We live in an age when representations are replacing reality. The simulated versions of objects have become so familiar that we’ve nearly forgotten the feeling of the originals. It’s a phenomenon that’s been developing since the dawn of mechanical reproduction, and one that has expanded into the digital realm, affecting not just the objects it touches, but the people, as well.

Our online profiles, photos and other active and ambient internet presences have committed a kind of digital reproduction upon us, divorcing our personalities and character from our physical selves — perhaps (though hopefully not) with the effect of cyclically reducing the meaningfulness and interestingness of our very essence.

In this show, Ginger Anyhow, Parker Ito, and Mark Stuckert explore the concept of reduced and missing meanings in the digital age under the theme The Empty Signifier. In these works, notifications and user feedback devices are given personalities, simulated homes are filled with tokens from net life, and billboards are robbed of their messages, leaving only transparent backgrounds behind.

Despite this gloomy forecast, there is some hope to be found in the empty signifier. Only where there is no meaning can new meaning be created.

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From time to time, Heather Rasley creates work that reflects her navigation through the net. She has a Humanities B.A. from New College of Florida and completed one year of graduate coursework at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. A former web editor, she now works for Automattic, makers of WordPress. She and her heart are currently residing in Sweden. Her home on the internet is http://www.heather-rasley.com.