[it: in gennaio non sono stato capace di ritrovare una serie di corti di cui avevo letto, un progetto artistico che coinvolge arte, cinema, tecnologia e motori di ricerca. L'altro giorno, per caso, l'ho trovato]
Short background: in January, I read, on some blog, about a movie project. I watched shortly a movie, then forgot about it. Some days later, I thought again to that project: something that mixes art, movie, technology, search engine. I wanted to have another look.
Impossible to find it. I searched on Google, Google Blog Search and other search engines. I searched in my Google Reader. I used a big set of keywords (yahoo, alaska, keywords, movie, short, film, video; see below to understand this keywords).
After tons of trials I gave up. My conclusion was: something on the net was unfindable. It never happened to me.
Some days ago, again on some blog, I read about that project. It was there, on the net, and I was not able to find it.
Here it is: Minimovies – I Love Alaska – Lernert Engelberts and Sander Plug.
August 4, 2006, the personal search queries of 650,000 AOL (America Online) users accidentally ended up on the Internet, for all to see. These search queries were entered in AOL’s search engine over a three-month period. After three days AOL realized their blunder and removed the data from their site, but the sensitive private data had already leaked to several other sites.
I love Alaska tells the story of one of those AOL users. We get to know a religious middle-aged woman from Houston, Texas, who spends her days at home behind her TV and computer. Her unique style of phrasing combined with her putting her ideas, convictions and obsessions into AOL’s search engine, turn her personal story into a disconcerting novel of sorts.
Over a period of three months, a portrait of a woman emerges who is diligently searching for likeminded souls. The list of her search queries read aloud by a voice-over reads like a revealing character study of a somewhat obese middle-aged lady in her menopause, who is looking for a way to rejuvenate her sex life. In the end, when she cheats on her husband with a man she met online, her life seems to crumble around her. She regrets her deceit, admits to her Internet addiction and dreams of a new life in Alaska.
