"Conceived as a sardonic take on the popular social networking website Facebook, www.makbook.net, intends to provide avatars in virtual worlds such as Second Life with a network of their virtual identities. The logic of Maskbook is derived from the seeming opposition between the two words "simulation" and "dissimulation". While simulation describes the kind of imitation and exhibition(ism) embodied by Facebook, dissimulation revolves around ideas of deception and anonymity. However, the prefix ‘dis-‘ could also denote a form of intensification of simulation, hence the double meaning of the mask as a dissimulation of reality. As Gutierrez points out, “the face and the mask are two facades of the same coin.” Maskbook currently exists only as a domain name and title page on the web, pending further funding to be developed into a functional multimedia platform.”

Nadim Abbas