks to callistra for the prompt that helped me write out a short description of the blog project, a statement of intent of sorts:
"The yearlong project is a way of exploring the potential of web 2.0 as a cyberfeminist art resource. Each week I will look in depth at an aspect of women’s representation on the Internet and I will create an artwork based on that research. My primary medium is layered digital art (i.e. images created using digital photography and Photoshop manipulation) and this will feature heavily in my weekly art works. However, to use the medium to its full potential I will also be utilising other forms of artistic expression such as video, audio, and the creation of browser based Internet art. It is important to me as a cyberfeminist artist that this work be not just theory, but also active and playful at the same time. There is an intentional multiplicity to the project for a few reasons, both to use the strengths of the world wide web (a web as it is) and to give space to the many varied ways of representing ones self as a woman online, I believe a diversity of representations is crucial to the dismantling of gender stereotypes."
***

we also had a very revealing and amusing msn exchange:
Bina: it is a pretty simple project really… which is good but it does worry me that it is too simple and therefore what is the point
Calli: how can simple be bad? you'll be showing the complexities of so called simplicity
Bina: I guess there is a tendency to think of 'simple' as 'unsophisticated' and therefore lesser in value, but really the point of communication is to convey ideas clearly
Calli: ha
Calli: where did the person go in that sentence, I wonder
Bina: lol, one does not like to identify ones self with such thinking ;)
Bina: so yeah, I guess what I am actually saying is that I sometimes feel insecure and like a fraud at this uni stuff :)
Bina: and I feel like people are going to say "you got a dr8 for that?"
Bina: or worse "we are not going to give you a dr8 for that!"
Calli: I think by the time it's over, you will be able to laugh that off

And also we talked about our children’s poo, but that may be a topic for a different journal.

web 2.0 names

2007-06-25T09:49:26Z

Following on from my earlier post today I found this web 2.0 company name generator, via web zen.

I'm kinda liking 'minoodle' :)

bina_93 @ 2007-06-25T11:15:00

2007-06-25T01:18:15Z

I have posted a few notes and thoughts about Gregg’s ‘Posting with Passion’ over at No Unna Banana, please feel free to jump over, read and discuss.

I am ready to jump right in any moment now and start the one-year blog/art project. I will be creating a new blog for the project where I will create and post a new digital art work on a weekly basis, and spend a week discussing and reflecting on that theme. I will keep this blog active as a reflective journal, where I consider the process as it evolves and use it as a space for brainstorming and idea gathering before putting the ideas into practice. I guess this is a kind of behind the scenes journal, my electronic moleskine notebook :)

Before taking the plunge I am taking a bit of time out to consider what to call the blog. A few early front runners were ‘The 100 pixel goddess’ which is a reference to standard live journal icons being 100 x 100 pixels in size, and also ‘404 – girl not found’ which is a reference to the 404 error that you get when something is missing from the internet. I have been leaning towards the second title although I think it is such a great title I can’t believe no one has used it already, I did a few google searches for it and came up with nothing, yet it still sounds familiar. While I do like the first title I find the use of goddess problematic because it sets up that binary that I am working to get away from here, perhaps “the 1000 pixel cyborg” is better – as Haraway said “I’d rather be a cyborg than a goddess”. I suspect that I will end up choosing something completely different – suggestions welcome.

Getting Things Done

2007-06-22T01:32:45Z

Baby_B is now in daycare from 8-12 Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, which means that this has become my non negotiable research/uni time. I am thrilled to be able to work solidly for those few hours and not have to rely on nap times, night times, or have my mind dealt out in many directions as I try and work. The old plan was really not working for me, nor was it very good for Baby_B, who got part of my attention *all* the time rather than *all* of my attention part of the time.

Today I:

Reacquainted myself with my proposal to remind myself exactly what it is I promised I would do for this project
Posted to No Una Banana, our emerging cyberfeminist group blog (for which there is an lj feed for those interested)
Made my first contribution to Wikipedia updating the stub entry on cyberfeminism (which I basically adapted from my candidacy summary background)
Revisited the article Posting With Passion: Blogs and the Politics of Gender by Melissa Greg.(which I just noticed has a UQ url, hmmm... perhaps some potential for networking there)

No Una Banana is the first time I have used blogger, until now I have been a one eyed lj fan, but I wanted to branch out and see the other side. I am finding it a little tricky as I don't yet know the language and I am finding it hard to reference their help pages without knowing the specific names of the things I want help with. For example, is there a blogger equivalent to an lj-cut?

Playing in wikipedia was scary at first, I feel quite intimidated sometimes when I think that anything I write on my blog or elsewhere on the internet is published for anyone to see, but I am feeling quite bold today - perhaps having several hour in a row to work has gone to my head.

bina_93 @ 2007-06-03T20:08:00

2007-06-03T10:16:53Z

Candidacy passed!

