obsequious kowtows to stage for shiered coolkid and plams/nasa for dish
February 2013
"valuing" art online
Got a last-minute invite from one of the panelists to the Meetup event below but didn't show up.
Social Media, Art & The "Like" Economy
How do we value art online? In a setting that privileges and rewards content with mass appeal and a meme-ready aesthetic, how does the creative practice of artists working on the internet conform to or defy these rules? In the absence of a true art market for net art, new media art, or art that takes place on social media platforms, does a work's viral potential become an indicator of success or quality?
In this moderated panel discussion we'll hear from artists, curators, and art critics who are looking at the way art functions in the digital gallery of the internet. We'll be exploring whether success online can translate to success offline, and exactly how much stock one should place in the "Like" economy of the web.
Let's answer the question in the first paragraph with a descending scale of priorities. Instead of art let's use the term expression and the term "art" as expression appreciated as art:
1. The expression generates interesting and cogent discussion.
2. It's recognized by an institution tasked with recognizing art.
3. It "goes viral" (but becomes "valuable" only when it leads to 1. or 2. above).
4. It acquires likes, faves, or other means of tabulating responses (but see 3. above).
5. Somewhere near the bottom: The expression is made by someone previously valued or validated as an artist (through the process of 1. and 2.)
6. Anything having to do with sales, the market, or money. In an ideal world that happens after a consensus is reached via 1.-5.)
[edited]
"Plaid Curtains"
"Plaid Curtains" [mp3 removed -- updated version is on Bandcamp]
The Linplug RMV virtual beatbox recently updated. The promise of improved stability lured me back to experiment with the "loop mode." These are basically pre-sliced beats that can be exported as MIDI files. I have up to seven tracks of these going, with some individual beats from "pads" (not the same as synth pads -- these are digital drumheads) riding on top. I liked the textures but the rhythms seemed naked without some lush synth cake-icing, so I went back through old tunes and pulled up earlier-used confectionary softsynth etherea in the form of Absynth, Reaktor Subharmonic, and FM7 patches.
phone call to Karen Archey
"Hello, Karen Archey? Mr. Hyrax here. Listen, I'm a busy man, but I read your institutional blog post about Joel Holmberg and had some bones to pick with what you said about Nasty Nets. I loved that blog and it wasn't Art, it was trash, it was nuts.
"The way you write it up it sounds like a vehicle for getting into galleries and you even gave a recap on who from the group was exhibiting and who was a miserable lapsed artist. Ms. Archey, who gives a shit about any of that. You need to stop reading so much Brad Troemel. The beauty of Nasty Nets was it had people working on all levels simultaneously (lapsed artist, non-artist, fanatic climber) with the idea of creating something that had nothing to do with the existing art world. It was the internet, man. That was the subject. Also, you could use a fact checker, or at least an implication checker: several Nasty Netters were exhibiting artists before the group, including Michael Bell-Smith. Whether any of the self-identified artists in the group had "considerable success in the art market" before or after only matters to capitalist tools such as yourself. Also, as Tom Moody noted in his comment, you ignored the most prolific contributors to the group and concentrated on a handful of less productive users--why was that? I'd say because it fit your bogus rags to riches narrative. Also, it's like you're picking your favorite members of the Beatles. It was the Beatles, right? OK, gotta go, I'm a busy man, but I'll be keeping an eye out for your corrections."
collage posted to dump.fm by Island had nothing to do with this post
