Project IM
I Dunno Whatcha Heard About Me
Olia Lialina*


The internet is a perfect place for self-expression and
self-promotion. Behind this idealistic statement is a large
scope of personal beliefs, many years' tradition to make them
happen, machinery to support and exploit these beliefs and
recognizable, influential aesthetics.

This semester we will examine personal expression on the net,
amateur net culture, non-professional and fake-amateur design
strategies, 3rd millennium amateurs, viral marketing,
prefabricated personalization tools.

Beside big topics we will look at details, such as the name of
your server, the nick chosen in a chat, the frequency and
punctuations of email messages, the small image next to the
users message board entries, user ID in community systems and
other things making you appear cool or uncool, competent or
stupid, famous or part of an anonymous mass.

Student's projects could include:

- Developing a personal online communication strategy for
  yourself or somebody else who needs one (including home page,
  email style, avatar etc)

- Working (concept, design, programming) on  Personal Website
  Contest -- an event organized by Art.Teleportacia gallery,
  June 2004

- Using new tools for online self-expression

- Research on automated personalization and personalization
  services, mechanisms to direct and redirect users' creativity,
  forming desired behaviors through "intuition" and other
  non-existing marketing theories


* With guest appearances by Dragan Espenschied, Kerstin
  Gu"nther, Dorothe'e Gestrich