Abstract

This article considers how, through the production of their online presence, internet users might negotiate the risks and rewards of control and surrender at work within online image performativity. My creative project (agorafauxbia.com) is an online multi-media performance space documenting images and characteristics of drag personae as I embody them in performance. When I started agorafauxbia.com, I liked to imagine that images and texts are controlled by me, insofar as I choose what will and will not be published on the website. Yet, the very act of disseminating data about myself into cyberspace entails an act of surrender, whereby this material is uncontrollable and can be downloaded, appropriated, manipulated, remixed, and retransmitted in infinite ways. This paper will contribute to knowledge of online-based performance modes, with particular regard for how the performer might experience aspects of online space.