That Boy Needs Therapy

In April I went to the opening of a group show called "Are You Sure You Are You" at the Spencer Brownstone Gallery. The show was about Internet art and the title came from a work by Daniel Everett. The Mac OS X software comes with a virtual therapist application with which the artist discussed his existential issues.

Conversations with a Computer

This therapist application actually exists. Instructions here. I tried it out and I found the idea of"Eliza" surprisingly engaging. Some of her questions and answers really made me think.
Daniel Everett has some other interesting projects on his website. A few things I like:

Omniscience Beta

You are here

Speed Run

Looking at his work makes me think about technology's role in loneliness, anonymity, and surveillance.

From the press release of the aforementioned group show:

The novelty of the personal computer and the Internet has morphed into a mundane reality that is haunted by the specters of anxiety, boredom, Internet addiction and identity theft. Turning this postmodern condition on its head, the works in this exhibition possess what could be described as a strategy of web-based aesthetic transcendence. They are proof that the user can overcome the condition of the quotidian not by shying away from her computer (and thus the Internet) but rather by considering it as a provider of aesthetic (higher) experience. Developed initially as a scientific tool, the computer has been damned to the realm of the practical. Yet when it is interpreted as an aesthetic space, one is presented with an almost infinite number of creative possibilities.

I'm excited.