More on Methods

2007-04-29T20:45:25Z

This is an updated, cleaned-up version of the methods section. It really helps to take a break and look over your work with fresh eyes sometimes :)

It is very similar to the last version in terms of concept, just a bit cleaner ans slightly more detailed, so I have put it behind a cut to save repetition.

Research Method

The research will take place in two parts, as practice based research art and exegetically.

Analyse the ways gender is thought to impact on (self)representation online.
In the first frenzy of publicly accessible Internet that identity would be fluid and transferable, that gender switching was and would remain common, and that this was a new utopia in which we could all throw away the shackles of worldly gender. This does not seem to be the case. The exegesis will document the kinds of political, cultural and technological influences that impact on resulting online representations. I will explore the ways in which real world gender impacts on ones online identity – from accessibility to digital harassment, and also the way online gender influences readings. To analyse the ways gender is thought to impact on (self)representation online I will conduct a contextual review of feminist approaches to self and identity online, with particular focus on web 2.0. Because this is a continually expanding area both in terms of theory and technology the contextual review will need to be ongoing throughout the duration of the research program.

This objective will also be answered through my practical work, a blog based art project in which I will examine the ways gender is thought to impact on self representation through a series of art digital images created using digital photography, Photoshop manipulation and animation, using source material gathered from a mixture of Web 2.0 resources and my personal photography. Each week for one year I will explore an aspect of virtual gender through these digital images. I will explore a different sub-topics relating to the representation of women on the Internet, for example: the perception of women online being primarily concerned with domesticity [22]; the Internet as a ‘virgin’ frontier; the perception of Web 2.0 as a male dominated media; and recent cases of harassment of female bloggers. Using open source Web 2.0 blog software the digital images will be posted to a blog dedicated to this project, where the images will be used to stimulate discussion about the chosen topic. The images will be offered to other Web 2.0 users to use under a Creative Commons licence, which allows use of the work freely for non commercial uses as long as attribution is given to the original artist[31]. At the end of the exhibition year I will have amassed a collection of 52 digital images that explore notions of gender online.

Examine current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies from a feminist perspective.
Through the ongoing contextual review I will examine current graphical representations of women within Web 2.0 from a feminist perspective. I will examine the way women are presented on the Internet by themselves and others in order to discern any common themes. Using a cyberfeminist theoretical framework I will examine user generated images within Web 2.0, concentrating on those representing women, but will also inspect those representing men in order to ascertain if there are significant differences between the two.

While the exegesis will answer this objective in writing, the online art-work will answer this objective by graphically examining current representations of women on the Internet. Through the digital images I create I will explore dominant themes and examine them critically through a cyberfeminist lens.

Investigate the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0.
From the information gathered from the first two objectives I will investigate the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0. Once it has been established through the contextual review what the dominant representations of women currently look like I will be able to determine what possible alternatives are required. I will put forward ideas for possible new representations and discuss them in the exegesis.

I will use this understanding to inform my art practice in which I will explore (self)representation and endeavour to create alternative, cyberfeminist representations of women for use on web 2.0. Each week I will explore an aspect of virtual gender representation. Through the dedicated project blog I will put forward new ideas for representation in the form of digital images. I will then gather feedback about these images via comments form blog participants and use these to gauge the effectiveness of these proposed representations. Conducting the project over a year allows for the creation of 52 unique artworks and as many different interpretations of feminist representation. It is important to the project to allow for many different images, as there are many legitimate ways to graphically represent women in a feminist light. In fact, a diversity of representations is crucial to the dismantling of gender stereotypes.

Analyse the impact of web2.0 technologies and culture on cyberfeminist art.
Through the contextual review I will look at the work of other cyberfeminist artists and assess if/how the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies has influenced their art practice.
Through feedback and personal reflection on the project I will discuss the ways in which Web 2.0 provides either more or less fertile ground for cyberfeminist art practice.

It is important from a cyberfeminist perspective to not just theorise about gender online, but to be part of the online culture and to work toward change from within that culture. Thus it is appropriate that this research program not only discuss cyberfeminism and Web 2.0 exegetically, but also that the program be practiced based and situated within Web 2.0.Through the art practice I will be able to explore the impact of Web 2.0 technologies. Conducting the work as a time-based project uses the Web 2.0 format at its full potential, making the most of the chronologically based blog format. In terms of art practice working within a time-based structure will allow for real-time peer feedback that may be reviewed and incorporated as the project progresses, thus making use of Web 2.0s networking capabilities.

Reflective Journal
Throughout the process I will be keeping a reflective journal that documents the artistic process. Recorded in the journal will be ideas as they arise, problems and challenges, links to and discussion of new developments and research in the area, and any other thoughts and questions relevant to my research[32]. The reflective journal will enable me to document the process and to aid the reflective work required for practice based research[33]. This journal will be submitted to the examiners as an appendix to assist them in contextualising the practical work.

