Karen Eliot

TheRealKarenEliot

Professional Trolling
Internet, 2012 - ongoing

"TheRealKarenEliot" is an open account on Facebook. The profile picture shows the password, so everyone is invited to log in and be Karen Eliot. Since 2012 hundreds of people are using this account. Some for fun, some for advertising or promotion, some for political activism and (cultural) hacking. In this way my virtual self becomes a collective mind - my statements, interests, opinions and my circle of friends are getting mixed with those of others and therefore relativized. Basically I'm a nice person, smart as Wikipedia, entertaining as Youtube, annoying as 4Chan. Join me! Open the gates of the digital panopticon and log in: https://facebook.com/therealkareneliot

 

Karen Eliot

"Karen Eliot is a name that refers to an individual human being who can be anyone. The name is fixed, the people using it aren't. The purpose of many different people using the same name is to create a situation for which no one in particular is responsible and to practically examine western philosophical notions of identity, individuality, originality, value and truth. Anyone can become Karen Eliot simply by adopting the name, but they are only Karen Eliot for the period in which they adopt the name. […] When one becomes Karen Eliot one's previous existence consists of the acts other people have undertaken using the name. When one becomes Karen Eliot one has non family, no parents, no birth. In 1985 Karen Eliot was not born, s/he was materialized from social forces, constructed as a means of entering the shifting terrain that circumscribes the 'individual' and 'society'." (http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/eliot_index.html)
http://kareneliot.de