Author Unknown

"In 1994, I could hardly have imagined its longevity and evolution..."

"Author Unknown" is an interactive multimedia work that has been a central part of my digital art practice for over thirty years.

The work is influenced by technology on two distinct levels:

the narrative delves into the impact of technology on the female character's identity as she reflects on her life and identity in relation to the technology that surrounds her.
the creation process also reflects the impact of technology on the digital work itself. Different tools, such as Director and Flash and now AI, influence the way the story is told. This constant adaptation to changing technological landscapes is a defining characteristic of "Author Unknown's evolution.

There are several iterative versions, that re-author both the work and the story: 1994 (authored in Director) and 2004 (re-authored in Flash), a minor version 2014 (social media) and the current version (AI).

Author Unknown 1994 - 2004

The video below provides a walk-through of the 2004 version of the work (technically the 2007 version that was exhibited). Today, the interactive work I created in Flash can only be experienced as a video, since sharing it in its original interactive format is no longer possible—even with emulators.

Who inspired me

My early work was greatly inspired by three female artists and writers.

Sherry Turkle - I was and remain very much interested in the work of Sherry Turkle. Turkle's work profoundly explores the psychological and social impact of computers and technology on human identity and self-perception.
-The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (1984) - recognised that the computer was not just a "tool," but a part of our social and psychological lives.
-Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (2011) - focused on how computers are causing us to re-evaluate our identities. The Internet fostered a new sense of identity – decentred and multiple.

"How we remake ourselves in the mirror of our machines" (Sherry Turkle)

Her ideas on women's "non-linear" approaches to technology, the "soft mastery" and the "bricolage" appealed to me. She fueled my interest in philosophy, although at the time that I first read her work I was on a cattle farm in the northern rivers area of News South Wales (Bundjulung) and it would be almost nine years later that I would find myself walking up a Swiss mountain to have a class with Jean Baudrillard (see European Graduate School).
Linda Dement - Her confrontational images of gashes lead to many a late night, nude, session of photocopying body parts.
Suzanne Treister - I consider Suzanne Treister's 1995 work, Time travelling with Rosalind Bronsky, to be one of the most brilliant interactive narratives produced. Her foresight in publishing a 124-page full-colour hardback book to house the CD-ROM was particularly insightful, as it allowed her work to survive the inevitable obsolescence of the digital material.

The Technology

The choice of technology used to author the project has always been influenced by what was available at the time. Each new technology required learning, adapting to its limitations, or exploring new creative possibilities.

In 1994, I was working with Macromedia Director, Adobe Photoshop 2, and Adobe Premiere. I found these tools intuitive and quickly picked up Director’s scripting language, Lingo. Poser enabled me to generate human forms easily, and while I explored Bryce—which specialised in creating 3D landscapes—I didn’t have much use for it and wouldn't just include it 'because', as tempting as it was.
CD-ROMs were the dominant distribution medium for interactive content, and the internet was still in its infancy. Mosaic had only just given way to Netscape Navigator as the leading web browser, and bandwidth limitations made rich media delivery over the web largely impractical. Multimedia authoring was rooted in standalone applications, and creativity was constrained by hardware limitations, low screen resolutions, and limited colour depth. Still, for those of us immersed in digital production, there was a sense of excitement: we were shaping a new medium.
By 2004, Macromedia Director was becoming obsolete, and Flash had emerged as the preferred platform for interactive web content. Re-authoring the project in Flash required me to learn a new scripting language, ActionScript, but it opened up new creative possibilities—particularly in terms of animation and interactivity. Flash powered everything from banner ads to full-scale educational tools, games, and animations. Social media was beginning to take shape (Facebook launched in 2004, YouTube in 2005). Mobile technology was still basic; most people accessed the web via desktop or laptop. By the end of the decade the Internet was becoming more mainstream and and broadband was becoming widespread, which enabled the rise of rich media websites, online video, and interactive web applications.
By 2014, Flash was in decline. One by one, browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari began to block Flash content by default. Apple famously refused to support Flash on iPhones and iPads.
Although the industry had largely moved away from using Flash in areas like advertising and e-learning well before 2020, Flash officially reached its End of Life on 31 December 2020. This meant that Flash content could no longer be easily accessed or experienced. For creators like me, this loss was significant. I found myself relying on workarounds—keeping an old laptop with legacy browsers alive, almost like a digital time capsule—to preserve the stories and creative works built in that medium.
After Flash’s disappearance, the digital storytelling landscape became fragmented. Video content moved to platforms like YouTube, while short texts and images were scattered across social media. 3D art found new homes in specialised software such as Unity and gaming platforms. No single platform remained capable of unifying all these elements into a cohesive, immersive narrative.
Mobile devices became the dominant way people accessed the web. HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3 had matured into a powerful, open-source option; however, most digital artists didn’t adopt these tools because they required coding skills and lacked the visual, artist-friendly interfaces found in Flash.
In 2024, the arrival of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools has begun a profound change in the way digital content is created, consumed, and understood. This wave of technological change has tempted me to revisit the project once again. I've dusted off the old files and am playing—this time not with a single authoring tool, but with a suite of AI-driven platforms capable of generating text, images, video, code, and even interactive experiences. For me, this moment feels both like a return and a reimagining—a chance to explore the past through the lens of the present, with tools that are exponentially more powerful but still rooted in the same creative impulse.