Research Methods

2007-04-28T01:51:52Z

Here is the latest draft of the research methods section, with an attempt to directly relate everything I plan to do to the objectives.

Research Method

The research will take place in two parts, as practice based research art and exegetically.

Analyse the ways gender is thought to impact on (self)representation online.
In the first frenzy of publicly accessible Internet that identity would be fluid and transferable, that gender switching was and would remain common, and that this was a new utopia in which we could all throw away the shackles of worldly gender. This does not seem to be the case. The exegesis will document the kinds of political, cultural and technological influences that impact on resulting online representations. I will explore the ways in which real world gender impacts on ones online identity – from accessibility to digital harassment, and also the way online gender influences readings. To analyse the ways gender is thought to impact on (self)representation online I will conduct a contextual review of feminist approaches to self and identity online, with particular focus on web 2.0. Because this is a continually expanding area both in terms of theory and technology the contextual review will need to be ongoing throughout the duration of the research program.

This objective will also be answered through my practical work, through a blog based art project in which I will examine the ways gender is thought to impact on self representation through a series of art digital images created using digital photography, Photoshop manipulation and animation, with source material gathered from a mixture of Web 2.0 resources and my personal photography. Each week for one year I will explore an aspect of virtual gender through these digital images, which will be uploaded to a blog dedicated to this project. Each week I will explore a different sub-topic relating to the representation of women on the Internet, for example: the perception of women online being primarily concerned with domesticity [22]; the Internet as a virgin frontier; and the perception of Web 2.0 as a male dominated media. Using open source Web 2.0 blog software the digital images will be posted to a blog dedicated to this project, where the images will be used to stimulate discussion about the chosen topic. The images will be offered to others to use as icons under a Creative Commons licence, which allows others to use the work freely for non commercial uses as long as attribution is given to the original artist[31]. At the end of the exhibition year I will have amassed a collection of 52 digital images that explore notions of gender online.

Examine current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies from a feminist perspective.
Through the ongoing contextual review I will examine current graphical representations of women within Web 2.0 from a feminist perspective. I will examine the way women are presented on the internet by themselves and others in order to discern any common themes. Using a cyberfeminist theoretical framework I will examine user generated images within Web 2.0, concentrating on those representing women, but will also inspect those representing men in order to ascertain if there are significant differences between the two.

This exegetical analysis will inform the artwork in which new representations will be created as a response to currently available representations.

Investigate the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0.
From the information gathered from the first two objectives I will investigate the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0. Once it has been established through the contextual review what the dominant representations of women currently look like I will be able to determine what possible alternatives are required. I will put forward ideas for possible new representations and discuss them in the exegesis.

I will use this understanding to inform my art practice in which I will explore (self)representation and endeavour to create alternative, cyberfeminist representations of women for use on web 2.0. Each week I will explore an aspect of virtual gender representation. Through the dedicated project blog I will put forward new ideas for representation in the form of digital images. I will then gather feedback about these images via comments form blog participants and use these to gauge the effectiveness of these proposed representations.

Every week for 1 year, I will create a new original digital artwork that satisfies the cyberfeminist objective to create new feminist sympathetic representations of women on the Internet [7]. Conducting the project over a year allows for the creation of 52 unique artworks. It is important to the project to allow for many different images, as there are many legitimate ways to graphically represent women in a feminist light. In fact, a diversity of representations is crucial to the dismantling of gender stereotypes.

Analyse the impact of web2.0 technologies and culture on cyberfeminist art.
Through the contextual review I will look at the work of other cyberfeminist artists and assess if/how the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies has influenced their art practice.
Through feedback and personal reflection on the project I will discuss the ways in which Web 2.0 provides either more or less fertile ground for cyberfeminist art practice.

Through the art practice itself I will be able to explore the impact of Web 2.0 technologies. Conducting the work as a time-based project uses the Web 2.0 format at its full potential, making the most of the chronologically based blog format. In terms of art practice working within a time-based structure will allow for real-time peer feedback that may be reviewed and incorporated as the project progresses, thus making use of Web 2.0s networking capabilities.

Reflective Journal
Throughout the process I will be keeping a reflective journal that documents the artistic process. Recorded in the journal will be ideas as they arise, problems and challenges, links to and discussion of new developments and research in the area, and any other thoughts and questions relevant to my research[32]. The reflective journal will enable me to document the process and to aid the reflective work required for practice based research[33]. This journal will be submitted to the examiners as an appendix to assist them in contextualising the practical work.

