MORAL BOUNDARIES & ONLINE ETHICS

A Rape in Cyberspace is an article originally written for The Village Voice in 1993 by Julian Dibbell. It is one of the most frequently cited essays on anonymity in cyberspace, and has raised numerous questions around digital ethics. The incident occurred on a MUD (Multi User Dungeon) called LambdaMOO, a virtual community that allows players to interact using avatars. Avatars are user programmable and may interact with each other and objects in different locations scattered around the community. The ‘cyberrape’ was performed by Mr. Bungle who ran a ‘voodoo doll’ subprogam that allowed him to attribute actions to other avatars. This included various sexual acts that avatars were forced to perform on each other and continued for several hours. This was, rightly in my opinion, interpreted as a sexual violation of those involved and resulted in a community outrage. Many posted about the emotional trauma caused by Mr. Bungle’s strange actions and wider questions were raised about the boundaries between real life and virtual reality. An online meeting was arranged for users, but no decisions were made. Eventually, a master programmer decided to terminate (toad) the user’s account which eventually resulted in an update to LambdaMOO’s system; a @boot command was put into place to disconnect disruptive users from the server. It also raises questions about the separation of the real, flesh and blood self and the virtual self - was the cyberrape a manifestation of Mr. Bungle’s true identity, that he was able to expose in a world without rules and empowered by anonymity?

The article is disturbing, and proves the possibility that the internet may alter the way society relate to words, communication and culture in general; ‘The true meaning of it lies in between the dissonant gap between real life and virtual life’ [Dibbell 1993] as stated by Dibbell. How is it possible that virtual content does not have a real impact on our physical being? Of course it does.

I decided to creatively engage with the article as a musical experiment. Thinking about the idea of anonymity and the frightening, uncomfortable nature of the story, I wanted to create a soundscape that made the listener feel a sense of discomfort. I masked the voice using various plug ins, and panned the text abrasively from left to right. I considered the materiality of the words, and bluntness of some of Dibbell’s statements throughout the piece. I think the piece works, but on reflection feel that I could have gone even further with it. It feels too short, and by spreading out the text I could have built more tension.

JON RAFMAN

A lot of Jon Rafman’s work questions the moral boundaries of the digital age. His ‘9 Eyes’ project, for which he trawls Google Street View in search for striking compositions produced by Google’s cars, in particular reveals something about our time; how often do passersby on the street appear to us as blurred faces, as they do in Google’s Street View? His work questions the politics of visibility and data ownership, and about the status of photography in a world consumed with image.

His work to me feels often voyeuristic, particularly of the wildly varied pleasures and fantasies pursued by the internets murkiest of corners.

Thought: on what level is the voyeur culpable for what they see?