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Identity in Cyberspace. Identity in cyberspace isn�t the initial question. Questions about cyberspace start as with many other subjects at the beginning. Is cyberspace the Internet? If the Internet is cyberspace then what influence does an individual have on this space? How does this space have an effect on your life? The question is what causes such a huge amount of interest in the Internet. As an artist, how will this huge amount of uncharted space affect your thinking, towards cyberspace and the digital revolution. The Internet and cyberspace. These two words are often bound as one and yet are two completely different subjects. The Internet is the technological term. Were as cyberspace is an imaginary area of space were sites are stored awaiting you to download them onto your hard drive. Cyber is a word which is now used to describe digital. The relation of cyber and digital to you an everyday human is very small, even though are all in contact with digital systems everyday. We can drive down the motorway and see digital signs that will influence our journey to a chosen destination. Journeys and destinations are yet more terms which relate to cyberspace. The journey being the connection, and the destination being the site. The relationship between me or you as the user and the interface is a very personal relationship, whether you use your own name or not, and whilst surfing your identity as a human is completely unknown. In this way identity is of major importance and your description of yourself to others can change like the wind. You could be chatting through systems such as I.R.C. (Internet relay chat) or M.U.D. (multi user domain) to someone who is the boy from next door and yet claims to be a girl form Hong Kong. The idea of whether or not this is a good thing is down to the individual, and can deepen the individuals imagination and creativity. The discovery of the Internet and cyberspace too artists and contemporary art movements must rate very highly on the plus side as it is a public space where an individual or group can exhibit their work for very little overall costs. this is something that a lot of artists are currently taking advantage of under the label of cyber artists. These are basically artists who use computers and the Internet to produce and communicate their work. Groups such as �antirom� use the area known as cyberspace to put their work forward to the public and clients. Their Internet site is made up of small shockwave interactive animation�s 2, which are funny and intelligent, but also show great knowledge of the software they are using. The identity of the user when entering cyberspace changes completely and can change the entire over all appearance of the user. It can also change their outlook on life with �net heads� being equal to drug addicts. These people use the Internet as a form of escapism. Escapism within the computer can be as lethal as the use of drugs. They will gradually become more and more addicted to the Internet, their interest in anything available on the Internet will grow from simply looking at their favourite music sites, to looking at gardening sites and with this their knowledge will grow. Therefore taking their knowledge away from their chosen discipline to other disciplines such as an artist who learns about bio-chemistry. This is obviously a good thing as it will help the individuals intelligence grow. This shows how the Internet as an educational tool is very helpful and support towards schools is very valuable at the moment. I am pleased to see how supermarkets are supporting this recently. Identity it�s self is a very questionable point and the true identity of anyone can be mislead. Identity for an individual can change with new environments, the Internet is a new environment and therefore the individual can change their identity depending on their mood at the point of logging on. The true identity often comes around due to peer pressure at a young age. In some cases the Internet will allow people to come back to their true identity whilst talking to people to whom they have never spoken to before. Cyberpsychology is the study if individuals who use the Internet as a communal and social area. Such people may be part of a group or an individual. These people communicate via chat environments and E- mail to others with similar interests. Cyberpsyhology is therefore a study of identity in cyberspace which looks into the changes of peoples identity whilst chatting and communicating through these domains. E- mail however is more true to the identity of the individual as this is usually used for communicating with your friends and business partners/clients. 3, The dictionary definition of cyberspace is �the notional environment in which digital communication exists.� This is a very true representation of cyberspace and explains it well within one sentence. The true identity of cyberspace or the identity of a person �surfing� is always a questionable point and the reality or the orthentisity of a person is also questionable. It is known that on some Internet chat pages, some of the supposed people are in fact just a computer speaking to you. This again questions the true identity to anyone that you speak to through your computer. However there is no way of telling if it is a man, woman, dog or computer. The ever increasing amount of people using the Internet will help to swallow the true identity of cyberspace and its users. | ||||||||||||||||
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