"Digital Identity Management": Who truly holds the reins over our online personas?
In a mind-blowing interactive spectacle, esteemed multimedia artist Martina Pizzigoni plunges us into a face-off with our digital doppelgängers. By crafting an avatar using the personal data of thousands of Internet users, Martina aims to reveal just how much digital technology has transformed our day-to-day lives and the fabric of our identity. Martina Pizzigoni's cutting-edge digital performance is part of the star-studded lineup for the 2025 edition of the Recto VRso virtual reality art festival.
Digital ego vs. biological essence
Martina Pizzigoni, a trailblazing artist hailing from Italy and currently residing in Austria, crafts interactive experiences that scrutinize our digitally-dominated society. The artist's work has previously graced the Recto VRso festival, alongside artistic partner Alessia Fallica, with their 2024 presentation of "I died on Facebook" tackling the concept of the virtual self and questioning the existence of our digital personas in the real world.
This year, Martina steps into the limelight alone to present their latest interactive installation, "(Very) Neural System", which debuted the first prototype at the Elektron Festival in Luxembourg in 2024. In this groundbreaking work, Martina probes the nature of identity formation in a world where digital technology reins supreme.
For millennia, our identities have been sculpted by our surroundings and societal expectations. Now, we are spending increasing amounts of time online, and this shift undeniably influences our identities and behavior. " Our behaviors are inadvertently forging a technological intimacy and dreadful dependence on digital devices. " explains Martina. " The monetization of life experiences has become a hallmark of the digital age, significantly altering our relationships and perceptions. "
Is our personal data truly our identity?
Central to the creation of this installation is the utilization of personal data compiled by digital heavyweights like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook. Martina has employed this method before, using data from deceased individuals' memorial accounts on Facebook to bolster the knowledge base of an AI-driven avatar for "I died on Facebook". Here, Martina leverages this data to nourish the intelligence of a digital avatar designed to interrogate users.
Each spectator stands before a screen displaying the avatar, with whom they can engage in conversation. Multiple technologies work together to make this dialogue possible: a generative AI deciphers the spectator's spoken words, generating the avatar's responses, while audio-face synchronization animates the avatar's lips to correspond with its words, and motion sensors mirrors the spectator's movements. The end product is a disquieting avatar that is simultaneously captivating and unsettling.
With this performance, Martina Pizzigoni aims to demonstrate that our data can easily be warped by algorithms to create a distorted and misleading virtual representation of our selves, and by extension, ourselves. " It starkly mirrors our contemporary society, where our identities are ceaselessly reconstructed and manipulated through algorithms that inhale and regurgitate data. " Witness "(Very) Neural System" at the Recto VRso festival on April 10-13, 2025.
According to speculation, the artwork may collect personal data from participants, process this data using algorithms to create a digital avatar, and design the avatar to reflect the potential sinister consequences of digital technology's grip on identity construction, exploring issues like surveillance, manipulation, and loss of personal autonomy. The performance could employ visual and interactive elements to convey these themes, provoking thought for viewers. For exact details on Martina Pizzigoni's masterpiece, more information directly from the artist or event organizers would be necessary.
In Martina Pizzigoni's latest interactive installation, "(Very) Neural System", personal data from digital platforms like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook are used to create a digital avatar that interacts with users, showcasing how digital technology shapes our identity and behavior in the fashion-and-beauty cloaked digital world. This artpiece, a part of the Recto VRso virtual reality art festival, delves into the abandonment of personal autonomy and the manipulative power of artificial-intelligence, echoing the transformation of our lifestyles in today's technology-driven society.