The Story

Digital storytelling differs significantly from traditional forms like books. Digital platforms enable non-linear, interactive experiences, allowing audiences to explore, engage, and even influence the narrative. Instead of following a fixed path, users can shape their own journey through the story. This shift transforms storytelling into a dynamic, participatory process—blurring the lines between author and audience, and between consumption and creation.

There are three key methods of navigating Author Unknown:

Temporal – The narrative unfolds across the protagonist’s life stages, from birth through to the launch of her first website, allowing the audience to follow her development over time.
Spatial – The story is structured around the metaphor of a house, with each room representing a different aspect of her lived experience. Exploring the rooms provides insight into her inner world and surroundings.
Object – Navigation also occurs through interactions with symbolic technologies—such as a camera or a blender—which shape and reflect her identity.

1. Temporal (linear):

The story progresses in a sequential timeline of a woman’s life, from birth to the moment she created her first web page—an act of digital self-authorship.
There’s no explicit navigation element on the screen. Instead, the technology metaphors (camera, blender, button) subtly mirror the life stages.

2. Spatial:

The blueprint of a house is a key navigation device and metaphor. Each room represents a significant stage in the character’s life.
- Bedroom 1 (Birth): The character’s early years.
- Bedroom 2 (Teenage Years): A space where personal identity is forming.
- Kitchen (Domestic Adulthood): The kitchen is a typical domestic and traditional space for women. But the cyborg (within the character) is unhappy.
- Study (Discovery of the Internet): This room reflects the character's entry into the digital world "the internet", where she can begin to build her digital identity.

3. Technology Metaphor:

Each object within Author Unknown serves as a conceptual navigation point, linking technology to key stages of the protagonist’s identity development:

Camera (Baby/Young Child) – The camera symbolises documentation and memory. In early life, the protagonist's identity is shaped largely through the gaze of others—family, friends, and societal expectations. Her early moments are captured by others, reflecting how her sense of self is externally constructed.
Record Player (Teenager) – Music and media become central influences during adolescence. The record player represents how cultural inputs—songs, sounds, and stories—help shape mood, identity, and aspiration at a formative time.
Blender (Adult Domesticity) – The blender embodies the complexity of adult life, particularly in domestic settings. It reflects how technologies associated with caregiving, household labour, and routine can both support and constrain personal agency. It also hints at the fragmented, multitasking nature of adult identity.
ESC Key (Discovery of the Internet) – The computer’s escape key symbolises a turning point: the moment when the protagonist moves from being shaped by external forces to actively shaping her own life. It marks her transition into digital autonomy, where she explores, creates, and asserts control through online spaces.

Exhibition

In 2007, I presented Author Unknown at "Rooms of Their Own/Des espaces bien à elles - Women and the Knowledge Economy conference" hosted by Royal Society of Canada - The Academies of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of Canada.
Extract from the conference program:
"In 1929 Virginia Woolf predicted that women in "another century or so," if given the opportunity and rooms of their own, will have "the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think" and see "human beings in relation to reality." Such opportunities are now more tangible for some, more elusive for others. Rooms of Their Own addresses the features of local and global cultures that encourage and impede women's active, creative, and critical participation in the knowledge economy and society..": Link

Artist statement

Today, being a digital storyteller means not only having a strong artistic vision but also the time, technical skills, and patience to weave together disparate platforms and formats from scratch. For creators like me, this shift has meant grappling more with managing technological complexity than focusing purely on creative expression—highlighting the ongoing challenge of balancing artistic goals with evolving digital demands.

Digital Archiving

A significant part of the creative process for a digital artist working with interactive media is the challenge of archiving these works in a lasting and accessible format. Unfortunately, many of my earlier projects now exist only as “zombie” files—stored on obsolete discs or formats that I can no longer access or run.

The fragility of digital media highlights the urgent need for sustainable archiving practices in the digital arts. Without careful preservation, significant creative works risk being lost to technological obsolescence, becoming inaccessible to both their creators and future audiences.