PO Box 720905: An Exploration in the Development of the Databody
Click here to view results of the data analysis
Artist´s Statement
This installation was in partial fulfillment of the Bachelor´s of Art degree with an emphasis in Computers in Art.
In the digital age, as most of us are aware, our everyday existence leaves bits of data about ourselves scattered about. This information is a commodity, and is utilized by marketing agencies to target potential buyers of products and services or sold to other organizations. As this data is bought, sold, traded and sprinkled across the digital landscape, it begins to define our patterns and preferences—who we are, a fiduciary being—our databody.
Although no art piece can disassociate itself completely from its creator´s experience, this installation is not so much an experimentation with my own identity, as it is an exploration of the alternate being as written about by Sandy Stone:
"The cyborg, the multiple personality, the cyberspace cowboy suggest radical redrawings in the technosocial space—in which everything is writing (computer code)—of the definition of the body, the cultural meaning of bodies, and of the bounded individual as the standard social unit and validated social actant."
~Sandy Stone
from an essay entitled "Virtual Systems"
My intent was to create and observe the development of cyborgian entities that are beings unto themselves—databodies which were created not only by me, the artist, but by the system they now reside in.
One data "seed" for each entity was planted via U.S. mail, then over the course of up to a year, I collected and analyzed the junkmail that was generated from that one piece of mail—there were several hundred pieces total. As the perceived buying habits of each entity were developed by the marketing organizations, I allowed the system to form the databodies without interference. Any data seeds requiring payment were paid for with money orders, to avoid contaminating the entities´ data with my own. Although I am aware that the project could have gone further outside of the realm of my own existence and could have used more scientific data gathering methods, interesting patterns and correlations did arise and were noted.
As of November 15, 1999, PO Box 720905 no longer belongs to this project.
Special thanks to: Jan Ekenberg, Lisa Jevbratt, Benjamin Eakins, Brett Stalbaum and Matt Hoessli, for your inspiration, guidance and support, and to Marilou and the rest of postal workers at the Promenade Station.