Character Development (first draft)

Name: Kitsune.Suzuki or 鈴木 きつね

I chose the character's name to be Kitsune because I wanted to tie my hypertext story to Kitsune/Fox Folklore in Japan. Thereby creating a digital story. The character which I am fabricating is intended to experience influence from different cultures.

I will be intentionally plagiarizing the ancient Japanese folklore related to foxes.

I will write a short entry on a regular basis which will reflect my version of the story and will also incorporate the changes that occur over the course of the quarter.

If you are unfamiliar with this Japanese folklore which is presumably well over a thousand years old, you might find it interesting because the story has a parallel related to infiltrating and manipulating through the art of trickery.

By infiltrating, manipulating and the art of trickery, I mean that in Japanese folklore a kitsune/fox is depicted as having the power to transform into a human form or impersonate a specific person and to be able to mingle with human beings. My character, similar to Japanese lore, acquires characteristics from other virtual bodies and thereby creates its own identity. In parallel, my character will be fictional but will be interacting or mingling in a virtual space with other entities.

In most Japanese folktales a kitsune tricks humans, but they are also portrayed as faithful guardians, friends, lovers and wives. In my digital folklore I would like to give back to the people that participate in this project knowingly or not. Without their curiosity my fictional character would not be able to develop and evolve. I will give each participant a bound copy, not digital, of the story once it has reached its completion.

I would like to incorporate ideas that there are still "kitsune," who create illusions by manipulating reality. What I am trying to impart is we humans are able to trick one another or even ourselves into believing something that is fictional.

I wanted to take into consideration that a virtual fabricated character and humans who just surfs the internet environment live closer to one another even though they don't live in the same country. The internet brings the proximity of people closer.

For example, my character is an exchange student studying in the United States, but by utilizing the virtual space Kitsune is able to connect with many Japanese people who live in Japan as well as others from various countries who live around the world. They will feel some connection to the character even though they are being tricked.

Another layer of surrealism I am creating is the way Kitsune appears on the internet.
Kitsune will look like an animated character with blue hair and excessive make up. This look is adapted from anime and manga comics as published in Japan that depict humans with slightly exaggerated features.

This will display that she is fabricated; however, it might go the other direction when viewed or interacted by the audience/participants and portray how much she is "real" as she appears to look like a "cosplayer".

The way people react to the character depends on each person because the internet reveals yet keeps a wall between people. Nothing is revealed unless the person expresses themselves in text, but sometimes people who reside within this virtual space have the ability to tell a lie or an exaggeration from the truth. We are able to experience these hypertext stories each virtual bodies provide us whether it is fabricated or not.

In a virtual space, skepticism is necessary but does it really matter if what one is reading, seeing or hearing is fabricated?
Does it still provide some sort of art, culture and technological experience?

I do feel it provides an opportunity for people to participate in the hypertext story whether or not they like it.

In Japan when kitsune transform into a human being they will continue to have a reflection and/or shadow of their true form.
In my project Kitsune has some characteristics derived from myself.
Even though I steer away trying to create a character that is completely different from who I am, it is impossible to not incorporate the truth about myself. Part of her personality is created by my own ideas as well as with a combination of others, which is why she is similar and at the same time very different from who I am.


In a virtual space we have the ability to create our own stories.
We enter this space and the space is unlimited.

Not only myself, but others too are creating their hypertext stories. Everyone is a "Kitsune" and always will be in a virtual environment. Therefore, we are creating digital folklore through the utilization of newfound technology.

12/26/06 (rambling/thoughts)

Kitsune.Suzuki has been making videos and posting them online for her virtual friends to see. A couple people has asked her if the girl in the video is really her.
Responding is delayed...it is so difficult to act out as a different person.

My intent is to have people in this virtual space interact with Kitsune.Suzuki in order to be part of this collaborative performance piece of mine (without knowing). I would of course display my viewers/participants/collaborators at the end of Spring quarter that I am in fact creating a hypertext story and of course giving them credit as well.

Lately, it feels as though I am being controlled by a character I have created.
I am not really sure if this makes sense, which is why I need to take a break and think more deeply about what this piece is about and how it relates to culture, art and technology. What does it tell about us humans.

Additionally, truth/memory gets extremely manipulated. I believe we exist and try to remember our memories through fabricating them.
(just like special effects in movies).

I need to start thinking about the beginning, middle and an ending to this fabricated identity/story.

Fabrication of Memories

Today I went to the library and borrowed several books on cyber space and new media.
I am hoping this will help me understand what I am trying to create because I am starting to get confused.

Before I forget, I need to write the reason why I chose the project title to be called "Journal of Memories." This is just a summary of the reason, but I plan to describe it in depth during spring quarter.

