blog #4: a Rape in Cyberspace

A Rape in Cyberspace raised a whole mess of issues that definitely exceeded the realm of new media but were nonetheless defined by its boundaries. Dibbles underlying questions is where the line between the cyber world and the physical world lies. In a system where we can talk, learn, play games, act and make love all on a textual basis, how do we decipher what is “real” and what isn’t? Rape is the ultimate violation. When the MUD character Mr. Bungle forced another character to defile herself with a kitchen knife he was touching on all of the issues that arise with unwanted solicitation: choice, consent, harm, and so many more. He asserted his power and dominance over her not with his physical strength but with typed codes in an online chat room. There was no physical evidence that she was hurt by this knife but the emotional trauma was there.
In a world where a sexual encounter between two people can seem like consensual sex to one and rape to another, how can anyone say that this aggressive and hostile textual action in a nonphysical realm wasn’t rape? LamdaMOO player HerkieCosmo made the following hypothesis, “perhaps it’s better to release…violent tendencies in a virtual environment rather than real life.” The same argument has been made for pornography that could be made for these online communities; it is the best way/place for people to play out their fantasies or release aggression because in these arenas there is no physical harm done to anyone. There are two major flaws with this comparison and conclusion: one is the idea that sexual assault only hurts the victim physically and two is that pornography has been proven to not deter sexual offenders from acting on these tendencies.
According to Michael Flood, a researcher from the Australian Research Center on Sex, Health and Society viewing porn, “does increase the likelihood that [rape] will happen.” (from womensrights.choice.org) now obviously there is a vast difference between porn and online communities. Porn is a known misogynistic industry that offers still and moving images frequently showing sexual scenarios of male dominance while for a majority of the participants in cyber textual communities it is just another space for social interaction. The strong-linking argument is that it’s a positive space for acting out fantasies.
There are many cyber communities that are specifically geared toward this type of social interaction. Just in my quick internet search for this response I found that 3 of the first 10 listen items on my google search were for rape fantasy groups. In this way cyberspace does offer a safe community to handle these issues but it is not a solution by any means. Here you have people volunteering to communicate in cyberspace that is geared toward this type of dialogue. However, if someone has such violent sexual fantasies that they border on rape, so powerful that they need to act them out in a virtual reality those issues need to be dealt with in the physical reality as well. These people need counseling and support. It’s a fine line between supporting an outlet for unconventional fantasies and facilitating a space where potential rapists can dive deeper into the darkest parts of their psyche.
The defining difference between any of those online communities and what happened in LamdaMOO was that an innocent victim was in fact hurt. The wounds of a rape victim are not healed with the closing of the last cut or smoothing over of the final bruise. Emotional trauma is carried by these victims often times for life. While the LamdaMOO victim had no bruises or cuts and absolutely struggled with the shame, violation and powerlessness felt by victims of physical rape. Here the line between cyperspace and “real space,” faded away and were crossed.
Dibble’s coverage on the LamdaMOO’s communal reaction and democratic debate over the rape and the question of physical and cyber realms did offer great insight to the composition and character of these online textual communities. A day in the life of a LamdaMOOer may not have been the most effective way to show the intricate details of this community’s make up. However, her coverage on this assault allowed the reader to see the history, landscape and law of the daily life in an online community. It also showed that this truly was a community and not just an online house party. The entire network was affected and hurt by this assault and they all participated in the debate and support of the victim.

ART EXPLOSION

This Monday morning from 4-9am the Free Art Society and roughly 50 members of the New York artistic community ambushed second street between aveneues A and B in a gorilla arts movement titled “ART EXPLOSION”. Our goal was to show the powerful efects art and color have o the human experience and to reclaim and inhance public space. There was zero wheat paste or tagging involved and no buildings or businesses were perminantly changed. The goal was to show the community how art in public space could enhance their daily lives. Following installation of all of the pieces were 2 hours of performance art in the streets for the community members going off to work.

This movement was in effect, a physical representation of both the open source ideology as well as William Burrough’s cut up method. open source is a scientific and artistic approach to the public accessibility to the code and methodology of a project. Originally it was software specific however the ideologies have expanded to focus on the aspect of community creation.

This ART EXPLOSION spent three months in development and organization among the 80 artists that attended meetings. The only guidance given to these artists by the Free Art Society was “make a piece- pick a location- put it up- no destruction or permanent damage to existing structures.” The final product of the street was ultimately developed and changed by every individual participating. In essence it was one massive, collaborative collage. While none of the work presented on the street itself was software based the ideologies and practice were very similar. The event did step into the technological realm through one mans work. Doezens of photographers documented the installation and performance art putting it online and one artist, Vlad, took video footage of the event and had it streaming online available for whatever purposes they may desire.

The event also sympathized with William Burrough’s cut up method. the beauty of the cut up method is that it is available and accessible to everybody; artist or not. The idea is a chance creation of a new art through the practice of collage. The EXPLOSION was in essence a reshuffling of the public space and enjoyed and created by both artists and non-artists. I myself am not a trained artist but I collaborated in a large collage that is still hanging in the street.

Lastly, just as the opne source ideology and the cutu p method preach- the creation is for everyone to have and change. This was the final characteristic of the ART EXPLOSION and one of the primary messages of the Free Art Society. The Free Art Society’s goal is to free art from its traditional spaces and make it accessable to the community. To support this effort all of the art posted on 2^nd street will stay up until taken home by a member of the community.

The following video’s and photos were taken during instillation and during performances.

footage of ART EXPLOSION
footage of installation
photos of installation and the aftermath