Online users can claim to be whoever they wish. Like actors playing a role, they can deliberately choose to put forth identity claims of self that wildly differ from reality. A large section of society now lives within this digital space where individuals construct identity performances that fit their ideal social environments, creating an unrealistic body of expectations. This project explores the different circumstances that affect people's ability to express their truth and the mechanisms that alleviate such circumstances. This is done to challenge existing forms of communication and to promote exposure of true thoughts and emotions.
In order to gain a better understanding of the mechanism that comes into play when one expresses their truth, this project incorporates various public experiments with strangers. For example, one of the experiments was to get strangers to paint my portrait (right image). These experiments, coupled with research into open-ended design and the use of anonymity led to the construction of a set of principles that facilitate an interactive design direction intended to limit the amount of displays/pressures that individuals feel when interacting with each other. These principles include a social and/or visual anonymity, a secondary task (playful or creative), a receiver/listener and a personal connection. The Two-Way Easel is a design that uses these principles (top image).