Memories tell a lie as it cannot be trusted most of the time.
People tend to exaggerate the truth at times to make themselves look better or worse.
The memory sort of acts similar to what I learned in my script writing class. Every time a story is written for the first time it is not finished, but it is a draft. It needs to be revised, revised, and revised.
So the actual story in the beginning changes by receiving constructive criticism from others who have read the story. Words used in a sentence can dramatically change the whole entire story.

So when we read online material, it is necessary to be skeptical about the information provided to us because it may be fabricated, exaggerated or plagiarized.

Anyways, back to the main point. Memories become fabricated over time and that we incorporate them in our lives because our minds think it is real. The more it changes there will be more more changes in our own life.
Basically our life is similar to a draft and the book is not complete.
Humans have the power to change their book by using their minds as it is the most powerful weapon they own.

Virtual connection

How would people who access online material know if someone is real or fake just by looking at their videos or profile on myspace and other social networks?

Virtual settings enable humans to link with one another through the utilization of hyper links, but is there an actual connection?

Several people have been interacting with Kitsune.Suzuki and even though this has only been going for 2-3 weeks or so I feel this guilt of tricking people into believing something that is not real...makes me really sick and I am starting get anxiety attacks. I really hope my hair doesn't turn gray because I didn't plan on that happening any time soon.

This is something I probably need to consider writing about in CAT 125.
I really need a beginning and an end to what will happen to this character.

12/13 planning and scheduling

"An artwork is 50% done and the viewer completes the work." -Marcel Duchamp

Today I have worked 1/4th of a video blog.
I don't have any decent editing programs at home, so I am using a very user unfriendly Windows Movie Maker which crashes every 10 minutes.
It is frustrating; however, I suppose that it is part of being this character...

There are some concerns of direction.
I feel as though I must refine my thesis and proposal before I move on.

Here are the artists/impersonators I hope to research throughout this project.

1. Mouchette
2. Lynn Hershman
3. Aeneas.On.Location
4. The Yes Men
5. Frank W. Abagnale
6. Lonelygirl15
7. Adrian Piper
8. Coco Fusco
9. Bell Hooks
10. Anna Anderson
11. More to come

Questions I need to answer or keep in mind.

Q1. Are we having an art experience when we see an art reproduction?

Q2. How many links will it take for my audience to figure out that this character is in fact a fabricated identity?


(this will be updated)

Journal of Memories

"Sixth College's Practicum is a mandatory upper-division requirement that engages students in the creative process. To graduate from Sixth College, you must initiate, plan, and execute a Practicum project that connects your classroom-based experiences and knowledge to the outlying community, while at the same time exploring the interplay of culture, art, and technology" (University of California, San Diego, Sixth College).

Remi Rhodes
Practicum Project Proposal
Media Arts, Computer Emphasis
Winter Quarter 2007
Sixth College, UCSD

THESIS
Whether we are artists, writers, composers or individuals involved in some other form of creating, we appropriate other ideas into our own works. This creates a dynamic linkage of networks among different view points and this nonlinear strategy creates different and new cultural perspectives that may not have existed before.

Journal of Memories
Journal of Memories will deal with the main important topics for the Sixth College practicum project, which are culture, art and technology. A fictional character will be created through plagiarizing and utilizing content from the World Wide Web, mainly from online blogs. My project will deal with identity theft and how personal material available online is vulnerable and is sometimes stolen as well as manipulated by some individuals. At the same time, a new type of art form is born through this process which makes it something of a paradox. It is my observation that people are becoming less able to extract themselves from the virtual culture that we are emerging into. We are, in effect, becoming one with it.

History of fabricated identities by other artists
There are a few artists that utilize the fabrication of identities, such as Lynn Hershman, Mouchette, and The Yes Men. I would like to research their different approaches to a similar art process, while I create my piece in order to study and be able to better understand fabricated characters in depth.

Lynn Hershman- A media artist created a character named Roberta Breitmore, whom she acted out on a daily basis and was, in effect, interwoven with her own life. This, in turn, blurred the line between fiction and reality. She was one of the first artists who analyzed fabricated identities through her performance. Most of her work deals with “identity, reality and truth.”


Mouchette.org- A website dedicated to a character based on the French film, “Mouchette”, released in 1967. There is a quiz on the site that compares the Mouchette in the virtual setting to the one in the film. The website was censored because of copyright issues. Interestingly enough on recently developed social networking sites, there are more virtual bodies that fabricate, assume or even go so far as to steal identities.

The Yes Men- Culture jamming activists impersonate powerful people in order to alter their identities. These impersonators pose questions to individuals about what needs to be thought through more thoroughly in our modern society. The two main people in this organization are Andy Birchlbaum and Mike Bonanno, who recently created The Yes Men documentary which both explains and displays what they do.

