Ex

Exogenesis

 

1994

The human

In 1994, I created Author Unknown, as one of my earliest digital works. The interactive narrative explored  how technology shapes identity. The story followed a woman’s life, from birth to the moment she created her first web page—an act of digital self-authorship.

As a young artist I was inspired by Suzanne Treister’s No Other Symptoms: Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky, and Linda Dement’s visceral works.

The technology

The use of Macromedia Director and CD-ROM as its medium places it within the early wave of digital storytelling in Australia.

Authoring tools:

Macromedia 9, Adobe Photoshop 2

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2004

The human

In 2004, I re-authored Author Unknown, primarily because the technology was changing.  There was no change to the narrative or the assets, it was simply a re-authoring so that the work could continue to be viewed. 
The technology

Director/Shockwave and CDROM technology was being replaced by Flash formats that could be shared on the web and accessed by a much wider audience.

​Authoring tools:

Adobe Flash, Adobe Premier

​Exhibited:

Exhibited in-person in Canada in 2007 and online (see artist bio for details)

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2014

The human

In 2014, I realised that life had mimicked art. I had unknowingly fallen into the same trap of domesticity as the woman in Author Unknown. 

With the birth of my second child—now 20 years after Author Unknown Version 1—I set an intention to explore how the character would navigate social media, a force that had reshaped the world and the ways people connect (or disconnect).

However, I felt completely overwhelmed, and the work did not progress.

I was grappling with the unsettling realisation that humanity was externalising its self-perception, seeing itself through digital reflections rather than through internal understanding. 

The technology

Flash reached its End of Life on 31 December 2020. I explored HTML5 and quickly realised that its interactivity was significantly reduced compared to Flash. In fact, I feel that no tool has truly replaced the level of rich media and interactivity that Flash had provided.

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2024

The human

A perfect storm—an urge to return to art practice, a desire to resurrect Author Unknown, and a period of deep reflection. Moving away from the visual metaphor of a house and the linear timeline used in the 1994 version, the work now unfolds as a series of floating, interconnected, and data-informed fragments. Life is disaggregated, disconnected, and data rich.

The technology

The character in Author Unknown reflects on her life through the lens of both social media and  AI and therefore a range of technology is used.

​Authoring tools:

There is still no single authoring tool I would recommend. I lament the loss of Flash. For now, Author Unknown exists as an evolving set of disaggregated experimental assets, which may one day be re-authored—just as we, too, may.

Current tools include: AI (Dall_E, Runway), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR and AR).

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Digital Archiving

Authoring tools:

As a digital artist creating interactive works, it's vital to capture these pieces in a more permanent format. Sadly, I have many works that now exist only as "zombie" files on discs I can no longer access. Fortunately, I have a video recording of Author Unknown (2004), which you can access below. I was able to record the video because I maintain a laptop with older browser versions, allowing me to continue using the Flash plugin.

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