This reminds me of the case of "Julie Graham" from 1982. A
psychologist wanted to explore the liberating possibilities of changing
gender and circumstance online. Having found that people approached
him differently when he presented himself as a woman he enhanced the
character making her a mute paraplegic who, due to a car accident was
so disfigured she didn't want to go out in public. People were very
attracted to this character because she embodied many people's
conception of internet technology as a radical site for transformation.
Like Cindy Jackson, many people became wary of Julie Graham after her
characteristics did not meet the realities that those characteristics
would embody.
Nicholas Mirzoeff writes, "given that the chat-line lends itself so
readily to this kind of posturing, the truly surprising element of the
story might be that people were so surprised by the deception."
(Mirzoeff 1999, 112) In the case of Cindy, I would say the same holds
true. There's no shame in playing something that we are not. I
perceive it like playing house. Ken plays the responsible father, then
switches to the pugnacious child - maybe now he feels like the family
dog that has been sent out to the kennel, but it's all play.
Furthermore, given Ken's background in Fluxus and inter-arts, working
with an avatar within a design context is perfectly legitimate.
I don't see it any different than learning in a workplace. To advance
we have to take on roles that are not us. I remember feeling like a
big fraud the first term that I taught at the college level, like I had
really pulled the wool over someone's eyes and that it wasn't even me
at the lecture stand. We have to design ourselves. Exploring roles
that we do not perceive as "ourselves" is an important part of that
play and that process.
Anyway, it's almost halloween - if Ken comes trick-or-treating as Cindy
Jackson I've got a bag full of candy. No apology needed.
Best,
Alan
Mirzoeff, Nicholas (1999), An Introduction to Visual Culture, New York,
Routledge.
For more on Julie Graham see Stone, Allucquere Rosanne (1995), The War
of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age, Cambridge,
MA, MIT Press.
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