reflecting on ones past is a rich source of inspiration. my past has been filled not only with experiences in the physical realm but defined by those that happened online. i have had homes on the web in the past, places i used to go but they are all gone. there are unfinished feelings of loss, both for those specific places and for that period in my life. it is impossible to revisit them and my state of mind at the time. i have moved on and so has everyone else. when they were there i thought of them as physical places and it feels right to continue thinking of them as so, or at least real ghosts. i have fond memories of the communities that i used to belong to, and it has become clear that it was the relationships and the people that made it so important.
i don’t think this experience is singular either, web communities, forums, chatrooms have been dying off for years now with the influx of social media, and there are a lot of people out there who have lost their virtual homes. the ‘we’ has become the ‘i’ as the web has matured into something for everyone and we are the last generation who will remember it as it used to be.
this is a visual requiem for the places me and so many others used to hang out on, the ones i knew and the ones i didn’t. they are all gone now, may they live on as ghosts.
