Me Virtual You

Identity in technology changes: Simultaneous environments – social connection and new media

2008-11-25T03:39:00.000-08:00

Kazys Varnelis is the director of the Network Architecture Lab, at Columbia University in New York. Within this experimental department of the university's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Varnelis investigates the impact of computation and communications on architecture and urbanism. Together with Robert Sumrell, he runs the non-profit architectural collective AUDC; their first book, "Blue Monday", was published in 2007. In 2005/06 Varnelis was a visiting scholar with the "Networked Publics" program at the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication. This fall, MIT Press will publish the results of this program as "Networked Publics", edited by Varnelis. His essay for receiver looks at how mediated communication has changed our notion of place, created non-places and now has us darting between simultaneous environments.
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Network culture is as new to us today as modernity was to the people who lived a century ago. To prognosticate more than I already have, is highly dangerous. But it is also necessary. If we can, as yet, do little to project the vast changes in society that will take place in the coming years, we need to watch warily, acting as techno-skeptics one day, techno-enthusiasts the other, so as to ensure a world of greater meaning, democracy, and real social meaning and individuality.

ID/Entity presentation in Belgrade

2008-10-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

The presentation was a part of the "B-link" festival of new communications in Belgrade (www.b-link.org). Neither of us was physically present. Danica's part was pre-recorded and I did mine through a video-link.

Comment and discuss on B-link blog www.virtualme.b-link.org/?p=81

interesting links: further reading

2008-10-04T02:01:00.000-07:00

Growing a Commons Worthy of Trust

The Diachronic Self: Identity, Continuity, Transformation

Jon Udell: The semantic web, digital identity, and Internet governance

Towards the Identity Society

Digital Identities – Patterns in Information Flows

Identity, Reference, and Meaning on the Web

The Augmented Social Network

Exploring identity on social network: Flickr

2008-10-04T01:22:00.000-07:00

Flickr is the biggest Web 2.0 social service that enables you to share photography and interact with others. One of the interesting groups on Flickr is 365 days project where one explore self in everyday context (365 days) during a year by publishing a photo (of self) per day. This is great way not only to share and interact the aspects of yourself with others, but also denotes intimate dialogues with (your)self. Outcome is fun, amazing pro photographers you meet, ride per se, and maybe a book.

Identity artwork

2008-10-03T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some examples of my artwork where I dealt with the issues of identity:

Human after all (v. 2.00), 2007
"Human After All", an ambience set-up from 2005, was recreated in the form of a printed screen for the Telenor foundation's art collection.

http://aleksandarmacasev.blogspot.com/2007/12/human-after-all-v-200.html
http://aleksandarmacasev.blogspot.com/2008/05/telenor-collection-exhibition.html

Human after all, 2005
An ambient consisting of wallpaper with human outline patterns and social-realism style furniture. Visitors are invited to draw the features onto the human outlines on the wallpaper. In filling in the blank outlines, people project their own vision of idols, politicians, stars or just themselves. They create a complex society map and childish fun turns out to be serious business. Be careful what you wish for and whom you choose as an idol. Sloba (Slobodan Milošević) didn't fall from Mars. He was created by the Serbian people.
Postcards with the same pattern are offered so you can distribute your idol around.
http://www.the-mighty.com/art/human-after-all/aleksandar-macasev-human.html

Personal Cards, 2004-2008

Series of personal cards designed for friends. Just a few features added to a generic ginger-bread man figure.
http://aleksandarmacasev.blogspot.com/2008/09/personal-cards-update.html

Danse Macabre, 2002
This work was presented at the VIDEOMEDEJA video festival in Novi Sad , Yugoslavia under the female alias Aleksandra Zivanovic (later Aleksandra Macasev). VIDEOMEDEJA is basicaly female oriented festival that promotes "female art discourse". The author constructs new (female) identity and simulates the "female art discourse" without anyone knowing about the hoax. Organizers accepted the entry and it was exhibited in CD category. Gender identity as a complete social construct that can be manipulated at will.
http://www.the-mighty.com/webart/fishnetart.htm

Fe/Male, 2001
This work deals with the relativity of gender. My portrait transforms in two minutes in my female portrait and vice versa. It repeats ad infinitum. It uses some elements of web iconography (real time clock, loading bar,e tc.). It' s a study of a human face and tiny differences in gender distinction. It was shown as an ambiental work in Belgrade gallery of the Student Cultural Center in December 2001.
http://www.kontrola.co.yu/portrait/portret1.swf

