Set up is inspecting you... : an investigation to the cathartic and intimate relationships we hold with our computers : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the post graduate degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract

This exegesis involves a critical analysis of my own experience of the 2000's era through multimedia digital installation methods; not limited to collage, poetry, animation, projection, music and virtual reality works. In so doing, I found insight into my own intimate relationship with technology and used it in correspondence with a critical feminist lens influenced by my upbringing. Analysed as an art object and something that holds the capacity to be a cathartic confidant or receptacle of previously unspoken personal confessions, the work explores the ramifications of this vulnerability with the use of iMac G3's in particular. As a culturally significant, designed product iMac G3's aided my intention to create commentary around the larger phenomenon of the effects of the virtual world on our modern digital era raised generations, often termed "digital natives". The work references the Internet-based community of Vaporwave music and aesthetics. Re-purposed, the micro genre extends upon these critical inquiries, as a self-aware community based upon ideologies of escapism from the sickness of late capitalism, and seeking an imaginary, aestheticised past reality. The installations communicate a mediatory space or fusion between the physical and virtual worlds in controlled gallery conditions, but also in preparation to re-enter and challenge the community of Vaporwave and public spaces of the young female audience to whom the work gives voice.