It has all been a blur since the technically, already existing Internet, (circa late 1960s), revamped its format and saw its first big boom in the 1990s. Here, emailing and radical programming became contagious and resulted in some of the high-tech innovations of today. Regardless of the supposed betterment of a global society, it seems as if to some, there is a fine line between human progression and eventual downfall.
Take for example in Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), a seemingly heartless gallery director, Nancy Herrington, accessorized in drab garb and always depicted in cold colored office scenes, is against our preciously awkward artist/protagonist, Christine (July). We later learn that Nancy, like most of the town, is an Internet user. Unable to display any real emotion in real life, she pours her innermost thoughts onto the shoulders of a stranger in a lonely persons chat room. Meanwhile, an adolescent boy and his curious younger brother come up with all kinds of perverse things to say to her, much of it they do not understand themselves, which of course, she responds to in a most profound way. When she can no longer stand to be separated from the only one who 'gets her', she proposes they meet at a park bench the next day. Sitting there waiting for her lover, she soon realizes that the little boy beside her is the object of her desire. In this pseudo-incestuous love affair, that could have proved a dangerous meeting on any other occasion, the child brushes her hair away from her face with compassion which she reciprocates with a kiss on the lips. Noting this immediately makes audiences cringe, but with a more objective perspective one can deduct that the brief touching of lips and quick walk-away was Nancy's speechless "thank you". In a non-maternal, non-explicit way, Nancy is appreciative of the human connection she has finally made and realizes that due to the impossibility of reality, their relationship must now end. As an advocate for both sides of the coin, July explains that the Internet, which divides Nancy away from healthy relationships, also came to provide a connection, if only temporary and by chance, which may birth hope for the future. Yet clearly, this is a unique circumstance and one in which the relationship is not tangible.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, rather than to comment on but to instead embrace the complexity of the Internet, is Ultimate Reality (2007) by Jimmy Joe Roche and Dan Deacon of Wham City. In this mind-bend of the psychedelic nature, Arnold Schwarzenegger is our unofficial tour guide into bright colors and hallucinogenic pixels with rather obvious sexual connotations. Using clips from Schwarzenegger classics like Kindergarten Cop, Conan the Barbarian, Junior and the ever popular The Terminator, Roche creates a fractured story line that is really only secondary to the film's visual imagery. While all the critics run amuck, some of the art world's most creative works have come to fruition with the invention and embrace of the Internet and all its electronic components, such as Alexei Shulgin's 386DX and the rise of 'net artists' or the more recent The Peace Tape, made just this year by Jacob Ciocci of Paper Rad. As history has a way of repeating itself, so do its rebels and its conservatives. While change spurts out a new type of artistry by way of technological advances by the decade, it very well may lose something in the process. What is essential to ponder in the debate, however, is the measure of gains and losses and if they can or should be balanced. Perhaps being able to conference call China while updating one's Facebook status and listening to music all at once is better than having to complete these tasks in succession; it creates a nation of multi-tasking and things get done more quickly. Perhaps, not. In the end, the Internet is still one mysterious lady whose depths only seem to deepen as she ages and questions as to whether or not she is good for humanity are predicted to continue.