Folie A Deux, 2001
Folie à Deux is a web art work that simulates a test of cognitive reality! It is a simulated test of perception. The authors of this work (A.M. and Andrej Dolinka) are the test subjects that react to basic categories of reality. The reaction is in for of an art expression. The whole work points out the complete disparate perception of reality as well as the noise in Internet communication .
http://www.kontrola.co.yu/follie/1.htm

AM Wikipedia case

2008-10-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Before my lecture in Seattle in 2006, a friend of mine decided that it would be cool for PR purposes to make a Wikipedia page about me.
It was pretty short article and was marked as a stub, of course.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aleksandar_Ma%C4%87a%C5%A1ev&diff=153082625&oldid=110765556

Two months ago, I realized that it would be nice to lose that "stub" tag and to expand the article to a proper length. I gave my material to a writer that I know and he has written a new article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aleksandar_Ma%C4%87a%C5%A1ev&diff=236527517&oldid=236511758

Here are the changes made by "Wikipedia editors"
- "LGBT visual artist" tag is immediately removed. I provided a plenty of citations and proofs and they removed it again.
- "Atheist" category remained. Although they changed it to "Serbian atheists" where I found myself in the company of only two more persons. Slobodan Milošević, infamous president of Yugoslavia during nineties, and Stevo Žigon, an actor known for his loyalty to SPS (Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia)
- After a while I've found myself in another category: Former Eastern Orthodox Christians. It was added by a guy with a nick "Vojvodaen".

Here's his user page:

Hello!

I am vojvoda from Serb wikipedia and I'll write articles about Serbian history. Visit my site [1]

I am interested in history, Christianity and arts. I believe that conflict betwenn science and Christian faith doesn't exist.

About Wikipedia I think that it is not only source of informations but also guide threw literature.

Here's the final version of the article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Macasev

Conclusion:
- it's easier to mark yourself "atheist" than "gay". I suppose you need to work your ass off to prove that you are gay (as I am). But being an atheist is easy because apparently it is still an ideological slur. Equal to communist. That's kinda American point of view, as I see it.
- On the other hand, Vojvodaen who's a Serb, quickly lumped me into a Former Eastern Orthodox Christians category. Because if you state that you are an atheist you must be a traitor of the Christian faith, I suppose. Even if I am actually and officially still a member of the Orthodox Christian Church (I was christened as a kid).

All in all, loads of ideological bulshit. That, need I say, has got nothing with truth.

ID in the networked social media

2008-10-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

Virtual ID in this context implies social identity that Web users create and manage on web sites and online communities. Majority of Internet users prefer to identify themselves via pseudonyms, which reveals certain information that identify the person.
Coyne emphasizes that whenever we interact in social sphere it denotes the mask of self - identity. There is no difference in online world if we have in mind that she/he has to respond to certain questions in their profile (age, gender, address, user name, etc.), which makes "identity" in social networks.
As person publishes and (re)presents to the networked publics, she or he are making and adding layers to their masks (in writing style, vocabulary and topics). After all, does mask really hide the identity? When one chooses certain kind of mask, it shows and reveals something about the subject that's behind the mask. Online mask does not reveal the real identity of the person. Even if person decides to hide her/himself behind totally fake identity, this shows fears and the lack of self-esteem. By creating and setting up the identity mask people create safety net/work, facade.

Identity plays very important role in virtual communities. Virtual communities give people freedom in representing themselves, and this results in new possibilities for the society, especially the person's ability to explore new roles in the way that's safer, more interesting, sometimes useful. Virtual identity enabled possibility to feel more comfortable in wide range of roles, which some of them can be underlying life aspects of that person who is not being able to present it in real life (Goffman).
Social online networks (as My Space or Facebook) facilitate to maintain online identity within overlapping dual contexts: online and real world. In these social networks identities are presented as profiles (of the users). Those are often formed identities aiming to reflect certain aspect or the best possible version of -self -I (handsome, over-paid, great income, gym is "the must", high-education, etc.) Representations include beside profile, photos, communication forms with other 'friends', and network members. Goal is to be 'cool", and to receive everyday feedback's through validations of the colleagues, allies, 'friends', fans. In general, people are projecting their identity by demonstrating their relations with others.

