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Responses Gary More was a fixture on American Television. His program, "What's My Line" further enthroned the 1950s ideal that we are defined by our work. On one show the celebrity guests had no idea what job the anonymous visitor had. Here they were participating in this newly emerging medium and they could not guess the line of work of Philo Farnsworth--the inventor of electronic television. In our newly linked world our ÒlineÓ is obscured by the multitude of connections. When we are on line, we are what we purport to be--screen names, avatars, fiction and fact. We cross lines between personal and corporate--local and international.
Melinda Rackham creates a very elegant space employing a Java app to depict a thin red line rotating in dimensional space. The site lies within its own window, devoid of conventional navigation tools. Instead she offers a map of the site, a return, and a mail button with 15 messages among the panes of connected lines. The messages are occasionally funny (a solicitation to purchase a publication on "How to Expose Infidelity") or messages of vulnerability (loneliness, earthquakes in Japan). Once again, the visitor is in better shape with Netscape; the applications run much better than within Internet Explorer. RackhamÕs prose explores a dematerialized self, "Space determines experience, experience determines place." Despite the argument that the virtual fractures conventional order, RackhamÕs design instills a sense of control and comfort in its elegant interface. The fears that are expressed seem unfounded given the directed patterns that create clarity rather than chaos.
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