Turbulence Commission: I’m Not Stalking You; I’m Socializing: Black & White by Liz Filardi

One of the original cases of criminal stalking in America is retold within the framework of a social network called Black & White, which consists of two mirrored profiles, those of Laura Black and Richard Farley. The website extrapolates on the tongue-and-cheek usage of the term “stalking” to describe the accepted social protocol, a far cry from the original behavior that, in this case, lead to a massacre at a booming Silicon Valley company in 1988. This project points to new and different levels of trust, privacy and social order in our networked society, tells the story behind the first Anti-Stalking Law passed in California in 1991 in the language and structure of networks, and tragically binds together two tormented Americans, once at opposite ends of an ineffective restraining order.

Liz Filardi received an MFA in Design and Technology from The New School, where she also worked as teaching assistant to Ken Wark and Orit Halpern. In 2008, she was nominated for the William Randolph Hearst Scholarship for Truth Recruit, a performance in which she visited a Bronx high school dressed as a military recruiter. Her performance video, Viral Conversations is currently on display with Iraqi Memorial at Sheppard Gallery in Reno, Nevada. Based in New York, Liz is a production manager and web designer at Kickstand Animation, Research and Design and has interned at Rhizome, Eyebeam and Rocketboom.