This is very short overview as research in the field of social media give us precious insight in human behaviour, society structures and processes of cultural dynamics. This phenomena brought significant changes, not only for people in IT area, but for people in education, business, everyday users. It is necessary to understand what is happening in this context since Web 2.0 reconstructs many key elements in society, create the awareness of information ecology and provide insight for the future innovations.

Virtual Identity

2008-10-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

`I am my body to the extent that I am,' - J.P.Sartre, Being and Nothingness

Comparing to physical, virtual world is different, made of information, bits and bytes. Although in everyday life virtual denotes quasi, pseudo or fake, in different contexts this term we perceive in different ways.

For example, in philosophical context, virtual is 'unreal' entity, though can imply the qualities of real. Many sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers use term virtual for the facet of reality that is not material, but despite everything is real (Deluze).

One of many aspects points out on virtual as surface, facade, mask, created by realistically caused interactions happening on material level. When you are using computer, the image projected on the screen depends on physical interactions happening on hardware level. Here, virtual is possibility that stays fulfilled in concrete, actual. It's not yet material, but it is real. Michel Foucault advocated the idea that identity isn't stable component of the humanity, but something that is constantly changing.

On ontology level, actual, potential, virtual - denotes something that isn't [ physical ] realistic but owns all qualities of real.

Prototype primer is (self) reflection in the mirror.

Useful links

2008-09-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.greenlloyd.com/bodyincyberspace.htm

5 meme questions on virtual ID/Entity

2008-09-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

I don't like memes too much, but since the subject is digital ID/Entity in this project and blog, I will give short replies.

1 Is virtual identity virtual at all?
It is just digital passport for accessing the other medium we have tried to reach since Aristotle, in the form of persistent interactions.

2 5 aspects of your identity that you try to project onto the world?
- i try to be inspirative/primer/ to others
- i try to learn something new each day and give good examples about it to the world
- i try to interact respectfully and listen to the other
- i try to implement personal creativities
- i try not to try anything above, i am just doing it.

3 How do people see you?
Actually here I have interviewed people (allies, colleagues, friends) with who I interact on daily basis and the most overlapping characteristics/perceptions I got as response are the following:

-intelligent
-unique/different
-beautiful
-thoughtful
-good writer (have good ideas)
-very true person ( don't give off a false image)
- analytical,
- insightful,
- scholarly,
- an attractive woman and aware of that.

4 Difference between your real self and the virtual self?
There is no difference. Everything is in your perception.

5 What female celebrity you would like to be (up to three.... living or dead, real or fictional, it doesn't matter)?

None.
If not asked for celebrity - that would be me. Cannot imagine myself or 'would-like-to be' as anyone else.

6 What male celebrity you would like to be (up to three.... living or dead, real or fictional, it doesn't matter)?

None. Same as for female.
I would like to spend some time interacting and brainstorming with some [for me] "celebrities" in my field of interest but I couldn't find anyone real or fictional that I would like to be, rather than me. I am (sub) real.

Avatar

2008-09-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Avatar or Avatara (Sanskrit: अवतार, IAST Avatāra) in Hindu philosophy is the 'descent' or incarnation of a divine being (deva) or the supreme being (God) onto planet Earth.

An avatar is a computer user's representation of himself or herself, whether in the form of a three-dimensional model used in computer games,^[1] a two-dimensional icon (picture) used on Internet forums and other communities,^[2]^[3] or a text construct found on early systems such as MUDs. It is an “object” representing the embodiment of the user. The term "avatar" can also refer to the personality connected with the screen name, or handle, of an Internet user.^[4]