Objectives and Ethics

2007-04-27T03:03:18Z

Undeterred by a recent episode of computer crashery I persevere in a mildly caffeinated frenzy. Thanks everyone for your comments and questions, they really help a lot. Here is how the objectives are looking:

Objectives
The central question driving my research is ‘how can cyberfeminism practice and Web 2.0 applications be used to recode gendered representations of women on the Internet?’ To answer this question I will be carrying out practice based research within a framework of cyberfeminist art and theory, looking at graphical representation and self-representation of women within Web 2.0. The objectives of the research are to:

Analyse the ways gender is thought to impact on (self)representation online.
Examine current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies from a feminist perspective.
Investigate the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0.
Analyse the impact of web2.0 technologies and culture on cyberfeminist art.

***

And here is how the section on ethics is going:

Ethical Issues
I will be applying for a ‘Form A’ ethical clearance. Although there is little to no risk of physical or emotional harm likely to be caused by this research program Web 2.0 and the Internet are evolving technologies and therefore there are some ethical issues that remain unclear. As a researcher in these areas it is therefore important to be mindful and cautious of these ethical areas. The most important ethical problem for working within Web 2.0, and particularly for a practical project, is that of unclear intellectual property. For example while a blog owner retains copyright over all the posts and entries created by herself, comments of others remain their own and are not necessarily the property of the owner of the blog (or other space) in which they have been written. While there is assumed consent for these comments to be published on the blog where they are contributed, there is no implied permission for these comments to be used in any other context. Within this project I will need to be very clear to those who may participate by way of comments how their contributions may be used (for example in the exegesis or in art works).

A second area of ethical consideration is the un-moderated nature of the Internet. While this project is not aimed at minors or other groups at risk it is impossible for me to restrict access to any such groups. Because of this consideration it is important that the content of the online component of this research program be legal and suitable for all ages.

***
Thanks to Strangedave for sending me in the right direction for the ethics.

I am currently working on the methods, which has been the most confusing part for me, however, with the objectives sorted out and some very helpful suggestions from SuperH, they seem to be moving along steadily.

re-refining the objectives

2007-04-22T03:48:13Z

Getting better I think. Although sometimes I can't tell if I am getting better or worse :) Ah well, it always seems to get there in the end.

***
The central question driving my research is ‘how can cyberfeminism practice and Web 2.0 applications be used to recode gender biases on the Internet?’ To answer this question I will be carrying out practice based research within a framework of cyberfeminist art and theory, looking at graphical representation and self-representation of women within Web 2.0. The objectives of the research are to:

Examine current gender biases on the Internet particularly with regards to Web 2.0.
Survey current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies.
Explore the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0.
Determine if/what new opportunities exist within Web 2.0 for cyberfeminist artists.

***

Rejigging the question and objectives

2007-04-21T06:46:39Z

I am feeling that this is a little rough... a little to broad perhaps. I am trying to rejig the objectives to incorporate the suggestions from the sub committee. So far it is looking like this:

Objectives
The central question driving my research is ‘how can Web 2.0 be used to recode gender biases on the Internet?’ To answer this question I will be carrying out practice based research within a framework of cyberfeminist art and theory, looking at graphical representation and self-representation of women within Web 2.0. The objectives of the research are to:

Address gender biases that currently exist within Web 2.0
Analyze past cyberfeminist critiques of representations of women on the world wide web.
Examine current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies.
Explore the potential for alternative visual representations of the female on Web 2.0
Analyze the potential of Web 2.0 applications to create and disseminate cyberfeminist works.
Determine if/what new opportunities exist within Web 2.0 for cyberfeminist artists

***
I think that is probably too many objectives also. The other problem I am having with some of these is that I am not sure how I would do them in a practical sense. I am feeling a bit down about it at the moment, mostly because I have re-read over the submitted proposal and I feel like it already does what they have asked of me which makes it harder to do something different. Also, I have been re-reading Visualizing Research (an excellent resource for the practice based researcher) in an attempt to gather ideas for alternative methods and the reflective journal is a key component almost all of the examples they give, I feel very sad about having it rejected as one of my main methods. I think I may have to keep it, and refer to some of the examples given in Visualizing Research, and refer to it simply as a reflective journal, without mentioning its online status.

Rejigging the Candidacy

2007-04-21T01:42:55Z

While I am really looking forward to getting on with the project proper, I am surprised to say I am actually enjoying the candidacy and the revision. It is really helping to enhance my understanding of the research process. Although often writing this document is like pulling teeth to me, and I have by no means found it easy, I can definitely see its value to the greater project.

