Liz Filardi

Liz Filardi is interested society's obsession with virtual communities specifically, social networking. In exploration of this obsession, she created a narrative project called Wonderful Life, which engages the narrative potential of social networking communities. She is attempting to push narrative in a new direction. The focus of the project questions the inclusion of individual's social networking communities and challenging the notion of how this social involvement can enrich our lives.

Filardi states that, "We form narratives by reconnecting/searching for old friends, etc... In past issues of privacy existed, people were less open to sharing personal information.....Surfing networks has become social default. We prefer to surf the net over watching T.V." Another component of the work is an investigation of the use of marketing tools within these social networks, as people have shifted from watching television and bearing the commercials to using the Internet as source of this spectator entertainment.

Wonderful Life is a satirical web narrative, which has been adapted to social network platforms. Liz used taken several websites to create the project to create the narrative. She says, "The only way that you can really consume the story is by becoming friends with the character. Even if you don't know these characters who you just became friends with on Facebook by investigating you get caught up in the story the same way that you get caught up in the story of what your friends are up to." The project unfolds over a fixed, five-week time period. This parallels the real time frame for the characters, who participate in daily blogging while being paid to consume a daily health regiment called Wonderful Life. The goal of the product is to discover the meaning of life. The blogging not only documents the experience of taking the product, but also provides a narrative hook for the viewers.

While Liz often relies on the public as her audience and participants in her work, she also puts herself out there, as in the case of Facetbook. This project is achieved through Firefox web plug-in that allows her to change and archive her Facebook profile. This project speaks to created identity or the multiplicity of identity. It emphasizes the ability to project a story about oneself through social networks by constructing a character and story for people to follow Viewers take an invested interest in, even if secretly. This work connects to the work of Sophie Calle. The viewers have the ability to play detective or investigate Filardi's constructed narratives presented through Facetbook. Sophie Calle's work plays on vulnerability in both her role as an artist through her personal sometimes secret interactions that she has with her subjects. In this way, Filardi's work turns the table on the viewer, while she allows the world to take on spectator roles. She is also putting a mirror to the public, commenting on the behavior that is delivered through these social networks.


The work Status Grabber is a service for people to make a brief statement over the phone. In order to update people on their status on behalf of a friend who has requested the service, they are phoned and asked to make a statement. This act alone is somewhat superficial/limiting in what the participants can share. It also parallels to the social networks in the way that it speaks to the limitations of really giving true information in online social arenas. People want to believe that they are engaging in genuine connections with friends/family members online, but there is only so far these interactions can go in the viral space of the internet world. I found the work ironic in the way that people were unlikely to reveal personal information through the telephone, even though there is such a hype around status updates online. I really enjoyed the humor that comes across in the prankster style that the worked is delivered and received.

black&white is an exploration of the term stalking, Filardi takes a historical case of criminal stalking and interplays the narrative with the idea of online stalking. Using a website interface that mimics Facebook, she creates two profiles for the characters involved in the Farley/Black case if Silicon Valley in the late 1980's which provoked California Anti-Stalking Law. The profiles provide insight into the story, while engaging viewers to participate in the act of stalking through their following of the story. It questions the notion of stalking all together.


Word Bank:
playful, humorous, ironic, participatory, communicative, connectivity, interactive, critical, analytical, narrative, imaginary, emotional, social engaging, privacy, boundaries, public, relational,

Links to other artists that relate:

Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher
Learning to Love You More

Sophie Calle

Artist Link

Gwylym Cano

Net Art Part 2

Anne Marie Schleiner's curation writing provides insight with different scenarios that clarify the role of a net artist. Once again, I found the humor, specifically ironic humor to feed my interest in this writing. With Artists X, Y and Z leading examples of the life of a Net Artist, I also saw how these different ways of working overlapped with some of the other contemporary art practices today. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, I see a continued parallel between Bourriaud's relational aesthetic theory to the experimental, interdisciplinary, and collective workings of Net Artists. Bourriaud's curation of the show Altermodern at the Tate Britain showcased various works of art that demonstrated his belief that post modernism is dead.

Here is Bourriaud's Manifesto to the Altermodern Exhibition:

A new modernity is emerging, reconfigured to an age of globalisation – understood in its economic, political and cultural aspects: an altermodern culture

Increased communication, travel and migration are affecting the way we live

Our daily lives consist of journeys in a chaotic and teeming universe

Multiculturalism and identity is being overtaken by creolisation: Artists are now starting from a globalised state of culture

This new universalism is based on translations, subtitling and generalised dubbing

Today's art explores the bonds that text and image, time and space, weave between themselves

Artists are responding to a new globalised perception. They traverse a cultural landscape saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expression and communication.

The Tate Triennial 2009 at Tate Britain presents a collective discussion around this premise that postmodernism is coming to an end, and we are experiencing the emergence of a global altermodernity.

Liz Filardi is one of the Net Artists who is also working within these parameters. Her work I' Not Stalking You; I'm Socializing: Facetbook is a playful, yet critical look into global, social networks, specifically Facebook. I could relate to Filardi's anxiousness over the constructed identities portrayed through these self-focused Internet venues. It brings to attention psychological aspects of identity presented to the public through on the web. In addition, issues of the the spectator and privacy are apparent in Filardi's exploration of multiplicity, identity and the inter-connectivity of the world wide web. Liz's work takes form through social interventions and performance. She engages with other people by exploring boundaries through everyday experiences of communication.

