[New Frontier Performances and Installations]

The Cloud Mirror is a technological exploration of how our online standards of privacy and tact contrast so dramatically with those standard in the real world. When building The Cloud Mirror, I had to consider whether I felt comfortable taking people’s information from Facebook and Twitter and splashing it on their faces in a real public space for all to see. I found I felt uncomfortable with invading people’s privacy in this way, even though they themselves had made the information public.

In fact I discovered people who post their “relationship status”” publicly on Facebook are highly likely to laugh when they see it in The Cloud Mirror. The small minority who do find it offensive react in a very satisfying way. My great hope is that The Cloud Mirror creates an awkward scene at the New Frontier exhibit. If someone gets slapped, I promise it will be captured by The Cloud Mirror.