1994

“It is fashionable to suggest that cyberspace is some island of the blessed where people are free to indulge and express their individuality. This is not right. I have seen many people spill out their emotions – their guts – online and I did so myself until I started to see that I hadcommodified myself. Commodification means that you turn something into a product which has a money value. In the 19th century, commodities were made in factories by workers who were mostly exploited. But I created my interior thoughts as commodities for the corporations that owned the board I was posting to, like CompuServe or AOL. And that commodity was then sold on to other consumer entities as entertainment. Cyberspace is a black hole, it absorbs energy and personality and then re-presents it as an emotional spectacle. It is done by businesses that commodify human interaction and emotion. And we are getting lost in the spectacle.” – Carmen Hermosillo a.k.a. ‘humdog’ (1994)