Pseudonymity enables my creative relaxation

[terriko]

It is incredibly relaxing for me to be working on new art projects and posting them under a completely new identity.

I'm working in a style and media in which I'm not proficient, and it's kinda fun to do it risk-free. No one's going to search one of my existing ids and find my first tries at stuff. "She" can experiment and squee over pretty creations and no one will use it as leverage about how I'm not a Serious Academic or Real Programmer or whatever because I'm playing around with some art.

As an incredibly surprising bonus fun thing for me, My alternate identity's already got some fans! Complete strangers are actually excited about seeing more of what she can do!

There's a lot of good reasons to care about pseudonymity. Many of those apply to me; sometimes I use my "real name" or derivatives thereof anyhow. But I'm really digging this playful use of a pseudonymous account to gain access to some extra creative freedom without being totally introverted about it. Fun!

Comments

not quite as serious as a repressive regime

[kevix.myopenid.com]

In the not-too-recent past, there were things done in the physical world only. Where records where kept on paper and no one had physical access to them. Artist showed their work in galleries. Folks who where not that well know might have a local gallery show or work put in a local library. No one outside a small group would even know about them or see them. Maybe a few friends or people in your local community. Any criticism about that would most likely be spoken in hushed tones and you'd never hear about it. But when you put things on a searchable, (more or less) public platform, things are different. And now you can get on-line comments by the good, the bad and the ugly. And if you use your passport-name it can have more repercussions. The good side, as you say, can be random folks says that like your work free of some kind of bias based upon: gender, geography, age, etc. The bad side: well that has been talked about alot. If you use a non-passport name, some of the negative can be reduced. The vision some folks have of the internet is a democratizing space that might allow anonymous/psuedonomous free-speech and other good things which include the chance to experiment with art or other aspect of self expression.