Cybernanny.

The inspiration and point of contact for this panel is Cyber Nanny Shirley has developed a site which reflects her active life. In speaking about her reactions to having a home page she states:

"Speaking only for myself, it is difficult to comprehend sometimes how public my page is. I see the counter total increase, yet there is a void there. There are no faces, nor bodies, nor names, nor personalities, nor conversation to tie to those numbers. Even offering a guest book has done little to change that. Few people stop to sign. They like to visit, it seems, but I suppose many things discourage them from "introducing" themselves. I know that I'm reluctant to sign a guest book, fearing I will be buried under an avalanche of undesired e-mail from solicitors of some sort or that my information might be "sold" as a mailing list. To me, a home page is a bit like tidying the house and putting on some coffee and then opening the door to invite people to visit...to invite the neighbours in, so to speak. It's an attempt to establish some sort of communication with the world beyond my doorstep."

This is part of a body of work which is an exploration into how women are representing themselves on the World Wide Web, and the connection between 'homemaking' and 'home page'. Embroidery is a culturally-loaded textile art often associated with gender, the domestic, memory or nostalgia. I use stitchery to seduce and draw the viewer in. The desire to touch a textile and the need to connect with the work in a physical sense is a metaphor for the internet's promise of community.
To produce this image, screen shots from the Shirley's home pages were taken, then combined and manipulated in Photoshop. The image was then printed on cotton fabric using a Colour Style Writer 2400. To this print I added stitchery using various hand dyed threads of cotton, silk, and wool.

The exhibition "Playing False" was held in the Craft ACT Gallery, Canberra, Australia, between the 3rd of September 1997 and the 21st September 1997.



			The inspiration and point of contact for this panel is Cyber Nanny Shirley has developed a site which reflects her active life. In speaking about her reactions to having a home page she states: "Speaking only for myself, it is difficult to comprehend sometimes how public my page is. I see the counter total increase, yet there is a void there. There are no faces, nor bodies, nor names, nor personalities, nor conversation to tie to those numbers. Even offering a guest book has done little to change that. Few people stop to sign. They like to visit, it seems, but I suppose many things discourage them from "introducing" themselves. I know that I'm reluctant to sign a guest book, fearing I will be buried under an avalanche of undesired e-mail from solicitors of some sort or that my information might be "sold" as a mailing list. To me, a home page is a bit like tidying the house and putting on some coffee and then opening the door to invite people to visit...to invite the neighbours in, so to speak. It's an attempt to establish some sort of communication with the world beyond my doorstep."
		This is part of a body of work which is an exploration into how women are representing themselves on the World Wide Web, and the connection between 'homemaking' and 'home page'. Embroidery is a culturally-loaded textile art often associated with gender, the domestic, memory or nostalgia. I use stitchery to seduce and draw the viewer in. The desire to touch a textile and the need to connect with the work in a physical sense is a metaphor for the internet's promise of community. To produce this image, screen shots from the Shirley's home pages were taken, then combined and manipulated in Photoshop. The image was then printed on cotton fabric using a Colour Style Writer 2400. To this print I added stitchery using various hand dyed threads of cotton, silk, and wool. The exhibition "Playing False" was held in the Craft ACT Gallery, Canberra, Australia, between the 3rd of September 1997 and the 21st September 1997.