About the artwork: Emily's Video (2012)
For Net.Specific’s exhibition Communication Paths, 010010101000101010.ORG have created the work Emily’s Video. The work is a documentation of a ‘viral’ process, whereby a video is distributed and spread via rumour on the Internet.
According to the rumour, the video being distributed is of a rather extreme nature and made by a girl named Emily. In the wake of this video a number of so-called ‘reaction videos’ have been made testifying to the video’s existence. Reaction videos are a phenomenon associated with videos uploaded to the Internet that often only few (or none) have actually seen. They prompt users to make their own videos, showing their reactions to the video in question.
0100101110101101.ORG has captured the essence of what it means to make an ‘internet meme’, i.e. something which circulates around and spreads until it takes on a mythical status on the Internet. These types of video also question the existence of originality; when it is so hard to find. The work also draws on the fact that most of the Internet’s users have gone from being simply consumers to also being producers, who can create their own content, just as they comment on the content that is already out there.
The work views communication, as a generalised concept linked to the elements from which the Internet is created and to which the Internet’s users contribute, here in the form of a video that can be distributed and subsequently encourage the creation of new videos. The work evolves, therefore, as a result of the online social media mindset.