Skye, a pink-haired, charismatic, relentless, queer and ambiguously fictional character, bursts onto MySpace at the height of the internet’s cool era connecting with fans across the globe to bond over shared loneliness, complex mother-daughter dynamics, and a childlike sense of magic—carving out a path to self-discovery.
Skye 4ever
$12,121.00
Goal-
$0.00
Raised -
160
Days to go
, United States (US)
SYPNOSIS
The year is 2007. You sit in front of your desktop computer and log on to MySpace. You get a message from a giggling pink haired girl from Portland. She writes, “Hi, I’m Skye!” She wants to be your friend.
She makes somewhat voyeuristic VHS videos about her fun and weird life. She gets all dressed up but never leaves her apartment. She seems lonely. She appears innocent and good hearted and you think the world would be a better place if everyone were this honest. She gives you hope.
She wishes her family really saw her. She loves life’s most simple joys like cakes and kittens. You can tell she’s just trying to create the world around her that she wishes were everywhere. She wants the whole world to be friends with each other. You want to be part of it and she’s inviting you to.
Skye is experiencing the world as though for the first time–trying to read the symbols of romance, sociability, and connection delivered through apparel, chocolates, candy, governance, and even pot brownies. Skye is the friend you always wanted and someone you may never be able to know.
Skye was an online performance character created by artist Erica Schreiner and Chris Tenzis. Delivered through video performances, blogging, photo blogging, zines, a dress exchange, and personal letter writing, Skye existed as an exploration of new media art at a time social media was in its infancy.
Looking back through her VHS camera, Skye films herself alone before the camera in her apartment. Rebelling and questioning social norms, Skye embodies punk-feminist acceptance of self and simultaneous rejection of external labels.
Unlike most characters, Skye breaks the fourth wall, interacting with fans and participating in the world around her and remains a performance, carefully curated by her creators.
This documentary explores the creation and development of Skye. It follows the artists, friends, and fans along a journey of personal and artistic exploration and shines a light on the differences between online media at a time before algorithms, narrow feeds of self-affirming ideological thought, the rage machine, niched products, and seemingly infinite monetization strategies.
Erica and Chris reflect on the collaborative responsibilities they took on throughout the project, shifting from the pursuit of gallery representation to creating a new social contract with Skye’s fans through MySpace. As an ambiguously fictional character online, Skye represents an alternative to today’s world of influencers, gurus, and entertainers. She represents character as creatives park rather than as a consumable object or a branded profit center.
Fans reflect on the meaning and joy of Skye, and talk about how Skye broke bounds as one of the the first to use MySpace and YouTube as a performative art space. Creators and fans explore the experience of Skye and examine opportunities to reevaluate the way we utilize online media.
Our Team
Erica Schreiner is an experimental video and performance artist. Based in New York City, she shoots on VHS, while performing before the camera. Erica creates allegorical, ethereal video art that combines feminist themes, ritual and sensuality. Manipulating carefully studied symbols and personal objects, which endure a process of metamorphosis, or building sets to perform in and film. Erica creates surreal and intimate worlds on VHS video, employing her clearly defined style. Erica’s work spans 20 years and has been on display at MoMA, MoMA PS1, Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin, Bill Hodges Gallery in NYC and SHOW studio. Her first video work was The Skye Project (2006-2008).
Alan Murdock founded Murdock Media Production to use the power of storytelling and video to tell small stories that add up to big meaning. He has taught narrative design, story boarding, video production, and fine art at colleges in Portland, Oregon, Salt Lake City, Denver, Colorado and Iowa City Iowa. His video work includes collaborations with Cedar Rapids Pride, The Quad Cities Ballet, Portland Metro, the cities of Boulder and Louisville, Colorado, The Cedar Rapids Economic Alliance, The University of Iowa Religions Department, and choreographers at the University of Iowa dance department. Alan earned a bachelors in dance, an MA and MFA in Intermedia Art from the University of Iowa, and an MBA in Management and Strategy from Western Governors University.
Erica and Alan met in Portland in 2003 when Alan was Erica’s art history teacher in art school. Alan remembers witnessing The Skye Project in real time. Together, they are co-directing and producing Skye 4ever
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