Following a meeting with SuperH I am:

re-focusing the question so it conforms with the subcommittees suggestions
re-forming the objectives so that they are problems answerable by both a written thesis and through art work
re-writing the methods so that they very clearly (in point form even) show step by step how the methods will answer each of the listed objectives.
taking a deeper look into the ethics of using a blog for research

I am a little disappointed that they committee felt that the proposal focused too much on the making of art - remembering that the research program is the Doctor of Creative Arts, and is marked 70% on the artistic outcome and 30% on the written component. while I see where they are coming from I do feel that it shows the academic institutional attitude that art is not real research, and as a consequence what they really want is for practiced based researchers to essentially do their research twice. I prefer the idea of doing the research as art and using the exegesis to discuss, or even explain the work where necessary. I am also a bit disappointed that the committee feels that the idea of using a blog as a reflective journal is not really viable in terms of assessment. The practice of keeping a reflective (paper) journal is quite common in art research and I believe often used as an assessable component - I have had reflective journals marked before as part of creative writing courses - however I feel like it would be difficult to argue successfully if they are not already open to the idea, I intend to keep it as part of the work, it is integral to my practice, it may just have to be un-marked.

The committee's response to the candidacy proposal

2007-04-16T04:16:21Z

Here is the committee's response to the submitted candidacy proposal

***
...The committee notes that your proposal is interesting, but that some revision is required. It therefore resolved, before approval is granted, that the proposal should be revised and resubmitted to the subcommittee...

The Objectives [should explicitly state a central research question/problem, and the objectives form a logical outcome of the question/problem—i.e., a coherent/interrelated set of tasks necessary to addressing the central research question; should demonstrate that the project is focussed/“doable”].
The Research Question focuses too much on the notion of making cyber art. A Research Question
should establish a focus of investigation that will meet the requirement of a DCA or PhD to
“contribute new knowledge to a field.” This contribution can be in forms other than verbal
ones- hence the idea of a DCA with two parts (creative and exegetical) answering a single
Research Question. Put differently, both the creative production and the exegesis are “outcomes”
of an investigation governed by a common Research Question.
The Research Question should then generate a coherent set of Objectives.
The Background provides a possible focussed Research Question: “Do we now live in a post-
cyberfeminist world (wide web)?” (There is a nice play on words in this sentence.) Another
possible Research Question embedded in the Background is suggested in the sentence “It is with
this recoding of gender biases that this DCA program is concerned.” Alternatively, the
Significance provides still another possible Research Question, one related to Web 2.0 and gender
roles- one that integrates considerations of feminism, web and gender roles, the efficacy of new
technologies, the concept of identity. (Please note how these considerations point to a coherent set
of Objectives.)

The Methods [should specify in sufficient detail the ways in which each objective of the project will be carried out, showing a good initial understanding of the methodologies of the fields relevant to the project].
Like the Research Question, the Methods in this draft focus too much on practice. Put differently,
the Methods should relate to a focused Research Question (as described above), and should
address each of the Objectives generated from that Research Question. Put another way, the
Methods should account for all the “operations” needed to produce both the exegesis and the
creative production (i.e., relate as much to locating the study in the contexts/debates present in
both theoretical and critical literature as to the art practice).
Even more critically, and related to implications of the Methods section in regard to making cyber
art and keeping a cyber journal, the proposal is unclear as to just what the creative component of
the thesis will be- what will be examined; how will it integrate with the exegesis; how will the
creative component be presented for examination?
Finally, the proposed “journal” needs to be carefully explained in regard to the Methods (it is
improbable that it in itself could be examinable...).

The Ethics section [should indicate an understanding that all research has ethical implications and that, under national/University Guidelines, Ethics Clearance at either Level A or Level C is or is not required for the candidate’s project].
The Ethics section needs to demonstrate a much fuller consideration of ethical issues of using
online contributions to a blog page. Please note the Committee’s requirement for Level A ethics
approval.

Candidacy Proposal (first bit)

2007-04-16T04:06:38Z

Here is the candidcay proposal as submitted. As it is very long I have posted it over several posts behind cuts to make it easier to read and comment on.
***

Abstract
The central question driving my research is ‘how might Web 2.0 applications be used to facilitate cyberfeminist art practice?’ To answer this question I will be carrying out practice based research within a framework of cyberfeminist art and theory, looking at graphical representation and self-representation of women within Web 2.0. Cyberfeminism refers to feminism(s) applied to and/or performed in cyberspace, however, an authoritative definition of cyberfeminism is difficult to pin down as the movement is most famously defined in terms of antitheses, creating a fluid, playful, often ironic and subversive form of on-line feminism. Cyberfeminist theory is inextricably entwined with cyberfeminist art practice as the theory advocates a ‘hands on’ approach. Until now cyberfeminist art has most often taken the form of hypertext art, browser based art and web ‘zines, it is an objective of this research to apply cyberfeminist art practice to the emerging Web 2.0 technologies. Web 2.0, or social software, refers to an over all approach to user experience rather than any one specific piece of software, and refers to open participation in document creation rather than traditional publishing, rich user experience, user as contributor, and ‘tagging’ rather than taxonomy [1]. In terms of Internet applications, Web 2.0 is exemplified by blogging software and sites, Live Journal journals and communities, Flickr photo galleries, Amazon’s customer review database and Google’s link ranked search engine [1]. To apply cyberfeminist art practice to Web 2.0 I will conduct a blog-based project for the term of 1 year in which I will create and post an original digital image on a weekly basis. I will monitor the progress of the project in an on-line reflective journal, which will form the basis of my exegesis.

