Comments on: Social Media Collective @Platea to Mark 40th Anniv. of Vito Acconci's "Following Piece"

By: An Xiao

An Xiao — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:15:54 +0000

Hey Artie – thanks for your thoughts here. I’d love to open up a dialogue after the performance, but something I do want to note is that anyone is open to interpret the performance as they choose. So if you wanted to participate in Following Piece 2.0, we’d definitely welcome your perspective and experience, and maybe you could even guest blog about it. Feel free to sign up at http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/2009/10/project-v-following-piece-20-oct-26-30.html or just start tweeting with hashtag #fp20.

By: Hrag Vartanian

Hrag Vartanian — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:12:01 +0000

Sorry for the confusion, I’ve clarified the text.

By: Thomson

Thomson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:49:48 +0000

Thanks for clearing that up, Christi. You’re right–I was just responding to the way the project’s been written up on this site.

By: Christi Nielsen

Christi Nielsen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:35:35 +0000

Hi Thomson -
The way it’s written above does seem to suggest following the collective, but that’s only for the purpose of signing up. You can actually sign up on the blog if you wish. http://plateastweets.blogspot.com/

I will be following people without their knowledge or consent. It might be on twitter, or it might be IRL. But the telling of the following will be on twitter.

Hope that helps!
Christi

By: Artie Vierkant

Artie Vierkant — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:52:39 +0000

I have similar problems with this piece to those I have with Ramsay Stirling’s (taken down?) portfolio of works like “The Internet Delivers People,” and 0100101110101101.ORG’s entire Synthetic Performances series (http://0100101110101101.org/home/performances/index.html). This extends outside of twitter and media art though. Look at this trainwreck: http://blog.art21.org/2009/10/19/parallel-stress/

I think I’d be more interested in artworks like this if they attempted to actually retcon the original work; better than rehashing or at best misreading at any rate.

But it’s a pretty cute idea. Better than @tweetbomb

By: J Gray

J Gray — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:52:08 +0000

Oh Mr. Guster, I appreciate your respect for Acconci’s work and desire to keep it “pure,” but I don’t think you quite understand @Platea’s project. This is not a call to follow @Platea (well, you can and should, but that’s not the point of the project). In fact, participants (which could include you) will be following others on-line in a variety of social networking (and other) sites. The project is designed to investigate exactly the similarities and differences in “following” digitally and IRL, including anonymity and the limits on such.

By: Thomson Guster

Thomson Guster — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:21:40 +0000

So some art collective wants a bunch of people to follow its twitter feed. Fine. But that doesn’t mean it has anything to do with Vito Acconci.

1. Acconci selected his followers without their consent or knowledge. Here, Platea is asking to be followed. That’s more like taking a walk in the company of others than being secretly pursued and observed, isn’t it?
2. There’s not even that possibility of being followed in secret with twitter. At any point you can read through the list of your own followers.
3. The fact that twitter calls subscription to personal newsfeeds “following” does not mean that its conceptually similar to Acconci’s act of following strangers. There’s no sense of transgression in following someone on twitter.

This project is just business as usual in the world of twitter.