by Gary Welz, Tangent Design
>DChurch--Web Persona
by Gary Welz, Tangent Design
One of the most unique genres of new media is the electronic persona--an electronic identity that manifests itself in a variety of formats ranging from web sites to e-mail lists, chat rooms, and Web video.A singular Internet star is DChurch, the Web Diva with a sassy attitude, quick wit, and sensual charm. Her popularity grew from doing IRC chats, AOL chats, CU-See-Me and visiting Palaces and a variety of two-dimensional multi-user environments.
Dee's content is for adult consumption only. She posts monthly updates of her journal of romantic adventures and invites users to submit their own amorous stories. She also features selected user contributions on her site.
What I find interesting about DChurch and other Web personas is the way they have been able to develop a large following entirely through Internet media. Dee has over 1,000 subscribers to her e-mail list. Each month her Web site gets over 150,000 impressions and is visited by 7,000 unique hosts. This would be impressive for any electronic publication.
But what exactly is DChurch? A publication? Certainly she's more than a monthly 'zine. She's a vivid personality that can make personal appearances and is the spiritual confidant of thousands.
Dee is also a woman with a cause--a revolutionary and an agent provocateur. She campaigns for safe sex, while championing the importance of sensuality and eroticism. She's a love goddess in the image of Anais Nin and a radical feminist who strives "to make women stronger, smarter, more direct and to the point."
The Internet is perhaps the best medium for developing a following concerned with these kinds of social/sexual issues. Nowhere else but on the Net can you find the freedom to communicate with so many strangers in such a personal and powerful way. Dee says, "It's the ability for the user to have direct communication with the personality that makes it work so well in this medium. How many people actually get to talk to Howard Stern or Larry King? But anyone who wants to can get a personal e-mail from Dee."
Dee thinks of herself as a community. She was incarnated as an Internet performance piece and the identity took on a life of its own. Dee's creator, Tery Spataro, found that out of Dee's popularity she had built a database of e-mail addresses of people who wanted to communicate with her. This prompted her to create the Web site.
Now she sends out a monthly e-mail newsletter and responds personally to user mail. She may soon create a listserv to increase the sense of community. Dee would like to create her own Palace and plans to use audio and video more. SenseNet, her ISP, has generously supported her work in multimedia.
Dee's influences have included Mama Cucina, the persona of Mama's Cucina Ragu, and the Gramercy Press site created for MCI. Now that she has a following she may cross over into other media and be a counterpart to the likes of radio and TV personas such as Howard Stern and RuPaul.
Among the cyberstars/personas Dee admires is Jeffrey Z, the creator of "10 minutes in Cyberspace"--interviews with well-known celebrities that are put on the Web in Quicktime movies. She also has much praise for Alisa Sherman, a.k.a. CyberGrrl, an important evangelist for technology for women who is very actively involved in the bonding of women in New Media. Brett Leveridge, the creator of BrettNews, is also noted for having developed a strong brand identity around his personality.
The Net persona is one of a variety of new media genres that the Internet is spawning. It brings together elements of CB and shortwave radio with that of performance art, newspaper advice columnists, and pen pals. It gives us interactive intimacy along with anonymity--freedom to tell the truth and freedom to tell outrageous lies.
What other new types of media genre will this technology reveal to us in the years ahead?