Title
Cyberfem 2.0: Applying cyberfeminist art practice to Web 2.0 applications.

Objectives
The central question driving my research is ‘how might Web 2.0 applications be used to facilitate cyberfeminist art practice?’ To answer this question I will be carrying out practice based research within a framework of cyberfeminist art and theory, looking at graphical representation and self-representation of women within Web 2.0. The objectives of the research are to:

Examine current graphical representations/self representations of women within Web 2.0 Internet technologies through a cyberfeminist lens.
Create feminist/cyberfeminist artwork that provides feminist sympathetic images for use as avatars, icons and ‘user pics’ on the Internet.
Utilize Web 2.0 applications to create and distribute cyberfeminist artworks, as a medium to deliver those artworks to a feminist network, and as a tool for reflective research.

Candidacy Proposal (middle bit)

2007-04-16T04:01:39Z

the background section of the proposal
***

A Cyberfeminist History
The term Cyberfeminism was first used by the Australian collective VNS Matrix (pronounced Venus Matrix) in their 1991 cyberfeminist manifesto for the 21st century [2]. In this manifesto VNS Matrix famously proclaimed “The clitoris is a direct line to the matrix”[3]. Julienne Pierce from VNS Matrix explained:

“four bored girls decided to have some fun with art and French feminist theory… with homage to Donna Haraway they began to play around with the idea of cyberfeminism… Beginning as if by spontaneous combustion, from a few hot nodes in Europe, America and Australia, cyberfeminism became a viral meme infecting theory, art and the academy [4]. “

At around the same time in Europe, Sadie Plant independently started using the term cyberfeminism, and a few years later the first Cyberfeminist International was held as part of the Document X conference in Kassel, Germany, in 1997.

Put simply cyberfeminism refers to feminism(s) applied to and/or performed in cyberspace. An authoritative definition of cyberfeminism is difficult to find in written works due to the fact that early cyberfeminists deliberately evaded a rigid elucidation. At the first international cyberfeminist conference, delegates avoided stating what cyberfeminism was and instead devised with 100 anti-theses and defined what cyberfeminism was not. The idea of defining/not defining it through several overlapping ideas (anti-theses) is appropriate to post-modern feminist ideals of a fluid worldview rather than a rigid binary oppositional view and refects the diversity of theoretical positions in contemporary feminism. The 100 anti-theses range from the serious and instructional, for example “Cyberfeminism is not just using words with no knowledge of numbers” (i.e. cyberfeminism requires active engagement with technology in addition to theory), to the whimsical, for example “Cyberfeminismo es no una banana”. The 100 Anti-theses is written primarily in English but includes several other languages in line with the 100th anti-thesis “cyberfeminism has not only one language” denoting cyberfeminism as an international movement. This combination of serious real world action mixed with a good dose of irony and sense of fun is also evident in many cyberfeminist artworks.

Cyberfeminism arose partly as a reaction to “the pessimism of the 1980s feminist approaches that stressed the inherently masculine nature of techno-science”[5], a counter movement against the ‘toys for boys’ perception of new Internet technologies[6]. As cyberfeminist artist Faith Wilding argued:

“If feminism is to be adequate to its cyberpotential then it must mutate to keep up with the shifting complexities of social realities and life conditions as they are changed by the profound impact communications technologies and techno science have on all our lives. It is up to cyberfeminists to use feminist theoretical insights and strategic tools and join them with cybertechniques to battle the very real sexism, racism, and militarism encoded in the software and hardware of the Net, thus politicizing this environment.[7]”

Yet cyberfeminists do not choose to boycott this male dominated technology, but to embrace the technology, and use it with a mixture of irony, humour, seriousness and subversion for their own feminist ends. It is for this reason that cyberfeminist practice often takes the form of Internet art.

Cyberfeminist Art
“Cyberfeminism in its very nature necessitates a decentered, multiple, participatory practice in which many lines of flight coexist.[8]”
Alex Galloway

The practice of cyberfeminist art is inextricably intertwined with cyberfeminist theory. The 100 anti-theses make clear that cyberfeminism is not just about theory, while theory is extremely important, cyberfeminism requires participation. As one member of the cyberfeminist collective the Old Boys Network writes, cyberfeminism is “linked to aesthetic and ironic strategies as intrinsic tools within the growing importance of design and aesthetics in the new world order of flowing pancapitalism” [6]. Cyberfeminism also has strong connections with the DIY feminism movement, as noted in the seminal text DIY Feminism[9], a grass roots movement that encourages active participation, especially as a solo practitioner or a small collective.

