September 2010

From a visual essay in the form of a massive logo dump (meant in a good way): "[IMG MGMT] Squiggles, Trees, Ribbons and Spirals: My Collection of Women’s Health, Beauty and Support Group Logos as the Stages of Life in Semi-Particular Order." The collection of over 200 logos from all over the internet offers a double indictment: of lazy, mediocre web design (the two above are kind of good/bad--most are bland pastel shapes done in Adobe Illustrator) as well the problem stated by commenter Chelsed:

i actually worked as a designer for a women’s org and struggled with this. there really isnt a “hip” way to portray women. the bathroom women icon is patronizing; these abstract squiggles and spirals appeal to an audience of women i havent yet encountered; so i just used the general woman symbol–but even then i feel like it’s TOO gender segregated. the problem is men dont HAVE a gender. men’s football is football. men’s soccer is soccer, etc etc– they dont need distinction. what is the symbol for women NOW?

The guest essayist/artist is Shana Moulton, from Paddy Johnson's series [IMG MGMT], an ongoing, annual series of guest posts where gallery artists and/or new media artists present digital image files in a way that reflects on their nature as images, as image files or some interconnection between the two.

Last Sunday a project by The Jogging (blog) that used Memegenerator.net to make "live" internet art went south fairly fast.

The way it worked was, The Jogging (aka Brad Troemel) called for artists to make internet art "memes" that would be projected live at Participant gallery's show about "collectives":

Jogging invites you to contribute to Participant Inc’s Collective Show. You can do so by logging on to http://memegenerator.net/theinternetartist and contributing to an as-of-yet uncreated meme. We have left this meme devoid of text, so it’s up to you as participants to define the semantic substance of it. An automatically reloading page of the latest 3 images posted will be shown at the exhibit. Begin posting whenever you feel like it. The opening will take place this evening from 7-9:00 PM (EST).

One participant posted his name over and over (assuming it was his name). The show became a troll referendum on certain, uh, presences in the "net art community." Thanks to all who wrote funny captions mentioning a particular popular athlete from Down Under.

How could it turn out otherwise? "As-yet-uncreated meme" is a contradiction: surely a meme doesn't occur until it is repeated. Likewise "Meme generator" is an empty premise - like a man saying "I had a baby" after donating a sperm sample. "Forced meme" has become a popular way to describe these ideas-in-search-of-completion. As for the "internet art" part, elevated claims for online expression almost guarantee non-repetition.

Into this cognitive vacuum comes hostility. As someone said on dump.fm: "thats what happens when u crowdsource to a crowd that resents ur art." It started with jokes about Troemel and then everyone else got piled on.