Simple Questions

So, I decided that I wanted to do something with photography, Adobe Photoshop, and dead computer pieces that looks a little at human-computer interaction and human identity within the computer/internet/etc. It seems to me that some of the simplest questions in life can turn into the most difficult questions to agree upon in cyberspace and on the computer. These are representations of a few. Please click the pictures to see them larger.

The computer is a dead computer that was kindly donated by the HC ACC. The keyboard keys that are sitting on the laptop keyboard are from an ancient keyboard since the original keys of the laptop had the letters worn off and they were hard to see anyways.

Who am I? This one took the most time and caused the most confusion for me while I was making it since the images on the screen have a lot of meta content in them (screenshots of my desktop, a photo of me working on the image, and a screenshot of making the image in adobe photoshop). It also doesn’t help that I made that image the desktop of my working computer which means that I can easily lose my recycle bin and not be able to tell whether it’s the real thing or the image behind it. Like I said, complicated. I could go into further detail with each of the shards if people want me to, but this would turn into a very long post if I explained them all here. Suffice it to say, that they’re all some part of myself as I interact with and on the computer.

Who are you? Originally, I had wanted to somehow pop out the screen of the computer and replace it with a mirror, but, seeing how I don’t have a fully detachable mirror of that shape, that didn’t really work. Instead, you’ll have to appreciate my taking a picture of myself taking a picture in a mirror which I then superimposed on the dead computer screen. Here’s looking at you.

Where am I? Yet again, I had great plans for this question, but due to lack of power tools and computer knowledge I was unable to accomplish them. Ideally, both the screen and the back of the computer would be cut out, so that you can just look through the frame and see whatever was behind it. Otherwise, you can also imagine a picture of real-life Bryn Mawr merging into a screenshot of the Second Life Bryn Mawr with my avatar looking at a laptop. I kind of like this effect with the detached computer frame too though.

So I feel like I’ve rambled enough for now. If you would like more specifics or have any other questions please comment and I’d be glad to answer you. And, yes, I did attempt to do something cool with a mouse as well as the keyboard, and, no, it did not work out all that well which is why it is not included in the screenshots. Thanks for reading!