More on the Whitney Aiken installation

YOUTH DOCUMENTARY CENSORED In 01SJ Whitney Aiken, a lonely voice in the window of Works Gallery, by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero Space 47, a San Jose Gallery began a sociological investigation by mentoring a selected group of young people in the self-examination of behaviors on the internet.

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YOUTH DOCUMENTARY CENSORED In 01SJ

Whitney Aiken, a lonely voice in the window of Works Gallery,
by Erin Goodwin-Guerrero

Space 47, a San Jose Gallery began a sociological investigation by mentoring a selected group of young people in the self-examination of behaviors on the internet. Parents, schools and sociologists have become increasingly concerned over boundaries broken on the internet. What is the subtext of shameless engagement in topics, acts and revelations that in previous generations were considered to be private, personal, embarrassing or incriminating?

On such sites as Facebook, YouTube and Myspace, young people show themselves nude, in sexual postures, drunk and passed out and in many other ways that would have been anathema to their parents’ generation. Why does the current generation seems to have no need to maintain good face, avoid public shame, and conceal “issues”? Honesty, at times brutal, is embraced –perhaps as part of a youthful idealism, mixed with exhibitionism — that we all remember from our years under the age of thirty.

Whitney Aiken prepared The Biggest, Most Influential Thing that has Ever Happened to Me, as part of the Space 47 project. Daily, for six weeks, Aiken broadcast through word and pictures on the internet her grief over the death of her father, her mother’s breast cancer, and her own fears for inherited tendencies toward cancer.

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on view for 01 in the 1st street windows:

Whitney Aiken The biggest most influential thing that has ever happened to me presented under the mentorship of Space 47 as part of 01SJ Adobe Global Youth Voices Project and The Second Biennial 01SJGlobal Festival of Art on the Edge with exhibition space provided by Works/San Jos This work, originally installed at TheTechs New Venture Hall, was deemed too mature in subject matter by the museum and was removed from the exhibition.

Whitney Aiken
The biggest most influential thing that has ever happened to me
presented under the mentorship of
Space 47
as part of
01SJ Adobe Global Youth Voices Project
and
The Second Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge
with exhibition space provided by
Works/San José 

This work, originally installed at TheTech’s New Venture Hall, was deemed too mature in subject matter by the museum and was removed from the exhibition. Works/San José has provided this space so that the work can be seen as part of 01SJ.

Whitney Aiken’s, The biggest most influential thing that has ever happened to me, features two life-size portraits side-by-side, one of Aiken and the other of her mother. A companion video piece features an intimate conversation between the two. During the spring of 2008, Aiken posted private journal entries on a public Internet blog every day for six weeks. The entries conveyed her six-year relationship to cancer, with sentiments ranging from resentment to empowerment.

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