ilikeyoubetteronline.com

The project “I like you better online” consists of a room installation that focuses on the act of surveillance, voyeurism, and the pleasure of watching others. The room incorporated two video projections where you can see me engaged in daily activities: in a window frame talking on the phone, and behind a shower curtain taking a bath. In the middle of the room, there was a computer with a website open that people could access.

The website contains an online chat room without registration where people can talk to me. The site can also be accessed from outside the gallery. I would be online on this website for a durational performance, talking with whoever accessed the website.

The work is inspired by the project JennyCAM, a famous website that broadcast for years the life of Jennifer Kaye Ringley and Amalia Ulman`s performance called Excellences & Perfections via her Instagram and Facebook accounts.

But in contrast to Jenny`s unfiltered life, the purpose of the site is to discuss the cosmetization of reality that happens in cyberspace. The advance of reality-shows starting in the 90s has led now to a strange uprising of staged reality, a hybrid request coming from the public that has now become the producer and the consumer of this market. This hybrid combines the desire for trueness in TV shows (which we can encounter in the rise of “authentic” footage of increased violence) and the feeling of control by the public over the characters on screen (you can vote them out or change different settings).

The boundaries between acting and living have been crushed completely. With easy access to apps that can broadcast live the latest personal updates (through stories or lives) but also that help edit real live footage by distorting reality with the sole purpose of selling products, real people can now reach a bigger audience than before.

Amalia Ulman`s Instagram scripted performance showcased the roleplaying that is involved in this kind of online existence, and we also see this in episode 1 of season 3 of the TV series Black Mirror, “Nosedive,” which discusses self-curation and what it means to seek validation from others, which becomes monetized and eventually can deny you access to employability or important services.

The projections in the room play with the voyeuristic gaze (the public peeps in the shower room or through the window), while the website invites the public to talk to the character, simulating an online dating app where you can create a different persona. The three instances imagine that the public is interested in the “authentic” experience with a character, which is either seen through a camera in private (imitating the reality TV camera) or responds in real time (making you question if the person is real or a bot).