virtual impressions of the other one -short story

2008-09-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Aleksandar started to follow me at Twitter. I always check profile and recent page of tweets before I add someone, and this guy definitely drew my attention by different, provocative movie-line short tweets, sometimes philosophical thoughts, sometimes they are rebel imperatives.
Then we exchanged few messages, he is reading my blog and stalking me on Twitter, me - likes his art work, visual identity and concept of his art-creations (including his T-Shirts). We moved to Facebook and then to emailing, and ended on Skype (so far). From our written and oral communication I can say that Aleksandar is very witty, talented, full of ideas, very visually driven - you can also conclude this from his web site. He is very into ex-Yugoslavian art and culture scene, mentioning many times some Yu-nostalgia moments that I can vaguely recall from my childhood.
I can absorb him and understand his modus vivandi as entity because he was going through same 90's political turbulences as I did, as well as nomadic life and lot of travels: coincidence or not - he lives in DC and NYC and I used to live there as well. He maybe looks intimidated and feisty at the same time at the first glance, but I think in his true nature he is very professional and funny person who jokes about life in his own sarcastic way.
He believes in horoscopes and tarot, this part of esoterica is unknown to me. He seems to be very into tarot as another form of visual replicability of symbols into real life. Also, he has full admiration and fear of women, which I can also understand ::smile:: , to correct myself, fear of strong women, so many times I have to be cautious and not too feisty [he may not appear again till the end of this project ::grin:: ] , but i can feel that he is afraid somewhere (maybe) of my energy which can be overflowing.
We have common educational sequence in our work and lives: he used to be a teacher of interactive design, and I am instructor, trainer, lecturer since my mid 20's. This part I really liked: his curiosity to discover new things, his ability to use and transfer all available web applications and medium per se for art-works and installations. I really dig his art. One should know the background not only of his personality, but what is more important of the country we used to live in 80's and 90's that influenced on each of us in different ways.
I'm glad we met [thanks to his friend who referred me to him] via social networking sites and I hope to meet soon in analogue world.

Identity tidbits

2008-09-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

Identity

In philosophy, personal identity refers to the essence of a self-conscious person, that which makes him or her unique. It persists making the person modifications happen through one single identity.
In philosophy, identity (also called sameness) is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable, in terms of possessing a set of qualities or characteristics that distinguish it from entities of a different type.

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Personal identity

The question regarding personal identity has addressed the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time, known as personal continuity.

John Locke considered personal identity (or the self) to be founded on consciousness (viz. Memory), and not on the substance of either the soul or the body.
Amnesia???

In psychology (which historically is philosophically concerned with dualism), personal continuity, also called personal persistence, is the uninterrupted connection concerning a particular person of his or her private life and personality. Personal continuity is the union affecting the facets arising from personality in order to avoid discontinuities from one moment of time to another time.

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Social identity

Identity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity.

Identity may be contrasted with the notion of self. In psychology, a psychological identity relates to self-image (a person's mental model of him or herself), self-esteem, and individuation. An important part of identity in psychology is gender identity, as this dictates to a significant degree how an individual views him or herself both as a person and in relation to other people. In cognitive psychology, the term "identity" refers to the capacity for self-reflection and the awareness of self.^[2].

The Eriksonian framework rests upon a distinction among the psychological sense of continuity, known as the ego identity (sometimes identified simply as "the self"); the personal idiosyncrasies that separate one person from the next, known as the personal identity; and the collection of social roles that a person might play, known as either the social identity or the cultural identity.

These different explorations of ‘identity’ demonstrate how difficult a concept it is to pin down. Since identity is a virtual thing, it is impossible to define it empirically. Discussions of identity use the term with different meanings, from fundamental and abiding sameness, to fluidity, contingency, negotiated and so on.

In sociology and political science, the notion of social identity is defined as the way that individuals label themselves as members of particular groups (e.g., nation, social class, subculture, ethnicity, gender, etc.). It is in this sense that sociologists and historians speak of the national identity of a particular country, and feminist and queer theorists speak of gender identity. Symbolic interactionism (SI) attempts to show how identity can influence, and be influenced by, social reality at large.

Identity has played a functional role in social movements. By emphasizing a group identity, social movements have sought to strengthen politically oppressed groups both by improving members' sense of confidence and by familiarizing the external society with the existing social group. However, national or ethnic identity is sometimes also tied to demagogy, leading to ethnic or religious conflicts.

Postmodern views of identity understand it as a function of historical and cultural circumstances.

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National identity

A nation is a human cultural and social community. In as much as most members never meet each other, yet feel a common bond, it may be considered an imagined community. One of the most influential doctrines in Western Europe and the Western hemisphere since the late eighteenth century is that all humans are divided into groups called nations.^[1] Nationhood is an ethical and philosophical doctrine and is the starting point for the ideology of nationalism; a nation is a form of self-defined cultural and social community.^[2] Members of a "nation" share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of history, ancestry, parentage or descent. A nation extends across generations, and includes the dead as full members. Past events are framed in this context: for example, by referring to "our soldiers" in conflicts which took place hundreds of years ago. More vaguely, nations are assumed to include future generations.

my short story

2008-09-13T05:36:00.000-07:00

A bit & bytes of facts:
I started to use computers at the end of primary school (glory days of Commodore) and I got very curious and interested. I was very good in COBOL and FORTRAN programming languages but I got even more enthusiastic with computers when I discovered Internet in 1995. Then, my former boyfriend who was total geek -math student, introduced me to Inter webs and computers of that generation. I remember sitting for hours behind (the black) screen chatting in LAN, and later using IRC and Usenet where we sent messages to each other. I was amazed with possibilities and spent many hours both in computer lab on Math Institute SANU (Serbian Academy of Science and Arts) as well as the computer lab at ETF (Faculty of Engineering and CS). Since my nature for studies was dual - humanities and computer science, I tried to balance and find some golden path between them.

