There was this one night (sometime around the birth of what we now call the ‘attention culture’) that I remember being snubbed by a promoter because the band I was in didn’t have the magic number of followers. It seemed real dickish back then and just another example of the chasm between the artist and the press but now that’s just how online practice works; the notion of the underground as this integral space has been eroded to the point of collapse due to such superficiality. Some would say that the underground stays underground, that it wouldn’t even be underground if it became popular and to a large extent that is true, but the desire to be recognised is nudging new artists over that line because promotion has never been easier. Unless of course you choose not to be on social media, which in that case, bravo!
One aspect to this is the contemporary extension of the ‘famous for being famous’ noughties phenomena- the influencer. I wouldn’t say that this is directly relevant to the new work as such but it is an interesting facet that people are now paid for their ability to instantaneously tell a large number of people anything they want. It is evident of how things have turned into a bastardised popularity contest.
On the other hand it’s certainly ironic that this desire to ‘be seen’ has now become the only real option due to the virus; when real world connections and opportunities are severely limited. From an artist’s point of view, your virtual presence is now dictating how others perceive your work more than ever. No decent website, no decent artist.
Onto the work I have been developing over the last fortnight…
Some images of my changing ideas regarding the site analytics. It has been tricky to think about this information as being anything other than a graph- it could potentially be a sculpture, a digital/audio work or a painting but it all looks a bit straightforward in the way these ideas replicate the wavelengths. After having given it some more thought I have decided to use a traditional canvas approach; purely because seeing an age old technique being fuelled by a stream of internet data would certainly be of interest and the tension would be undeniably conflicting. Each month’s data is going to be spread around the edges in a spiralling motion to have a more abstract appearance. In addition, it’s a medium that I haven’t worked in for a very long time so it should be a challenge.
Negative space has always been something that I like to utilise in my work, and no more so than in this idea. The symbolism of what don’t see needs to be present in this piece. Presenting some kind of ‘void’ would encapsulate that feeling of wanting to hit the same kind of numbers that you managed last time out- but when it doesn’t happen because you couldn’t be bothered plugging anything then there is nothing but space, zero hits or, as I like to call it, artistic flat-lining.
Bip-bip-bip-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! ………..damn……….Call it please nurse, Time of death at 11.37am…..probable cause- lack of interest.
Next up in part IV : Frame and colour scheme