>be me

The book >be me – a collection of ‘greentexts’, on which this installation is based, can be seen as the first book dealing with an Internet-borne literary genre. The ‘greentexts’ presented in this work are short stories posted on 4chan during 2010-2015. They are written in an internet-evolved language that can be characterised as abrupt, statement-like internet slang and get their name from the use of 4chan’s quote function that colours the text green.

The protagonist in the stories is most often a young male and, due to its anonymous online source, gives an exceptional insight into a young man's psyche. The stories describe absurd, once-in-a-lifetime moments we can all relate to, but for the most part we hope will never actually have to face. The book can be downloaded for free at greentext.org. A selection of these texts and an instruction that will inspire the audience to share something themselves can be found at Het Nieuwe Instituut.