Access point of the reconstructed www.the-living.org
This page was made by LI-MA in 2023 to offer an overview of the former website www.the-living.org accompanying the performance-based net artwork the_living (1997-1998) by Debra Solomon. The website (with exception of this page) is reconstructed from the pages of www.the-living.org captured by the Internet Archive. Unless stated otherwise, captures taken between 1998 and October 2000 were used for this website. Due to the lack of documentation and missing files, the reconstruction is a collection of page fragments. It presents the remaining pages as separate entries parallel to each other, which does not show the structural relationship between them in the original website. Nevertheless, these remaining pages provide interesting information about the context and description of The_living from the artist’s perspective, and preserves some of the chat logs between the_living and other CU-SeeMe users. It also gives an impression of how the website looked like back in the late 1990s.
Notably, the original website www.the-living.org was not the location of the online performance. It rather constituted an information and distribution platform of ‘Tamagotchi Gifts’ which the_living sent to her audiences throughout the performances. Debra Solomon also used the website as a project archive (chat logs, list of bookmarks of her research into the_living, see below) that was probably not visible to the public. Which pages were visible to the public and which ones were not, could not be derived from the Internet Archive. For more information about the online performance of the_living and the artwork, please see digitalcanon.nl and [link].
Video still of The living's wardrobe of live moments (1999-2000) by Debra Solomon. The artist broadcasted videos of live moments using the CUSeeMe software.
Links to the fragments/pages of www.the-living.org
- idea of the-living: This is where the artist introduces both the concept of the digi-persona and the video conferencing environment. There was a navigation bar on the right handside of the page, but the navigation bar file is missing.
- karaoke page: This series of pages are the most interesting and interactive ones. As soon as the webpage is fully loaded, a song accompanying the image is played (Turn on autoplay in the web browser, otherwise there is no sound. You have to repeat it for each of the 5 karaoke pages/images.). When one clicks on the text command button “That’s Kanji for…”, a series of window screens will pop up with texts. There might have been one more image with a midi interpretation of the polly song of Nirvana (polly_fast.html). However, the file is missing.
The following pages document chat conversations between the_living and other online users on the CU-SeeMe platform. According to the chat log, the_living, Marty Connor, and Antoine discuss the topic "transhumanisme" on October 17, 1998. The identity of these users in real-life are unknown.
- chat archive (fragment 1)
- chat archive (fragment 2)
- chat archive (fragment 3)
The following two pages document dialogues between three users (Almée, goodfriend, _flippin n’flappin) and the_living:
- seduction 01 (conversation with the_living)
- seduction 02 (conversation with the_living)
- mu: This is the page where users could probably find the specific dates and times when the_living would be doing her performances online. A button “click here for information about the daily CUSeeMe broadcast” was available. This link does not work anymore. The page title most probably refers to the 1997 group exhibition µ (mu) held at the Arti et Amicitiae gallery in Amsterdam.
- frequently asked questions about the_living project: This is the FAQ page of the_living. Listed questions include the difference between the digi-persona and other webcam girls, how to meet the living, and the life of the-living. There was music in the background (poly_open.wav), but the file is missing
- tips for the use of the CUSeeMe video call tool: This page offers the users a step-by-step manual of how to download, install, and add plug-ins to the software on both Macintosh and Windows computers. This list of tips offers insight into how the artist herself made use of the software.
- bookmarks of the_living (captured 2002/02/13). The list of bookmarks contains external links. The page was captured 2002/02/13 which is why most links do no longer work. Therefore, these links are linked to the Internet Archive instead of to the live Internet.
- Debra Solomon's cv (captured 2002/12/07): This page offers a chronological overview of the artist’s early works and exhibition iterations of the_living. It served as an important source for LI-MA’s research into the artwork.
- Debra Solomon's bio (captured 2002/12/07): This page displays the artist’s bio and practice at an early stage. It is worth noting that the artist shifted her practice since then considerably.