Around the late nineties several cyberfeminist artists and theorists gained a measure of recognition for their works, including the above mentioned VNS Matrix and their Cyberfeminist Manifesto for the 21st Century [3], and Faith Wilding and Critical Art Ensemble. Some of the better known examples of cyberfeminist work include Olia Lialina’s My Boyfriend Came Back From the War [10] a browser based art work that plays with the conventions of HTML; Linda Dement’s Cyberflesh Girlmonster [11] a hypertext work that incorporates images of women’s body parts and remixes them to create new monstrous yet beautiful shapes; and Shu Lea Cheang with the 1998 work Brandon [12] which was the first Internet based artwork to be commissioned and collected by the Guggenheim.

The decline in volume of cyberfeminist literature in recent years would suggest that cyberfeminism has somewhat lost momentum as a movement, however, in terms of artists and artworks cyberfeminism is still taking place. Recent artworks of note include Evelin Stermitz’s World of Female Avatars [13] in which the artist has collected quotes and images from women over the world and displayed them in an interactive browser based format, and Regina Pinto’s Many Faces of Eve [14].

The Goals of Cyberfeminism
The goals of cyberfeminist artists are varied, as there is no one ‘feminism’ but rather many feminisms, and cyberfeminist artists are as likely to draw on any one particular feminist school of thought (for example socialist feminism) as they are to work without acknowledgment of any theoretical background. However, Faith Wilding in her account of the first Cyberfeminist International listed several areas that were agreed upon as areas in which more research and further work was considered desirable, including: promotion of cyberfeminist artists theorists and speakers; publishing of cyberfeminist theory and criticism; cyberfeminist education projects; creating coalitions with female technical professionals; and creating new self-representations and avatars that “disrupt and recode the gender biases usual in current commercially available ones” [7]. It is with this recoding of gender biases that this Doctor of Creative Arts program is concerned.

With the public acceptance of the Internet came a utopian belief that in this new neutral territory users would be able to shed their gendered bodies and be androgynus equals in cyberspace. Unsurprisingly, this has not turned out to be the case – “every social issue that we are familiar with in the real world will now have its counter-part in the virtual one” [15].

Although there was a surge of art and research happening in the cyberfeminist field in the late nineties, that surge has subsided and many may conclude we are living in a post-cyberfeminist world (wide web). This backlash is evident in real-world feminism also, with many young women believing that feminism is either for ‘unattractive hairy arm-pitted lesbians’ or that it has succeeded in providing equality for the sexes and is no longer needed [16]. Yet inequality remains both on-line and in the world and thus the objectives of neither cyberfeminism nor real-world feminism have been fully realised.

The Internet is now a very real and integrated part of western life. Ten years have passed since the first cyberfeminist international and the concerns raised at the conference are still in need of address. The cyberfeminist objectives as listed by Wilding [7] have not been met and require ongoing research in the present. In addition to this the emergence of Web 2.0 and ‘social’ software brings with it new issues and opportunities that are worthy of critical examination. Where early cyberfeminist artworks typically took the form of web pages, zines, browser based art and hypertexts; Web 2.0 offers increased opportunities for networking, participation and time-based art projects.

Web 2.0, the New Network
Tim O’Reilly, who coined the term Web 2.0, describes it as “an attitude, not a technology” [1]. This attitude refers to open participation in document creation rather than traditional publishing, rich user experience, user as contributor, and ‘tagging’ rather than taxonomy [1]. It is about engaging the collective power of he masses. In terms of Internet applications, Web 2.0 is exemplified by blogging software and sites, Live Journal journals and communities, Flickr photo galleries, Amazon’s customer review database and Google’s link ranked search engine [1]. Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, is a classic example of the Web 2.0 attitude. Rather than a separate authoritative source, Wikipedia uses ‘wiki’ technology that allows users to create, contribute and edit entries [17]. Anyone who has access to the Internet is able to contribute to or refine Wikipedia entries, thus it and the information it contains is continually growing and changing. All articles are contributed to the site by those that also use it. Because of this high level of boundary blurring between user/consumer and author/provider, Web 2.0 is often referred to by the terms “social software” and “citizen media” [18].

A key part of the Web 2.0 phenomena is the practice of blogging. Derived from the term ‘web log’, a blog is an on-line journal that is updated periodically with entries displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs are a means of communication and can cover any topic desired by the creator, from a personal diary, to political opinion and activism. Blogs can be the work of a single author or a team of editors[19]. Anyone with access to the Internet is able to maintain a blog, free software is available to anyone with basic computer and Internet skills who would like to use it. According to Technorati’s quarterly State of the Blog audit in October 2006 there were over 57 Million blogs with 100 000 new blogs being created each day [20]. Technorati, a blog search engine company, also tells us that around 1.6 million updates are currently taking place on a daily basis [18].

