marie_pix is a pseudonym under which I perform. It was first created and developed in 2008 for a live webcam performance [paula roush’s cctvecstasy] taking place online in the webcamnow.com community. I decided to continue using the name of marie_pix whenever I contribute to a piece as a performer.

In choosing the username for the cctvecstasy performance, I wanted to retain a female identity and one that could be easily targeted by the male users. Along this I also wanted to feel empowered when entering this online world, and needed to enter it behind a name I knew had a bit of weight especially as I was soon to be objectified in the webcamNow chatrooms.

I chose marie_pix because of the 17 century English playwright and novelist Mary Pix. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the name and researching into Mary Pix’s life and at that point I was happy with the theatrical and presumed feminist connections as well as pix’s conjuration of the idea of the digital world and its visual and sonic similarities with . Indeed searching for images of mary pix online will return thousands of pictures of women named mary, from the Virgin to the webcam girls.

marie_pix became mariepix mixmaster in SecondLife, for another project [emolab].  I haven’t had a lot of time developing her and I intend to explore her a little more in the future.

blog archive from 2008 – marie_pix no longer exists.