I created my first web page at 1996. and was pioneer in many innovative things that didn't exist before in Serbia (former Yugoslavia). Throughout the School and after School I had wonderful practice in areas of information science and digital culture and society from professors and practitioners from abroad.
In late 90s I've pioneered the development of first listservs in academia (they had over 800 members and some of them were international). It was funny situation during that time when many people thought that behind that 'virtual' wall are several people working on this project, but when we met in real life they were shocked to see that there is a young girl who managed everything. In the early of 2000 I was the founder and editor in chief of the first electronic magazines (in visual arts, contemporary architecture and culture) , and blogger since 2002. I've changed many blogging platforms (from blogger, wired, livejournal and settled finally at wordpress).
Also, beside educational work and training the students, professionals on new web 1.0 applications (from web sites to online databases), I was the idea factory for many projects in education, science, culture. The first (and the only so far) institutional science blog in Serbia was created and managed by my enormous desire to expand the borders and challenge myself and others in innovations of Web 2.0. I think I did succeed.
I've changed lot of hardware, have worked on many of them, used many software as well, I am gadgets freak, and some people say I'm a geek gal. My parents know this the best and since they are in totally different professions I am deeply grateful for their patience with me. At certain point I agree about being geeky but I never go to extremes - I love my analogue private life, and when I'm not present online I have lot of other interesting people and things that occupy me. I keep my first and the oldest laptop (from 1998) as vintage and never throw away my hardware.

As speaking of virtual identity, I trying to balance my digital identity from both positions: as participant and observer/researcher. It is interesting how other people see me as virtual persona, actually as a real person with (her) activities in digital medium. It depends on person - colleagues know who i am (at least I hope they know < smile > ), and other people who read my words, follow me in my work, or just random people - have different perceptions of my ID/Entity which depends on self-presentations in different mediums and contexts.
I am known to twitter from the airplane when the software is crashed down, at the conferences, write or chat while I eat (bad habit), hack and fight with other supersmart people for some good cause but then there are times when I love to sit in the nature, beside the water, river, sea, ocean, practice yoga and meditate.
Recently, I took a Digital Native test (made byDN Initiative) and my score was 95%. The only question I failed was about the usage of TiVO.< grin >
Many people find hard to follow me, I can add that my current computer finds that the same as many times I type much faster than he can digest. Also, I find hard to find supersmart engineers in computer science, in professional and private life. But, I'm learning and trying to understand both parties. I'm learning a lot from much experienced web developers and designers, I like to hear each part and brainstorm with them as well as with professors from different Universities world wide, who inspire me, and vice versa.
Since, I'm involved in Information Technologies for more than 13 years, and in online communities (as participant and observer) for 10 years, my PhD research focus is on the later.
You can find me, if not working in front of my base station surrounded by a lot of creative and inspirational thingies that help to go through, or listening in the background while writing to my Last.fm, I am usually walking down the streets, taking photographs, chilling out in outdoors caffees, chilling, talking to people, hailing the cab, or making creative chaos. I never go without my mobile listening to my favorite music playlist and podcasts du jour. Have my own, unique mo's that I keep for myself and the closest ones.

5 meme questions

2008-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

1 Is virtual identity virtual at all?
Your virtual self is an integral part of your overall self. Just one aspect of your identity.

2 5 aspects of your identity that you try to project onto the world?
- being funny/witty
- being clever/educated
- being cool
- being always different
- being creative

3 How do people see you?
- silly/not serious
- ambitious
- weird
- cheerful (they're soooooo wrong)
- what da fuck is he actually doing?

