Held as part of the “SAKOKU [Walled Garden] Project,” a research and development program of the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], the workshop “Am I nothing but net?” discusses the handling of personal information on the Internet.

The advance of networking technologies has led to a significant acceleration of the speed of communication, and enhanced convenience in both private daily life and business activities. However, the pursuit of convenience is sometimes conflicting with the protection of privacy, as a result of which various new issues surrounding privacy and data have become apparent, such as the widespread dissemination of all kinds of misinformation. Through their participation in “game” style activities, attendants of this workshop review the supporting role of the Internet in their own daily life. While exchanging views regarding forms of technology and communication that will be required in the future, participants deepen their understanding of today’s information society. In an age when the Internet has become nothing less than a lifeline for us humans, the event offers an opportunity for looking into the use of personal information that many don’t feel comfortable about yet tend to overlook, along with the potential risks involved in such practices.

Discovering the “I” as a subject of Internet intelligence

After responding to a survey aimed to recapture how aware people are of personal information when using the Internet, the attendants of the workshop participate in various activities implemented using applications and web services developed by YCAM and collaborators. This will be an opportunity to think about personal information that operators of major online platforms obtain via those very platforms, and about the neutrality/objectivity of information distributed over the Internet. Based on the experiences made during these activities, the participants engage in discussions with each other on possible future forms of technology and communication. Even though personal information is something that concerns every single human individual, it is a matter that cannot be dealt with by single human beings. To provide a stage for casually exchanging views on such issues certainly also means to create an opportunity for envisioning the future of the information society.

In addition to video footage of a talk session with Kyle McDonald and Surya Mattu that will be put online after the end of the workshop, we will create further opportunities for the realization of workshops, with the aim to continuously produce artworks.