Regina Frank, The Artist is Present
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Berlin, February 14, 1996

FAQ?

In Cyberspace it doesn't matter what you wear, it matters who you are and what kind of image you create of yourself, how people relate to you're home-page or ad-dress, it matters what you say rather than what Gottfried Keller once wrote, "clothes make the man." So maybe fashion would be just a fashion to be present or to appear? Fashion (another example for transitoriness) comes close to our skin, it helps us design our presence, it mirrors our being, reflects our mood. But if presence can be virtual, will our image of fashion and our need for clothing be a different one?

Presence also refers to mental presence and/or absence and is a question of self-reflection and recognition, a definition of yourself in your environment. Presence, according to Heidegger, is synonymous with being and is a function of temporality. If we are able to be at two or thousands of places at the same time, I wonder what this changes in terms of our definition of "being." Can we still discuss "To be or not to be" or has the question ultimately shifted to "To be present or not to be present?"