Project

Ebay Longing explores the potential of the auction website Ebay as an anthropological tool by performing search queries for Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, countries that reflect three stages in the "war against terrorism".

In the case of Afghanistan, Waller noticed a shift in interest as soon as the war against this country began: before the war the posted items were blue lapis, burkas or stamps. After the war, the interest shifted to memorabilia, souvenirs and American made t-shirts with slogans supporting the war. Images from these searches will be collected and archived every day.
The resulting image database, paired with excerpts of various travel diaries and war blogs from the region, reveals hidden layers of consumerism, Orientalism, xenophobia and the effects of (American) mass media.

Artist

Angie Waller (USA) develops both video and web based projects. Her projects include: "Loading Animated Version" - a documentary about Hungarian web designer sweatshops, and "Clip.FM", a wireless messaging service derived from Mobile Communication. One of her recents works is the book "Data Mining the Amazon", a study on customers at Amazon.com. Her works have been exhibited internationally.


Go to the project page:
Ebay Longing