Art and Technology

In thinking about we feel fine I was conflicted in trying to figure out how I felt about the project, in terms of its function.  This desire to attribute some sort of purpose or functionality on this project is most likely embedded in this idea that our technology must be used for some sort of productive end goal.  The project of we feel fine IS doing something, it is creating a documented compilation of what we have coded as feelings all over the internet.  As users of the internet continue to blog and express what they are thinking, doing, feeling with the specific words “I feel,” it is an interesting concept to explore the internal and individual emotion through the written and shared word of “feel.”  Perhaps we can draw conclusions about the shared experiences and lives of the people who are using cyberspace to express these deep and heartfelt emotions with the world.   In recognizing this as being the work that we feel fine is doing, it becomes easier to understand the diverse role that technology and the internet can play in our lives.  Clearly there is the use of digital technology in an art space and atmosphere, which is easy to understand because the function in that work is not necessarily tied to producing some sort of object or completing a task.  However, projects that use technology in ways that straddle that line between art and machine are more interesting to look at, and ultimately open up our eyes to the multifaceted uses of technology.