Is it time for the Western art world to join Chinese social media? That depends on your goals. “I don’t see any reason for anyone not directly involved in the Beijing/Shanghai art world to be on Weibo,” argued Robin Peckham. “It’s more about back-and-forth in-scene and doesn’t have much application in terms of PR and such, at least on the small scale of galleries and organizations.” Indeed, Chinese sites like Weibo and Douban, even as they gain more attention from the West, remain predominantly Chinese in both language and user base.
Posted inOpinion
NY Museum Attendance & Twitter Followers
@MuseumNerd, that anonymous art personality on Twitter, has blogged an interesting graphic that lists the attendance to New York museums, their Twitter following, and how they measure up.
Posted inArt
Talking About Creative Time Tweets, Social Media Art Commissions
This week, Creative Time Tweets begins on Wed, March 25 with Man Bartlett’s “#24hPort” (2011) performance at Manhattan’s Port Authority bus terminal. The project is the first of three commissions, and I spoke to curator, Shane Brennan, about the project and why Creative Time is commissioning Twitter-based art works.
Posted inNews
Chinese Twitter Bots Spam #AiWeiwei Hashtag
Internet users looking for information on Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s arrest will now find another roadblock put in their way, as Ai Weiwei-related hashtags are now being spammed by Chinese-language bots. Hashtags including #aiweiwei and #freeaiweiwei are being bombarded with semi-risque jokes and one-liners.
Posted inOpinion
Art in the Aggregate
In response to my post on ambient creativity, speaking to how our online creative outlets of Twitter and Facebook might be sapping our ambition for bigger projects, the idea came up that maybe we don’t need to seek out masterpieces of these new media. Instead, what about thinking of social media networks as aggregate works of art?
Posted inNews
NYT Goes Museums, Hosts Twitter Chat [LIVEBLOG]
In the mood for some museum news? You’re in luck, because the New York Times has more than you could EVER READ. Their annual special “Museums Section” was just published, and we sorted it for you. Check out a selected list of their stories here, plus stay tuned for an NYT Twitter chat this afternoon about museums and social media. [UPDATE] We have a collection of the best tweets from the #nytmuseums conversation in this liveblog.
Posted inOpinion
Is Ambient Creativity Killing Our Ambition?
Social media has brought the art community huge benefits, chief among them the ability to easily share artistic creations, whether it’s through Twitter, Facebook or a group Tumblr. But is the possibility of easy creation and publishing diminishing our drive for making more ambitious works?
Posted inNews
Murakami Asks People to Tweet Art in Support of Japan
On Sunday, Murakami issued a statement in the wake of the devastating Sendai earthquake in Japan asking people to show their support of Japan by tweeting original art with the hashtag, #newday_GEISAI.
Posted inNews
Unverified Tweets: Egyptian Museum In the Middle of Turmoil [UPDATING…]
The information is coming fast and furious via regarding the Egyptian Museum and the attack of protesters by pro-government authorities in Tahrir Square. So we are compiling a list of tweets to keep you up-to-date on what’s happening on the ground. Many of these tweets are from Tahrir Square, and others, like @SultanAlQassemi, are from elsewhere but from people monitoring the situation very closely. We have also added some Twitter commentary from others. Here they are unverified and unedited, and (mostly) in chronological order.
[UPDATE]: Museum has been attacked with molotov cocktails, no verified reports of the museum actually on fire, though rumors fly.
Posted inOpinion
Top Ten Twitter Follows for Chinese Art
As far as the year in social media goes, Twitter is far and away my choice for a handy source of updates, information and air-testing inside the art world or out. Pretty much anything that you want to know about gets broadcast into your Twitter stream with a good enough group of follows. To the end of blowing up your Twitterverse, I wanted to give you my personal recommendations for ten English-language Twitter follows that will help you keep track of the Chinese contemporary art world.
Posted inNews
Brooklyn Museum Posts Archive of 1st Fans Twitter Art
The Brooklyn Museum has posted an archive of its 1st Fans Twitter art. The Twitter Art Feed was a benefit for @brooklynmuseum‘s 1stfans (formerly @1stfans) members from December 2008 to December 2010. The feed featured tweets by contemporary artists every month, including Joseph Kosuth, Tracey Moffatt, Mike Montiero, Duke Riley, and names familiar to social media art fans, such as An Xiao, Man Bartlett, Lauren McCarthy, Nina Meledandri, and Joanie San Chirico.
Posted inOpinion
Who Owns Photos Distributed Via Twitter?
A major electronic media copyright issue. Agence France-Presse is arguing that “Twitter’s terms of service allow third parties broad re-use rights to their content, and thus the photographer’s selection of this mode of digital distribution gave AFP a broad license to redistribute the photographer’s images without consent from the photographer.” Yikes. [Clannco]
