February 2012

Recently a teaching assistant at NYU published an essay saying that his generation mediates all its art through Facebook. Do you agree?

No. That guy hates his own generation and is selling them short with that theory. Also considering the timing of the publication [coinciding with Facebook's IPO] it reads like a long ad for Facebook. You can almost hear the PR flack: "850,000,000 users and even artists like it!"

So you think an artist, or a "young artist," as the expression goes, can exist outside of Facebook?

Please. There are thousands of places where your "online expressions" will look better than they look on Facebook, with its cramped page design and cumbersome navigation. Facebook actually puts up obstacles for animators, or anyone who likes to work large. Just hypothetically, one could be active on tumblr, twitter, dump.fm, a group site such as phone arts or Loshadka, and/or have a Word Press or Google blog and get all the exposure and interaction you could want -- assuming you had something to say.

What about the idea that "the economy of liking" is a new kind of conceptual/performance art?

That's just cynicism and self-loathing raised to the level of a theory. This generation deserves more enthusiastic spokespeople, willing to go outside one social media enclave for a few minutes.

Why do you hate Facebook?

It's fine for people have a place to hang out and talk shop and keep up with their friends and frienemies. Claims that this is somehow art, or a replacement for art, are just too depressing to be considered.

Encouraging news on the Gulag USA front:

Early this year, the United Methodist Church Board of Pension and Health Benefits voted to withdraw nearly $1 million in stocks from two private prison companies, the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

The decision by the largest faith-based pension fund in the United States came in response to concerns expressed last May by the church’s immigration task force and a group of national activists.

“Our board simply felt that it did not want to profit from the business of incarcerating others,” said Colette Nies, managing director of communications for the board.

Update: The bad news is CCA is offering to buy whole prison complexes from cash-strapped states in exchange for promises that the prisons will remain 90% full.