An Obsolescence of Identity and An Obsolescence of Value (2005) are two related online artworks exploring the fragmentation of identity, the erosion of privacy and the reduction of human beings to data. Created in 2005, the works use algorithmic processes to question what happens when our images and identities become subject to systems of surveillance, classification and control.

In An Obsolescence of Identity, the code processes the viewer’s image into an aesthetically controlled grid, transforming a recognisable face into a monitored visual structure. Identity becomes something to be captured, organised and processed by a system that observes and reduces the individual to an image.

In An Obsolescence of Value, the algorithm progressively divides the viewer’s image into smaller and smaller fragments until the individual effectively disappears. The work suggests a system in which identity is continually broken down, consumed and rendered obsolete, questioning the value of the individual within an increasingly data-driven world.

The works draw on a collection of approximately one million faces scraped from the internet. Detached from their original contexts, these images become part of a vast pool of publicly accessible visual information. The people behind the faces are transformed into data, raising questions about consent, ownership and the right to control one's own image. What was once personal becomes a resource for extraction, circulation and analysis.

Created in 2005, these works anticipate many of the issues that now define our relationship with digital technologies: mass surveillance, facial recognition, data harvesting and the commodification of personal identity. They question whether, in a world where everyone can be observed, categorised and processed, we retain meaningful ownership of our own identities — or whether we are becoming increasingly interchangeable and disposable components within larger technological systems.

Technical note: Originally created as online artworks in 2005, the works are now only available on request.

Keywords: Online, CCTV, net art, artwork, system, real time.

An Obsolescence of Identity.

An Obsolescence of Value.