On November 13 2013, 7 new media artist Facebook profiles were transferred over to 5 collectors for 24h. The profiles were sold during the Digital Artist Auction at Art Hack Day “Going Dark” in Berlin. Find out more about the participating artists here.

The recap below contains the highlights of the profile transfer as most of the details have been lost in scribblings on Facebook walls (not unlike Pompeian graffiti).

PRE-TRANSFER

The auction house sets up a Facebook event announcing the transfer for November 13, at 12pm Pacific. There is palpable excitement: Jeremy Bailey releases documentation from the auction and is pwned by Anthony Antonellis in a followup video below:

Lorna Mills and Marisa Olson voice concerns, Emilio Varvella gets excited and auction house founding member Olof Mathé shares some of the principles behind the auction. 

Just minutes before the profile handover, Anthony and Jeremy are the only sellers to hint to their Facebook friends that their profiles won’t “be” them:

(note that from the time of that last comment we can deduce it was made by Jeremy’s collector)

THE TRANSFER (all times Pacific)

12:00pm, Nov 13: 

The collectors take over the artist profiles: 

• Alma Alloro becomes Anthony Antonellis
• Barry Threw becomes Kim Asendorf
• Ciara Harrington becomes TWEAK festival
• Olof Mathé becomes Darsha Hewitt
• John McKiernan acquired the Mystery Pack (containing Jeremy Bailey, Jamie Allen, Barry Threw) but hands them over to Olof for most of the 24h since he needs to prepare for an opening.

12:01pm, Nov 13: 

Immediately after the transfer, Jeremy Bailey (aka Olof) posts that it has been delayed due to technical difficulties. For a profile to have value, it needs to be credible, so it is essential that spectators believe Jeremy is still in control of his profile.

(Fwiw, Facebook occasionally does ask users to verify themselves by identifying tagged friends)

1:15pm, Nov 13:

The collectors sync up over Google Hangout and decide to extend the sellers’ artistic practice by creating a Kickstarter on their behalf using Facebook Connect. In fact, once login credentials have been shared, most major online services can be accessed via Facebook Connect. Digital identities are porous and the services that rely on them semi-permeable. 

2:15pm and onwards, Nov 13:

↬ Anthony pinkifies his profile

↬ Kim declares it’s time to post some real net art:

…remakes his profile gently (here’s Kim’s headline during transfer vs. what it looks like today)

…enters an open relationship with his collector

↬ Darsha receives several personal messages, but the collector only responds to the one sent from someone in the net art community, and then engages fully as if he were Darsha. The exchange won’t be shared in the interest of privacy. 

↬ Jamie, Barry, TWEAK festival remain generally silent until the Kickstarter is announced.

↬ Jeremy claimes that things are about to get real and posts about the transfer taking place the next day (to ensure people still believe the transfer has been postponed)

11:46pm, Nov 13: 

The collectors launch a Kickstarter on behalf of the sellers for Art Hack Day “AFK” in Cairo, IL. Their hope is to outline “a bold new direction for art“ and rope them into a project greater than the social network on which it originated: 

With Art Hack Day “AFK” - Cairo, Illinois we hope to bring tech-based art out of the echo chamber and into an environment where the audience will have a different frame of reference. The theme for the exhibit, “AFK” (Away From Keyboard), alludes to this new context. 

In Cairo, we’ll be organizing the hack & exhibition alongside the Cairo community and offering educational opportunities for the community to be co-creators of the works. 

- How will art work using technology function in this environment? How can we explore the issues shaping this community through our practice? Can we create an opportunity for this community in a way that brings people together? 

These are some of the questions we hope to answer through this event.

11:55am, Nov 14: 

For the collectors the 24h of ownership are coming to their conclusion. For the onlookers the transfer is just about to begin. Jeremy’s buyers (aka Olof) creates a clone of Jeremy’s account (with the same name and profile pics and data etc.). Confusion follows since they are nearly inseparable at first glance.  As per below, the clone claims to be the ‘authentic’ Jeremy and that he’s taking refuge in a new, cloned profile since the collector might never return his account.

12:01pm, Nov 14:

The profiles are handed back to their original owners. Although the transfer is over the performance is still going on thanks to the Jeremy Bailey clone. Some hilarity ensues on its wall : 

POST-TRANSFER

7:00am, Nov 15: 

As spotted by Arjun Srivatsa, the Kickstarter is featured as “Project of the Day” on the main Kickstarter website. 

1:53pm, Nov 15: 

The collectors tell the sellers they still have backdoor access to the artists’ accounts via 3rd party apps on Facebook Connect (e.g., Buffer).

2:00pm and ongoing, Nov 15: 

Public reactions to the Kickstarter are overall positive: Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler donates and some even call it a manifest, although apparently not everyone was familiar with the downfall meme (rly?). 

Darsha spills the beans on her profile. Kim removes a couple of videos his collector had posted. Anthony washes away the pink: 

Jon Satrom is delighted that Jeremy is back but posts to the Jeremy clone’s profile. Jennifer Chan mocks the number of Jeremy’s floating around.

3:45pm, Nov 16: 

The Jeremy clone announces that the sale of his profile constitutes an unprecendented opportunity to revitalize his artistic practice and that he’s granting his collector full rights over his profile, in perpetuity, thereby locking the real Jeremy into a genuinely Kafkaesque experience. Screenshot below from the clone’s wall. 

FINALE

5:16pm, Nov 16:

Jeremy continues his hydraesque experience of being back in his old profile but with onlookers thinking he controls the clone and the collector controls his old profile when in fact it’s vice versa. The clone continues to play its part, quips about the collector doing nothing with his profile, and expresses his gratitude that the collector is the custodian of his finest work (i.e., his Facebook profile):

9:37am, Dec 1:

The clone changes name from “Jeremy Bailey” to “Jeremy Bailey-TheArchive”. The ‘real’ Jeremy and the collector (aka Olof) decide to turn the account into a permanent archive of Jeremy’s persona. They set up a foundation to manage it and announce a residency program for New Media artists who wish to inhabit him in the future.