PanoramicPortraits, by Manon de Boer, is an Internet project commissioned by SKOR. It is the first in a series of commissions in which SKOR invites artists to explore the public domain on the Net.

For PanoramicPortraits, Manon de Boer took her own environment as the starting point of her investigation, creating a network from her personal contacts.

PanoramicPortraits is a growing collection of virtual portraits, originally of friends, although later of individuals not personally known to the artist. The portraits comprise a variety of biographical information, subjective and objective, ranging from personal knowledge to verifiable information on the web. De Boer’s perception of the identity of a specific subject, as shown on her site, is confronted by the image presented by the individual’s own website and connected links. In this way, the artist brings together a variety of information flows about the identity of her subjects, which simultaneously complete and mirror each other. Combined, they question identity, self image and (re)presentation, and their ‘reality’ in a domain (the Internet) where individuals are made up predominantly of text.

In my video and film portraits, I often contrast looking at my subject – body language, and facial expression – with what the person actually says about themselves. The visual and textual information sometimes reinforces what’s being said, but not always. The complexity of an individual is tangible in the interaction of body language and language; between intentional and unintentional communication, an interaction that is vastly reduced when forming impressions people via the Internet. In the portraits I create for PanoramicPortraits, I aim to show this lack of information and the need for the kind of information that gives an accurate image of someone.

Much of Manon de Boer’s work relates to personal identity. The artist views this as a combination of personal memories and how individuals stand in relation to others. In PanoramicPortraits de Boer is not only concerned with making enquiries about a person’s identity on the Internet, but with the significance of the network. The portraits could be said to exist of widening circles of sites and links. When tracing these configurations, the artist wondered how relationships and information branch off on the web, how the bifurcations can be interpreted in a personal context, and the possibility of visualising a specific group of ‘relationships’ in the enormous flow of information by giving them a visual context.

Making contact with those outside the nuclear community is much easier on the Internet than, for instance, at an exhibition in the physical public space because exchanging information is one of the Net’s pivotal functions. Replacing the physical space by the virtual space – through time – provides direct access to the reference framework of an individual within the Internet.

The portraits that will gradually be added to the project will show how rapidly lines can be created from a core community. The ever-expanding network of branches is shown by the site’s design, and visualised in a map on the homepage. This way, the network linking the artist’s subjects can be seen. New connections aren’t forged only via the central site, but from ‘outside’ as well. Visitors searching for information about a person on the website, come across a button that provides access to PanoramicPortraits and to the associative description of the individual concerned plus a virtual reference framework built up out of favourite websites.

PanoramicPortraits will be online for eighteen months; during the launch, the project will be in a development phase. In the next few months, the collection of portraits will be constantly expanded and the artist will publish her progress notes on the homepage. There will also be an archive, a portal to responses and correspondence sent to the website. Visitors are asked to give their reactions and to add to the work with their detailed comments.

The context of the assignment
PanoramicPortraits by Manon de Boer is the first of a series of assignments in which SKOR invites artists to investigate the public domain on the Internet. Digital media are changing the way we gather information, the way we work, stay in touch and meet each other. Although initially aids and resources, digital media are slowly but surely altering the content of our activities. Moreover, digital networks enable new cultural practices – new forms of exchange and new forms of communities within which a public domain is emerging – a virtual public space.

Against the background of these exploratory assignments, SKOR views the Internet as a cultural phenomenon – a new social dimension – rather than an artistic medium. The object of the assignments is not to place artworks on the web, but to facilitate research into the public space on the web.