May 2014

Let's float a new definition for "post-internet" or po-net, as it jokingly called.

"New Media artists who use Facebook as a primary location for work, discussion, news, and/or self-promotion"

Referring back to an earlier confab, one definition of the "post-" moment (Gene McHugh's) was the web's transition from its early geeky/amateur days, roughly Geocities through Blogspot, to the time it become everyday reality for most folks (the arrival of social media, meaning Facebook). That is to say, widespread use of a "mini-internet" -- a database, not really a "net" -- that mimicked the web's multiplicity and sprawl but was all owned by one company. Whereas in 2005 you might use a search engine to find Jane Doe Artist on the web, by 2011 you'd check Facebook to see if she had a page.
Challenged by the success of this model, Google, which was once somewhat neutral in its search regimen, began treating the sprawl like a database it controlled. Formerly boutique-y shops such as Twitter gradually aspired to be Walmart.
But let's stick to Facebook. Even with everything we know about its egregious commercial practices and ties to the surveillance sector, it's still the go-to place for artists. Not necessarily for content but as a phone directory, a place to announce shows, and a hub for critical discussion.
After Rhizome.org's recent fundraiser, both that organization and the ArtFCity site lamented that comment culture had "moved on" from independent blogs to social media, meaning Facebook. When Marisa Olson wanted to post a statement protesting a cancelled show by a commercial gallery, she did it on Facebook. I don't think it's inaccurate to say that the majority of participants in the new media biennale "The Wrong" actively used their Facebook accounts for announcements and chat about the event.
A handful of creative types have bailed on Zuck, or never signed up. Perhaps clinging to ideals of a web larger than a single dominant business. Geeks, perhaps -- but it's not like it takes much smarts or money to set up a website and let search engines find you.
Everyone else, then, is a post-internet artist.

Update: Once again the magic 8 ball told me Rhizome was about to post on a topic. This appeared a few hours after the above was written.

Ranting head "Maddox" explains with great clarity and particularity why he hates BuzzFeed. [YouTube] (hat tip reneabythe)

If you watch to the end, there is a post-credits blast re: GIF mispronunciation: "I'm not gonna call it JIF. You invented the Graphics Interchange Format, you didn't invent the way letters are pronounced."

Paddy Johnson weighs in on New York magazine's adoration of Buzzfeed (thanks for the link). She spots a moment of wavering commitment where New York questions whether BuzzFeed's advertising model is "really selling anything."

My own contribution to human understanding of BuzzFeed was tweeting that it's "like a slightly zanier version of the comcast xfinity homepage." In a reply to Johnson's post, I questioned whether Jonah Peretti had any art world bona fides: "Blackpeopleloveus.com was obnoxious and not all that funny, and that New Museum installation was dreadful, 'wall installation 101.' This was a man destined to be an Ad Man, not an artist. (In fairness, the "dirt style" HTML design page he did with Cory Arcangel was amusing.)"

In another post (thanks for the other link) Johnson writes that new media gallery Bitforms seems to have cancelled "Postfeminism Postbinary Feminism, a show that was slated to open three weeks from now and was curated [by] artist and curator Marisa Olson. Irate about the cancellation, Olson took her complaints to Facebook." The Facebook post seems to have disappeared, or perhaps it's blocked to us non-Zucks. I asked Paddy in a comment to tell us what she knows about this cancellation. Update: Johnson rescued Olson's text from the Zuckerbowels; I'll probably repost to the "public internet" after I've digested it some more. One statement leaps out, that Olson considers Bitforms to be "one of the most important new media galleries in the world." It's certainly one of the most long-lived (14 years, I think) and in the infinitesimal field of new media galleries, that's something, but am not sure "important" is the right word.