Ready for something amazing? This last Friday I got to see what other people think about craigslist for a change.

Civilian Art Projects held an opening reception for a show titled “craigslist” featuring work inspired by the site and its occupants (Read on Civilian’s website here, and Steve’s coverage, and awesome photos, here, and then my Flickr photos here).

The curatorial write up captured exactly what I have been arguing over the past year:

A curious outcome of our global internet society is that while we are more hyper-connected than ever, our identities have become increasingly malleable to the point of anonymity… Anonymity can bring out the adventurous side of people, particularly when it comes to exploring socially transgressive situations. In this exhibition, the artists take full advantage of this growing social identity phenomenon and investigate how anonymity generates a new kind of portraiture.

This was readily apparent in Jason Zimmerman‘s pieces. One featured a series of small LCDs that rotated through personal ad images of naked people who had blurred out their faces. It presents a striking contrast that leaves one wondering why we are so willing to expose our bodies online, the same bodies that by default remain covered in meat-space.

Two feet away was a white book on a pedestal. The small text on the cover read “The Willing.” From what I understand, this piece is a massive collection of email responses to a simple ad Jason posted that read “rape me.” The range of responses are striking. They range from those who call the post “disgusting”, those who denounce it as a hoax, and those who, like one particular man who included photos of himself, describe in length exactly how they envision the scenario playing out.

Next to each other, I am left wondering about what privacy online actually means. These pieces seem to clearly argue that the internet has inverted our privacy. It is a place where we can be exposed and for our most private confessions, provided we are never connected to the disclosure.

If you get a chance, go see the show. It seems that I have an artist to interview.