Will social media art go mainstream? Come discuss this week on the Hyperallergic Facebook page.
Just as social media has quickly gone mainstream, we’re starting to see the mainstream art world take notice of what is being called “social media art.”
I’m currently writing a survey of social media art’s (brief!) history for Hyperallergic that will help capture this interesting moment in time which is witnessing a volatile mixture of art, culture, and new technology.
As part of my research, I’ve invited a number of contemporary social media artists to a roundtable discussion. Apropos of the subject, I decided to experiment with an online format so we will be using the Hyperallergic Facebook page.
The discussion will center around a few questions, which I’ll be asking over the course of this week, and they commence Tuesday, April 12 at noon EST.
Although we’ll have the following participants tagged as part of the discussion, everyone is welcome to contribute or tune in:
- Man Bartlett: Man has engaged in numerous real-world performances involving social media, including the popular #BestNonBuy;
- Lauren McCarthy: First coming to my attention for her 1stfans feed, Lauren recently asked the Internet to script her life with a Wiki-style interface;
- Nina Meledandri: I know Nina most actively through her numerous Tumblr blogs, wherein she engages audiences with a mixture of performance, photography and reflection;
- Christi Nielsen: A pioneer in social media art, Christi founded the inter.sect art collective, which has recently engaged in a number of video-based performances;
- Nic Rad: Nic is currently exhibiting PeopleMatter, an analog portrait show with intrinsic social media engagement; and
- Brad Troemel: Brad recently founded Perfo Rmanceart, which uses Facebook as its canvas.
Representatives of @Platea (the social media art collective I founded and currently direct)
- Jonny Gray: A professor at SIU Carbondale, iPhone performance artist and director of the art collective BAR Corporation;
- Joanie San Chirico: Director and founder of pFAN, a professional network for artists, and a current 1stfans artist; and
- Jennifer Ng: A blogger, web editor, freelance translator and writer based in Lugano, Switzerland.
I’m looking forward to the conversation.
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Article by An Xiao
Artist and designer An Xiao looks at the intersection of the digital and analog in the 21st century. She photographs, installs, performs and tweets and has shown her work in publications and galleries internationally, including the Brooklyn Museum, Winkleman Gallery, The New York Times and Art in America. She founded and directs @Platea, a global social media art collective. In addition to writing for Hyperallergic, she serves as a contributing columnist for PBS-affiliate Art21. Find her online at @anxiaostudio and anxiaostudio.com.
An has written 7 articles on Hyperallergic.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I am interested in joining the roundtable. Hopefully, I’m not too late (SMILEY FACE) – checking facebook as I type…
The conversation will go all week so no need to rush!
It’s really incredible to see such a full, well edited and focused conversation going on through Facebook. These mass social networking tools are all well and good, but when the structures are really taken advantage of and used, the possibilities are endless.