The work Yeas and Nays by Christian Croft provides a web plug in in order to create an interactive platform for viewers/users.
Croft explains:
"Yeas and Nays is a space that tranforms any webpage into a means for contacting Congressional representatives. Using Yeas and Nays, a citizen can connect via phone to speak with her representatives, and the resulting shift keeps a record of the call located on the website that informed it."
This brings to mind the notion that the viewers of Net Art also partake in their active role as an Internet user. This reminds me of the piece The Machine is Us/ing Us. Both these pieces point out the power of collectivity that feeds the Internet and of course in effect, Net Art. The Yeas and Nays allows the viewer/user the opportunity to partake in the creative process and as a result produces the work in a collaborative effort. It allows for activism to become embedded in the interactivity of the passive Internet user. I am also interested in the DIY (Do it Yourself) component of the piece, which seems to work on another level of empowerment by providing a means for enhancing the users Internet fluency.

Early Internet Art

The manifesto by Bookchin & Shulgin comes across as a mockery of the traditional art system. There is a humorous element that came into their description, guidelines and instructions for defining Internet art. Perhaps, this colored my playful perception of the examples Internet art that followed my reading of the manifesto. These ideas also reminded me of some of the contemporary art theories that have come to envelop what is know as socially engaged, community or site based works of art. Other parts of the manifesto were simply rules that any individual of any course of work could follow. It is rather accessible to a technologically based society member to comprehend. But also contained lines that could not be understood by a person who did not have experience with a computer. This makes it an exclusive type of art. The way that the manifesto called to do away with the institution foresees free internet enterprises such as google, facebook, myspace.

In Beyond Interface, the artist Udi Aloni states that his piece Re-U-Man "is a structure that helps me send my fragmented 'I' to you (plural) and re-collect your commentary, for me to speak again in a way that might surprise me." This was of particular interest to me as it spoke to the constructed identity that a member of Facebook creates for their Internet community. The Facebook Internet community also contributes to the construction of each participants identity, as they leave comments, photos, etc to connect to each member of the website. This relates to the following line in the manifesto: "Expansion into real life networked infrastructures."

Also, within the Beyond Interface site, I found the work, GrammaTron by Mark Amerika. This piece is a great example of the manifesto's ideas about embracing the crossing of disciplines through its use of sound, internet images and poetry. The length of the piece seems requires the viewer's attention to span through time. It gives the viewer an opportunity to focus attention on a cohesive piece that makes sense, rather than a chaotic over stimulation of elements that viewing some of the Internet art provided. The progression of chapters from the initial website into the second site provided a nice layered effect. A universal perspective on the connection of the Internet was portrayed through the poetic text that guided the piece. The images and text also revealed a sexual content that speaks to the voyeuristic and exhibitionist tendencies of the Internet. Finally, Amerika's style recalled the sound and performance work of Laurie Anderson, specifically the piece
O Superman.

Digital Narratives

In considering the framework of a digital narrative, the automatic comparison to a book came to mind. In the same way that Bush's predictions of the Internet resembled a digital file cabinet, I began to consider the computer in comparison to a book. The hard back and spine of the book's contents are carried through the user's computer. The pages translate to the pages explored within the Internet. However, I find myself struggling with the satisfaction of the tactile experience of reading a traditional narrative contained within a book as conveyed through a digital, interactive narrative.

In Leischman's "redridinghood," I found myself a bit over stimulated by the interactive component. The work felt much like a video game, but did not drive my engagement as a viewer in a way that kept my interest. This version of the classic story did not give much more in terms of depth, even through the stimulating presentation. I searched for reasons why this story needed to be portrayed in such a fashion, somewhat like when a book becomes a movie and the movie does not offer anything more than the original text.

As noted within my previous blog, I am increasingly aware of the lack of physicality that is inevitable within the world of technology. While it seems that the digital age has brought with it possibilities for staying closely connected with others, the genuine experience of being in touch and intimately relating with others feels disconnected. Laporta's "DISTANCE" reveals the issues of immediacy and a virtual presence with another person. This virtual presence is counteracted by the notion of real time and space. Laporta's piece offers narrative through text and recorded online video images, which describe the dual nature that technological advancements have on communication and the relationships that exist within.
Some of the narrative words that struck me and spoke to this duality follow:

IMMEDIACY, INTIMACY, RESPONSE, IMAGINE, TECHNOLOGY, VEIL, REFLECTING, PRESENCE, GAZE, TIME, SEARCHING, FUTURE, VIRTUAL, REAL, CLOSER, FURTHER

Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries' DAKOTA reveals an captivating play on text and viewer comprehension. I found this digital narrative most compelling. It allows both space and clutter to activate the words of the narrative script. It made me reflect on a recent visit to the International Center for Photography in New York. The exhibit, "For all the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights" was of particular interest. I especially enjoyed the straightforward use of text on the civil rights movement posters that were included in the exhibition. I have been reflecting on text as a tool for mass communication, which relates to the widespread use of the Internet and digital tools for communication. It seems that these practices aim to reach a wide population through its accessibility.

I can't help but consider the human populations that do not have access to the Internet and others forms of technology. I question if they are really missing out on anything. So often, we see charity work that aims to help underdeveloped countries and I wonder if is actually helping or taking away from these cultures. The self-important focus of the Internet forums seem out of place in cultures where community is interwoven into basic needs for life. This way of life seems to promote a more genuine form of connectivity to me.


Barbara Kruger's work uses text to speak about the influences of mass media on the public.


Lawrence Weiner's work uses language as a sculptural material. He makes work that is designed to be translated.


"Dakota" also recalled John Cage's experimental work in performance and printmaking. I made another connection to the Beatniks (Beat generation) due to the rejection of materialism that I percieved in Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries' piece.