4 Difference between your real self and the virtual self?
Virtual self is a sort of an idealistic image of myself.

5 What female celebrity you would like to be (up to three.... living or dead, real or fictional, it doesn't matter)?
- Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth)
- Bebe Neuwirth in The Faculty (an actress with the best legs ever... )
- Tilda Swinton (kinda beautifully androgynous)

6 What male celebrity you would like to be (up to three.... living or dead, real or fictional, it doesn't matter)?
- Fred Schneider (B-52's)
- Marcel Duchamp
- Jacques Lacan (Just to find out what the fuck was in his head)

I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You!

2008-09-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Today i popped up to this great NYTimes article on digital intimacy, which title I totally digg, the one to read.

Virtual ID/Entity

2008-09-03T12:40:00.000-07:00

Before I reply to your post, a thought, a reflection that i'll develop how do you and you manage your online identity vs identity in the physical world? How many of you keep in this context, of social web and virtual communities, self-awareness and identity management?
Further reading at Digital Serendipities , where I've been writing about representation in virtual world as well as digital management impression issues.

Impressions of the Other one

2008-08-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

It started with an email from my friend Marko Jobst. He found Danica on Twitter.

Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 12:34 PM
ko je zena da li mozda znas? (Do you know who's the lady?)
www.danicar.org
na twitteru: danicar

I checked it out and found it quite interesting. Especially her blog http://danicar.wordpress.com.
Web/net phenomenons, social issues and stuff. When I started to track her on Twitter she sent me a message first. So we kinda started corresponding. And it died out soon.

She sent me a message about my T-shirts in July 08 and we started FB correspondence in kinda very honest manner (private issues and stuff). She's apparently very young and honest lady. Very clever and ambitious. Traveled the world.

I saw only one photo of her. She reminded me of Mira Furlan, Croatian actress (Babylon 5 and Lost). Kinda very pretty. Although I'm into blond girls... but, wait, I'm not into girls at all. Just for the record.

I've never heard her voice (although we agreed upon Skyping sometime) or saw her in person.

She seems a bit pushy, which freaks me out a bit... especially with women (another issue of mine: slight fear of women). She's online all the time just like me. She likes Marissa Nadler just like I do. She has some Russian blood in her, just like I do.
If I were straight, I'd probably ask her for a date.

She's Aquarius (Virgo rising, just like me), which is kinda interesting. I'm Leo. Total opposite. Her open, honest and direct approach.

Anyway, after a while I invited her to do a lecture with me for the B-link festival on Virtual identities. So here we are.

A brief history of my own net identity

2008-08-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I started using the Internet in 96-97. At first it was just emails, chats and forums. No online communities as we know them today.

At fist I started using my high school nickname Moćko. It was given to me by a friend of mine who was referring to my, let's just say not very masculine body type. It was a kind of a meat pate too. During my college days it turned into an English version, Mighty. Being an artist I also wanted a cool art moniker, with a little touch of irony.

In gay circles I used Ambrrose, which is a hybrid between Marcel Duchamp's female alter ego, Rrose Selavy and a character from my favorite computer game Undying, Ambrose. It was a perfect hybrid: arty, pop, dandy (Oscar Wildish) macho but feminine... The game is made by Clive Barker, a famous horror writer known to be openly gay.

Rrose Selavy ............................Ambrose

As for the avatar I used an old photo of mine that my friend has taken in 1996. It is a take on M Duchamp's Rrose Selavy.

Ambrrose

Gay culture is known for the usage of nicknames. At fist it was to conceal your own identity, but it just got stuck as a habit. So, I was playing with this elusive gender identity for a while.
I even made and artwork about it "Danse Macabre" where I used totally constructed female identity to take part in Videomedeja (female video) exhibition in Novi Sad, just to prove a pont that a man can make a female video.
http://www.the-mighty.com/webart/fishnetart.htm

In my professional representation I used Mighty or The-Mighty (I still own and use www.the-mighty.com).

In 2005 I rejected all my virtual identities and introduced my self as me. Aleksandar Maćašev.
Although I use very polished-cool photos that a student of mine taken of me. Pale, overexposed... kinda pop/goth... it's actually a try to look young and without wrinkles. At the age of 34 you start to think about things like that.

photo: Tijana Bulatović

a drawn variation

Recently I started to play with my own name. Like a Russian version (my family came from Russia few centuries ago).
Александр Раикович Матяшев
Or in the United States where people have trouble pronouncing my family name Maćašev. It is always written Macasev, and people think that I'm Scotish.
Alexander MacAsev

virtualise me

2008-08-27T07:44:00.001-07:00

::woman at work::
let's begin!