Existing digitally (2020), comprised of image and video collages, was created in the context of the Cyberspace and Image Economy class offered at Concordia University.

The series looks at our past online identities that are often fragmented and exist without context to bring up issues (dis)connect with our present existing selves. It attempts to bridge the gap between past and present temporalities and virtual and physical realities through the re-enactment and embodiment of former internet identities. The series focusses in on the generation that spent a significant amount of their childhoods online at the same time as the birth of Myspace, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Throughout my time online as a child I would explore different presentations of myself online. From changing middle and last names to names based off of celebrities or popular fictional characters such as “Cullen,” “Depp,” “Bilodeau,” “Scott,” etc., I was able to delve into a new type of mythical world. Jenny Jones was my “stage name” where I would brand my first ever prototype “memes” in which my fascination with exploring the combination of image and text began.

Sound in this project traverses through the screen in attempt to bring the virtual into the physical realm. By quite literally embodying text found online made by my former selves, I re-imagine a previous state of my virtual reality. Text is also important to me. In this series I re-create text as image to explore the qualities of the distinctly digital medium of typefaces. Digitization has also created the avenue for a new type of candid conversation, and they exist in a way that is available for re-entering. 

I’m also interested in how others consume and understand not only their own past identities, but the past identities of everyone else that are readily available online- existing at the same time as what we post of ourselves now.

I also explore conversations with old friends who I have split off from somewhere along the way and who I don’t speak to anymore. My organic memory of these individuals has been heavily influenced by the presence of their past and present online identities. I have the ability to access candid online conversations, not only exploring my own thoughts and feelings but also exploring the thoughts and emotions of my old friends.