Net Runner 01 stems from a reflection on the figure of the user, examined through its etymological and ontological implications, to investigate how digitalisation has transformed the connected subject into an ephemeral, fragmented, and constantly monitored presence.
From the time-sharing systems of the 1960s to today’s multitasking logic, we witness a progressive loss of agency, prompting many users to deviate from this paradigm and seek seek for alternative platforms such as imageboards such as imageboards: anonymous, fragile, and decentralised platforms where individual expression still retains subversive potential. Within this scenario, the artist poses the question: how can the user become a self-user, a conscious, self-determined, subject capable of reclaiming time and reshaping their digital experience?
Net Runner 01 takes the form of a safety harness, a wearable device designed to protect and prepare the wearer for a rapid and secure escape. Hardware components are embedded into a custom-made structure that locally archives, in real time, the contents of the /hum/ board on Lainchan.org, an imageboard dedicated to anonymous conversations on themes such as isolation, technology, and identity. The harness is hand-embroidered with encrypted codes and symbols drawn from the community’s iconography, evoking both the precariousness of online existence and the protective strategies of collective memory. The wearer’s body and the digital archive merge into an organic alliance, where the survival of one depends on the survival of the other.