CULTURE/ART/TECHNOLOGY
In a technologically advanced society, we have become interested in the “new” identity theft because it is something different. The bizarre trend of an unknown person in a virtual setting sharing their personal lives for the online public to view is becoming a common occurrence. These individuals may be fabricating the information they are disseminating although it is difficult to confirm what is factual and what isn’t. Therefore we need to be skeptical when viewing the majority of online material. Fake identities of celebrities and individuals are created on virtual communities such as Myspace, Youtube, and other websites on a daily basis. In addition, we are able to obtain false information through “news” sites, such as The Onion. Journal of Memories will reflect on this unique virtual community that is emerging in our modern society.


B. Goals, including justification for doing the project
The internet phenomenon has triggered my inspiration to go back to the traditional way where individuals kept hand written journals, and often kept them secret from everyone else. Journal of Memories will become a personal journal that belongs to a fabricated character, which will reveal things that happened in people’s lives. In my opinion each and every individual has an interesting story to tell, but most of the time others do not have the time to listen to them. The majority of people go through life learning from experiences and gaining knowledge through mistakes they have made (we hope). My intention for this piece is to show what a fabricated character learned from events that happened in his/her life, which makes up his/her personality. I would like to provide a collective plagiarized journal of a fabricated character based on true events that will eventually be shared to the public.

Push and pull relationships
The fabricated character would need to experience life and create a push and pull relationship with other people. It is necessary for this character to utilize the push strategy, such as joining social networks and providing information to virtual bodies. Moreover, create an e-mail and instant messenger account where others are provided with the opportunity to contact this fabricated character. It will become very crucial for me to know what type of friends this character will be forming and pulling in. The character would need to have a unique name so that others who are interested are able to google for more information. The character will leave a "search engine footprint" in the virtual space. Another thing I plan to incorporate is creating pen pals once more people are interested, I would like to add a traditional mode of communication such as snail mail. This character will be utilizing traditional mediums and technology in order to reach out to others as well as being reached.

Time Table
Winter Break ~ Winter Quarter
Week 1 (December 11th~17th): Character development (naming, clothing, personality, likes, dislikes, etc.), reading online blogs, joining social networking sites, website creation of the fabricated character profile, and start posting.
Week 2 (December 18th~24th): Video development planning/editing, posting.
Week 3 (December 25th~31st): Video development planning/editing., posting.
Week 4 (January 1st~7th): Journal writing, plagiarizing and then posting. Chatting, creating networks and email lists. Create a PO Box for character once pen pals are established.
Week 5 (January 8th~14th): Documentation of fabricated character and people who are involved, collect receipts of what the character would have bought.
Week 6 (January 15th~21st): Video development/editing.
Week 7 (January 22nd~28th): Journal writing, plagiarizing, posting, and chatting.
Week 8 (January 29th~ February 4th): Traveling outside as the character. Documentation of what the character did by taking photographs.
Week 9 (February 5th~February 11th): Documentation of fabricated character and people who are involved.
Week 10 (February 12th~February 18th): Video development/editing, posting.
Week 11 (February 19th~ February 25th): Journal writing, plagiarizing, posting. Intertwine people in journals who the character meets on social network sites or in real life.
Week 12 (February 26th~March 4th): Documentation of fabricated character and people who are involved. Draw some of the people who may have changed the character.
Week 13 (March 5th~March 11th): More documentation.
Week 14 (March 12th~March 18th): Video development/editing.
Finals Week (March 19th~March 25th): Start writing an analysis on the character and how it expanded for next quarter; perhaps plan on revealing that it was a senior project on a separate website.

C. Design of the project, including proposed activities, rationale for choosing those activities, basic time table.
Minimum of 3 hours a day will be dedicated to creating my Practicum Project during the Winter Quarter, 2007. I will plan to have meetings with my faculty advisor, Brett Stalbaum at least once a week. In addition, the following Spring Quarter of 2007, a website will be created that will be dedicated to documenting the nonlinear strategy of this project.

D. If applicable, information about the team working on the project, including contact information for each team member
N/A

E. Description of the community group-if any-you will be working with
Online blog communities, social networking websites (myspace, youtube, rhizome.org, etc.).

F. Necessary permissions from those who will be impacted by the proposed activities
N/A


Reference

University of California, San Diego, Sixth College. “TritonLink Preview: Sixth College: About the Practicum.” Sixth College: About the Practicum. 2006. 8 December 2006 .

Lynn Hershman. "The Art and Films of Lynn Hershman Leeson." Roberta Breitmore, 1974-1978. Date of publication unknown. 26 October 2006 .

Mouchette. "*MOUCHETTE*."*MOUCHETTE*. Date of publication unknown. 26 October 2006 .

The Yes Men. "The Yes Men." The Yes Men. Date of publication unknown. 26 October 2006.