Contemporary media culture has propelled the phenomenon of anonymous celebrity, an anyone-can-be-famous attitude associated with the proliferation of websites like YouTube, MySpace and Second Life. Human experience, no matter how ordinary is broadcasted over vast social networks at a rate that is not only challenging bandwidth, but also notions of self-identity. Intrigued by this trend of virtual self-advertising, I began to research individuals on the Internet who share my name. For six months I contacted Jessica Walkers all over the world via post, email and telephone calls. I wanted to establish a system that could investigate the ways in which Jessica Walkers experience the world similarly and how these coincidences are dependent on our given name. I also became interested in learning if trust could be established among complete strangers whose only connection was a shared name.

A barrage of responses followed my initial query: Jessica Walker the German transvestite performer returned an personal email, Jessica Walker the English cabaret singer sent musical recordings, Jessica Walker the lonely single mother in Texas wrote a heartfelt letter about her feelings of loneliness. I was surprised by the candor of these individuals that felt comfortable sending family photographs, voice recordings and personalized letters, especially in an age of identity theft. The various items and letters that I collected were compiled into the Jessica Walker Archive , a physical card-cataloging system that was shown at the annual Stillwell Invitational Exhibition at San Francisco State University and was later chosen for the juried Stillwell Award. By exploring this highly specific group of people I found that many Jessica Walkers do experience the world similarly. Many of us share nicknames, Scottish ancestors and a mutual sentiment about how boring our "26th most common American female name" and our "25th most common American family name" make us feel. I plan to continue contacting Jessica Walkers and experimenting with compelling ways to share my fascination with how investigating a common name can provide insight into our digitally mediated culture.

Letters, index cards and other objects from the Jessica Walker Archive...