Representations of Digital Identity

D. Boyd, M. Chang, and H. Goodman present an extremely explicit view on the term identity and the usage of personal identity in a media driven world in their article titled “Representations of Digital Identity”. A lot of the focus in the article deals with the construction and execution of a personalized identity system called Computer-Mediated Communication or CMC for short. Although, I was and still am a bit unaware of the origin and usage of the system, it provides a lot of paths in which people take to identify themselves in any setting.
The article is most definitely an eye opener for within the first few sentences the authors point out the various common usage of identity in the real world and compare it to that of the virtual world. In doing so, you can clearly see explicit similarities between the two. Many elements in personalized identity in the virtual world are borrowed from what we learn about people in the real world. D. Boyd, M. Chang, and H. Goodman connect identity as one of the biggest forms of communication neglecting the need for verbal communication. Some of the basics in which we have grown up knowing is that we often times create an identity of someone based on their age, gender, weight, height, body build, dress code and much more. The article explains that these same traits make their way to the virtual world in the form of avatars, message board usernames and ranking codes, gamertags, email address and screen names. It was also interesting to note that in the real world, a sense of extended pressure is placed upon legitimacy of one’s identity and proof of one’s identity is often needed to continue communication.
Well, in a world now dominated by technology and the internet, these same elements are used all the time. For instance, we can take ebay for example. One may immediately jump into this giant online auction website to purchase and or sell goods, however, the quality and outcome of a purchase greatly depends on the reputation or identity of the seller and or buyer. Approval ratings known as feedback is listed under the avatar of the buyer and or seller and the higher the rating, you can bet that your item(s) will be legitimate and will be delivered to you and it won’t be part of a scam. An even larger scale of legitimacy on ebay is the use of PayPal which requires one to route their checking account to the system in order to become a “verified” identity. This is only the beginning of the use of personal identity and communication in our world today.

What is the point of art in the media age?

This article composed by Dieter Daniels pushes the thought of the significance and impact that art has on the media age. Daniels writes in his article that people such as Daguerre and Morse are artist that we do not consider artist. Daguerre's daguerrotypes are considered by many to be the first form of photography although that is much debated as Nicéphore Niépce played a major if not nearly complete role in the discovery. Daniels views morse code as a form of art as sound is converted into a form of communication, but I seem to view things much differently.

In my opinion, Daguerre and Morse were not artist at all and shouldn't be considered such. Daniels points out that we do not link the accomplishments created by these "Artist" with there work as we do with other artist and their work such as da Vinci and Warhol. This is because there intentions were not art related. The photograph, which is obviously a technological phenomenom at the time and to this day, did not have much use as a form of art during the time of its development. Photography's origin can be seen more clearly as a science procedure which is why we do not link the inventor with the invention with art. As with my opinion on Daguerre, Morse's main intentions on developing Morse Code could not have been anywhere near art. Art in relation to this form of communication could have been the last thing on his mind and Morse Code became a science project.

In today's society, you can definetly try to link art with technology as you can link art with just about anything. The graphics we view on the television and computer screen for instance... art, the cars we drive... art, the clothes we wear... all of it is art as it all had an artistic template in it's design and manufacturing. Art in the media age to go deeper into Daniels article is a necesity to keep the media age moving. You cannot really create anything this day in age without a template. Technology is based off of what technology came before it and those forms of technology all had a template or an idea to construct such a thing. This may not necessarily be considered art, but it most definitely helps to manuever the way we view art, be it to enhance or to completely change the way we view it. Look at how we view photography today. It is seen as a form of art as well as documentation, entertainment, and income. Technological advancements helped to spread photography around into different fields as photography did not start this way, but found its way to this point.