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Digital artificial world is structured by specific rules that are somewhat different from those expressed and manifested in the physical world we normally experience. One relevant difference is the definition of identity. Since every ‘singularity’ is reproducible in infinite number of identical copies, and there is no substantial difference between copy and original, because the copy of a copy is exactly the same as the copy of the original (and of the original itself), the basic distinction (between copy and original) is not relevant, and digital identity is not unique.

Virtual Entity is a research project and a work of net-art trying to redefine the concepts of authenticity, ownership, uniqueness and seriality within the digital domain.

The practical aspect of this speculation is a simple application being specifically developed to create the ‘soul’ of a file. This is a metaphor: the soul, a text-based soul, is interpreted as the place where the information stored can reveal who or what a certain entity is. It is a mark for the preservation of identity.

This software, proposing a single answer to the multiple tasks required questions raised by releasing, licensing, and cataloguing digital files, is transforming the traditional approach towards metadata and digital property. Main idea is that any file is an independent creation living its own life and experiencing various levels of transformation and progressive generation (of meaning, shape, and entities) in the course of its virtual existence. Main focus are the semantic and genetic relations among these files

Virtual Entity constructs in parallel a theoretical mythical world and its functional technical counterpart; its ultimate shape is that of monster, a Frankenstein composed of souls and their relations. Its (viral) diffusion may generate a decentralized archive characterized by spontaneous and uncontrollable growth - and the history of digital data can start drawing itself.