Buy One Get One

Buy One Get One

So I came across a very confusing but interesting art piece online by mixed media artist Shu Lea Cheang (and many others). There is a lot to take in here on this site as the layout is very original and new to me. The site also mixes photos from all around the world and clips of various articles that appear to be from newspapers in Africa and South East Asia (mainly). The site deals juxtaposes geographical borders with internet borders as lines drawn by a governing political system. This is an attempt to combat that.

The site defines itself like this:
"BUY ONE GET ONE derives its name from happy hour at Sphinx in Soi Silom, Bangkok.
The project explores a digital (co)existence that is borne out of net technology.
While Southeast Asia builds Cyberjaya and Africa safaris on the net,
we travel to test the limits of national and electronic border patrols."

The home page collects a number of stories about borders. For example "Shanghai, November 17:"If you are Chinese, why do you have a U.S. passport?"
-- Immigration official, Shanghai International Airport". Several other posts are more personal responses that deal with the similar theme of being stuck at a border as a transition from one place [home] to another place [an entirely different world].

Upon arrival (i think there's a succinct pun there) a mini window pops up with numbers like a cell phone. a .gif image of an eye with legs lurking behind it flickers away to the right of this dial. There are two images of web cameras above them. I haven't done anything and I feel intruded upon. But I think that's the point.

I type in some random numbers (I chose 666 thinking it would be amusing for some reason) and get a collage of images. Clicking on them sends you to an entirely different page each time. But I found the collages to be incredibly appealing because they weren't random.

The imagery collects into a long network of hyperlinks that describe a variety of geo-political issues.