Online presence exegesis
Creating a positive identity on the Web is integral to successful social & business networking and important in negating any identity shadows that may inadvertently arise from being involved with the World Wide Web. The Web 2.0 tools have made it easy and accessible for anyone to upload a variety of content and information about themselves and their interests. This is the fruition of Tim Berners Lee’s goal as he worked on the development of the World Wide Web that it be available to all people at all times (Berner’s Lee, 2000). My intent with creating an online presence in the form of a blog is to expand my profile as an artist and connect with others who have similar interests. I hope to generate an interest in my art and further opportunities for employment as a freelance animator, artist and teacher. The idea of blogging about my eclectic art forms is to share my experience, knowledge and new experiences as I progress through my work. As I already have an existing website, I have decided to use the blog as the platform for this purpose. The main motivation for creating a blog rather than a new website, was due to the information posted by Rebecca Blood in her blog Rebecca’s pocket which was mandatory reading for the WEB 101 course that I am studying. Blood states that beginning a blog helped her to discover her own interests, as the more she wrote about certain topics, the more she gained interest in them. She continues to describe the blogger as becoming more astute about his or her observations and means of improving the use of language recording those observations in words to a public audience. (Blood, 2011). It is this discovery of self as an online identity that I am attempting to explore through the establishing of this personal blog. Although initially it has been confronting for me, as when I present myself in person, I am able to control, to some extent, how I wish to be perceived by people that I engage with (Suler, 2002) I have realised that the more information that I post with specific intent can negate any undesirable negative shadow that should arise though unintended means.
With the main focus on being my artwork, I am attempting to present myself as a person who is living in the real world as someone who really looks and takes notice, responding to these observations in an artistic manner, whether that is with drawings, animations or photographs. I am very inspired by the writing of Italian journalist and writer, Calvino, who extols that we are “living in an unending rainfall of images” (Calvino, 1996 pp. 57). I believe we all have a response to these images whether it be consciously or unconsciously. My aim is to be conscious and explore.
I have attempted to use design techniques that instantly represent my interests, and tie my contributing nodes together with an artistic theme. The expressive loose design of my header seems to be indicative of my life at the moment: messy! …. Juggling my art studies, work commitments, freelance life and parenting can sometimes feel out of control. For continuity, I have used the same profile picture in my central node and each contributing node, and as I am transitioning to my maiden name Scharka, I have used this as my user name, or a combination of both Bower/Scharka to make any search easier. The colour scheme was difficult to choose, but I hoped to keep it neutral, without too much distraction from my content.
The secondary nodes that I have linked to my central node include Twitter, where I have begun to add tweets (brief simple textual contributions) relating to my online content in my central web presence. The simplicity of this Web 2.0 tool enables succinct text based messages, which can be investigated further should the reader wish to do so. Flickr is another account that I created that would allow me to upload content in relation to my observations and artistic creations. Multiple types of media including photos and video are easy to upload here. The hope is to engage with a wider community of people with similar interests through using this tool. I also have a Delicious account that I have found invaluable for gathering links related to artist research for my study. I believe this tool will be more useful as I continue to use it and explore the variety of possibilities in accessing other users “stacks” and links, as my own continue to grow. The animations that I have created while studying are collected on the site Vimeo, which like the others, is also easily accessed by the links menu on the right hand side of my home page of the blog.
My web presence was created and designed with choices that have been intended to form an online identity using the Web 2.0 tools that best served my purpose. The central node ( my blog) is connected to external nodes using text, hyperlinks and design elements with the goal of creating a deliberate online identity that is credible in the current media landscape of the Web 2.0 platform.
Blood, Rebecca, “Weblogs: A History and Perspective”. In Rebecca’s Pocket. 07 September 2000. 12 July 2011. http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html
(accessed 2/11/2011).
Berners Lee, T. 2000. Weaving the Web: the Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by it’s Inventor. USA. Harper Collins.
Calvino, I. 1996. Exactitude. In Six Memos for the Next Millennium (pp55- 80) London Vintage.
Suler, J.R. 2002. Identity Management in Cyberspace. Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 4, 455 – 460.
