Self-Effacing Interactions

What might our social interactions and communications over the web be like if they diffused, rather than emphasised, the individual? A number of brief sketches I undertook to explore this idea are described below:

Cluster as Node

How might a social network be designed to remove individual representation completely? What might it be like to only be represented in collective form; where the smallest node of the network is a merged group of individuals; a collective entity?

This project explores these ideas through graphical mockups of ‘cluster’ profiles across a number of real and fictional networks. It ultimately informed the ideas behind the YouByUs social network prototype.

Shared-Self Communication

How might self-effacing and identity-merging communication technologies alter the ways in which we communicate one-to-one online?

This prototype/sketch integrates Arturo Castro and Kyle McDonald's OpenFrameworks Face Substitution with Skype to explore video communication that substitutes your face with the other person's in real time.