| Collaboration and identity are the two key elements of a radical, maybe revolutionary, new way of creating art that challenges the single-artist, art-object paradigm. The web gives the artist an option that she has rarely, perhaps never, been offered before. It is the opportunity to construct and play new identities that can replace her existing identity from the perspective of other web players. Identity definition and presentation on the web is relatively reduced compared to physical reality. The web allows for selective presentation. The reduced set of cues that convey the idea of an identity on the web gives the player more control over her identity as she can determine when and how to reveal something about herself. This opportunity can free her and her creation from the social, psychological and historical weight that an identity carries. It is a chance to be born again and to approach objects and subjects from a fresh perspective and a playful manner that is usually associated with youth. The web offers a second chance to the artist prisoner of herself. Collaboration and identity are intimately connected because when you collaborate, you do so as someone. The basis of a collaboration is that it involves several parties which, for communication purposes, usually present themselves under different names. A name is a fast and easy way to refer to or address someone, it is a shortcut to someone's identity but it is reductive and only the tip of the iceberg that is a person's identity. The combination of collaboration and identity manipulation in a web-specific art project generates far-reaching results that are likely to help unleash the artistic potential of both the web and the players involved as well as challenge our increasingly outmoded definitions of what constitutes art. |