Despite the fact that women (in the USA) reportedly outspend men when it comes to buying technology [21], the world wide web is still seen as a male-dominated territory. Out of the 2006 list of 100 highest authority web sites as reported by Technorati 12 were blog sites[20], and of those 12, 10 of those blogs were owned and maintained by men, or by teams of all or mostly men. Thus, the ‘toys for boys’ ideology that was partly responsible for the emergence of cyberfeminism lives on in Web 2.0. In Posting With Passion: Blogs and the Politics of Gender [22] Melissa Gregg suggests that this apparent disinterest in women’s on-line writing is the perception of women’s blogs being concerned with the domestic and the trivial, in the same way women’s past times are often dismissed in the physical world. Supporting this theory a study looking at cultural differences influence contribution patterns to Wikipedia concluded that the same gender biases experienced in the real world are equally evident in the on line world [23].

Representing Oneself Within Web 2.0
Web 2.0 requires a very different mode of representation and identity construction to that required in earlier uses of the Internet. Greater available bandwidth and improved technologies mean graphical and video materials are more widely available and easier for even the novice user to share. As technologies improve, users are able to participate at a much higher level, with less required technical knowledge than ever before.

Early research investigating identity on-line, such as the work of Sherry Turkle, perceived the Internet as a place for anonymity and therefore gender neutrality [24]. However, it has transpired that this is not currently the typical case and that on-line identities are more likely to be continuous with off-line identities [25]. The user experience of Web 2.0 certainly seems to confirm this critical user trend to on-line authenticity. It is a curious situation that despite pseudonymity being accepted and common on-line a high level of honesty of experience and cultural identity is expected within Web 2.0. Deliberately misleading on-line identities are frowned upon and are derogatorily labelled ‘sock puppets’ when perceived to be created for the purposes of deception. Unlike avatars in games, which are in a sense a licence to give ones self a fantasy identity, blog users are expected to represent themselves as they would in the physical world. In blogging and Live Journal in particular a participant’s post is usually accompanied with a small graphical representation of the poster, referred to as an ‘icon’ or alternately a ‘userpic’. Many participants will have several icons that they will select from and use according to their discussion topic or mood. Live Journal, for example, allows users to keep an on-line collection of up to 6 icons for free accounts and up to 100 for paid accounts. These icons can be any image the user chooses, from a simple picture of the participant (although these are often presented in such a way as to make the person un-identifiable in an effort to maintain web anonymity), an image of a celebrity they admire, a text based slogan, an inanimate object, the users pet, a combination of text and graphics, to an animated-gif slide show type animation including any combination of the above. These images are significant because they are a modern form of self-portraiture yet they are overlooked as commonplace, informal and domestic. Despite their domesticity userpics hold political meaning, both in the way people choose to represent themselves and in the ways people are permitted to represent themselves. In 2006 the owners of Livejournal, Six Apart, began suspending the accounts of users who were displaying images of breastfeeding as their default icons[26], citing the images as ‘obscene’. This highly political action suggests that user icons are an important area of visual literacy that should not be ignored.

My Relationship to Web 2.0
I am an avid user of Web 2.0 technology who has been using Live Journal for both a personal journal [27] and an artistic reflective space [28] for over two years now. I am both a high level consumer, reading blogs, journals and live feeds of others on a daily basis, and contributor, updating my own journals several times per week.

The default image that I use to represent myself on my personal live journal is a self-portrait that has been constructed with a feminist approach. The source image was taken during a photo shoot of which the purpose was to take images with the central figure taking up all of the available space in the frame. This was inspired by looking at the portraits that were selected for the 2005 Archibald Prize I noticed there was a trend for men to take up large areas of the canvas, while women tended to have more white space surrounding them and were less likely to touch the edges of the frame. The effect of this tended to give the men a more powerful, confident attitude than the female representations. Only one painting, Deborah Trusson’s ‘Naked’[29], seemed to have a female subject that was big and bold enough to fill the canvas. Also, with the exception of Trusson’s painting and Paul Jackson’s portrait of Gretel Kileen[30], all the female portraits seemed to position the viewer at an angle above the figure, again diminishing their power. Inspired by this extraordinary work I set out to create photographic images (self-portraiture) where the subject filled as much space as possible while still keeping the majority of the body visible. The result is playful yet powerful and no-nonsense. The image has been digitally colorized and text has been added as a graphical element, as is a common trend for user icons. The text I have chosen to represent me is a quote from feminist singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson and reads “I am just a speck of dust inside a giants eye” which holds personal meaning for me in that it shows my appreciation for the artist and also gives and insight to my philosophical beliefs.