Artist, designer and essayist 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 online public 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 Xiao has written 6 articles on Hyperallergic.
As Frog design Creative Director Adam Richardson noted in an influential talk he gave at the most recent Next Web Conference, the Internet until recently has been like the railroad, which has forced us to adapt to its rules. In the coming years, it will be more like cars, which adapt to us. In other words, the digital is getting physical … so, how does art fit in?
The most striking aspect of social media art is that it contains facets of net.art, by being digital; visual art, by existing on a two-dimensional surface; public art, by existing in spaces used habitually by hundreds of millions of people; and performance art, by being inherently social. Whether the aggregate is greater than its sum remains to be seen …
Some time in 2004, I logged onto Facebook for the very first time. My alma mater was one of the few allowed coveted access to the Harvard-originated social network. I filled out a profile, uploaded a picture and began adding friends. A coast away, Tim O’Reilly coined the term “Web 2.0” … Computers and the Internet, after decades of association with nerds and misfits, were on the brink of mainstream cool.
Just as social media have quickly gone mainstream, we’re starting to see social media art received more attention from the mainstream art world. I’m currently writing a survey of social media art’s (brief!) history for Hyperallergic and as part of my research, I’ve invited a number of contemporary social media artists to a roundtable discussion on Hyperallergic’s Facebook page.
One of the most popular art feeds on Twitter right now doesn’t have a name or a face or a gender. It doesn’t represent an established arts institution or magazine, nor does it have any kind of credentials. And yet, less than a year since it started, it now boasts 10,000 followers.
An Xiao organized a 40th Anniversary tribute to Vito Acconci’s “Following Piece” (1969) for @Platea, the social media art collective she performs with. She likes to call what she did a form of “cover art” and she explains why.
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Holly Gover: The piece was meant to be light hearted, and yes, a little snarky. It is an issue that could be delved into deeper, but...
Veken Gueyikian: I think your anger and “offer to help” is a little misplaced. I say stuff like that all the time but have...
Tyler Zambori: Well Brittany, how does this bit: “Is this art?” … or did you just walk into Ikea? pan out to simply pointing out the...
Brittany worgan: Hm, interesting response, but I think you completely missed the point of this article. Rather than assume attack on... Tyler Zambori: I don’t find it insightful at all. The commentary on the tourist’s comments leans more towards the simply...
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