Lori Hepner, visual artist/ digital media
Status Symbols: A Study in Tweets
Status Symbols is a series of virtual portraits that are studies of identity in the digital age of social media. Textual updates on sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow for virtual personas to be created with the prodding of, “What are you doing?” or “What’s on your mind?” at the direction of the social networks. Status Symbols showcases the virtual identities created from these self-scripted self-portraits. Abstract portraits are created with spinning LEDs that translate the written words into flashing bursts of light in the computer’s language of binary code. Custom created hardware and software are used to transform the text into ons and offs of binary code that is invisibly at the base level of digital communication. Each portrait represents a fleeting moment of identity in the digital world.
The conceptual basis for the project is based upon current events related to digital identity, censorship, and privacy as seen through Twitter posts. Pieces from the series have focused on issues regarding censorship and citizenship in the digital world by looking at the #iranelection hashtag, the Great Firewall and Green Dam Youth Escort hashtags that look at the internet blockade to Chinese citizens, as well as portraits of world leaders, celebrities, activists, and everyday people.
