Rhizome is a web based, new media artist community that is affiliated with The New Museum, located in Chelsea, New York City. In their own words:
[Rhizome's] website is a dynamic, interactive platform, rich in historical resources and updated continually with new art and commentary by a vast community. Our programs, realized both on and offline, support art creation, presentation, preservation and interpretation; they include exhibitions & events, commissioning, daily art news and in-depth criticism, and the maintenance of a singularly comprehensive digital art archive.
Their blog is an unmatched resource for information pertaining to new media art and artists, exhibitions, new technology, and opportunities for artists. Recently, they posted an article discussing several artists who have made a social commentary on Web 2.0 technologies and the role and experience of the user within theses networks.Please read this post and leave a comment contributing to the discussion regarding this piece. Think critically about what it means to be social, on the internet and off. How do we use these technologies; are we using them? Or are we being used BY them? Who is controlling who? What do we get out of these networks? What do we put in? Consider the ramifications of the change in the way we define interaction.
Looking forward to your comments. Please leave your comments by Thursday so we can discuss in class.
20 comments:
I do not enjoy art that lacks technique but I appreciated the concepts behind "Compressed Portals" and "Terms & Conditions." What I got from "Compressed Portals" was that even though we are all striving for individuality people tend to have the same basic desires. The need to feel connected with people, To share any experiences that feel are worth mentioning, and many even stupider things like comparing appearances.
"Terms & Conditions" had an interesting message. Arikan seemed to explain that people tend to overlook too many things in their rush to be immersed in content.
"Are you social?" did not have much appeal to me as I felt that it did not have much meaning to it besides to maybe display how far the web has come and that we have many options to personalize our web experience.
there is a lot of "technique" in these works, Matt. You need to be more open to new ideas. 10 years ago, you couldn't even study game design in college. Now there are entire institutions of higher learning devoted to their creation.
Art is more than just drawing and painting. You don't have to necessarily like contemporary work - but as a creative person trying to work professionally and create art, you need to be aware of what is happening in the art scene today - and also consider it.
Contemporary Art (not Modern Art, that is something entirely different - "Modern" actually ended in the 1970s) is almost academic. You have to know and understand at least 200 years of Art history as well as a lot of societal concerns to really "get" it.
If you want to talk about this subject further, I would be happy to - but for now, just know that you have to be more open to different or nontraditional forms of art making.
I understand what you are saying. I understand what people are trying to do with Contemporary art and in some pieces I actually enjoy it. I just feel a person should be able to appreciate a piece of art without being told what to think of it.
Oh and I feel kind of stupid but I can't find where to e-mail you. I had a dentist appointment I forgot I was scheduled for and missed class. I was hoping I could come in for the later section.
I find it amazing how big social networks have grown online. Almost everyone that I know has a face book or myspace, which they use to let the world know what they are up to. They do this by giving information about their lives through words, images, and video. I enjoyed reading the article because it mentioned how people are trying to put up so much content, that in their rush they don't always realize the consequences of what they are posting online. This is something I can agree with. I know people who have jeopardized their lives and the lives of others simply because they posted something that was scene by the wrong people. Social networks may be a good way to get noticed, but you have to remember that the content you post can be viewed by anyone.
I like the Terms & Conditions piece. Burak Arikan showed something that is used in many places and people mostly over look it. I never read them. I mostly just accept the Terms & Conditions because the same thing is mostly said and it is too long to read. But by not reading them, social network sites can do things without the user knowing to their accounts like deleting them or removing content. Every once in a while I'll hear that myspace had deleted many accounts and removing photos. Also by using the many social networking site we are putting information about us on their site for many people to see and sometime the person you don't want to see a certain photo will see it. Once something is online it spreads and hiding it is really hard to do. That is why I think carefully of what I do and upload online. There are too many social networking sites and while each can be used for certain goals like to find jobs, or for friends to talk, people never look at the rules of the site and abuse them. (I'm looking at you content heavy myspace profiles pages with too many images with glitter effects)
@Omar: That last part in your comment especially the one part in parenthesis, totally agree with that.
I thought the "Terms & Conditions" was a great idea, cause a lot of people do miss what that user agreement really says or don't care to much to read it. "Compressed Portals" was also a great piece, kind of makes me think of an overflow of websites. The "Are you social?" piece was ok and it was an interesting idea, I don't know if people who check off everything would want one, though they probably never go out much anyway. However almost everyone I know can check off at least 4 or 5 of those, including my parents. I was a little mad though, how come Guild Wars isn't on there? >:(
I feel that some get to involved in these social networking sites, and in turn may become the one being controlled. Well as we been learning many of these sites can be used to get a good job opportunity, and to network with others in our chosen field.
I think all the work is really interesting and great. It's a testament to how much the web impacts our lives. (It's being turned into art) I really like the 'Terms & Conditions' because of the message of control and the loss of it.
@Drift Productions: About 'a person should be able to appreciate a piece of art without being told what to think of it.' I don't feel this art is telling people what to think. It's art, and art can be interpreted and read many different ways.
Okay, I've read this piece a couple times, so I hope my comments are relevant. I think the purpose of the t-shirt art is to highlight the irony (I hope it was irony) that people can be defined by how they use the internet, which they can't because on site such as facebook and myspace, users only depict the persona they want you to believe they. The second work depicts the homogenization of the web because of so many people's misuse of the medium. And the last piece of art conveys that the users have such a strong desire to avoid alienation from the online community, that they disregard the restrictions and conditions placed upon them. I enjoyed this article. It gave me a new perspective on the use of the internet. I'm really glad I'm taking this class because I am learning that there are other ways to utilize this medium rather than just receiving mood updates on myspace=)
i can remember the first site i went onto as a kid. never in my wildest dreams did i think i would be able to fine some one from kindergarden ad connect with them 15 years later. i could care less if i have to agree with terms and conditions to do so I will. As far as the shirt goes WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF IT! any thing that makes someone say "where did you get that shirt" or "whats the shirt all about". One shirt got MILLIONS to talk. think about it, we are taking about it right now, that 28 more people who are talking about it.and to take it one more step further think of all the site that you DON'T use but now are going to look up because of that shirt.....THe net is a scarily AWESOME tool!!
My thoughts on the whole social network society on the internet are that we use them to connect with others and express ourselves in a creative fashion. We use them to meet people and advance our social lives through the computer. We are not being used by them. The creators of these sites look at it from a financial standpoint and use these sites to generate advertising revenues. It is a win-win situation for both the owner and the consumer. I do not see a negative side to social networks. They keep us, the consumer entertained and informed. They also keep us connected. Relationships are formed. Jobs have been found. Friends have been made. Work as been discovered. Being apart of a social network works out for everyone.
This is about people trying to hold onto their own voice in the Word of web 2.0. They have taken hinoginized things from web 2.0 and have reshaped them to thir own voice
People want to be social. We’re social animals – or so I’m told. It’s ironic, in a way, to think that something invented by the military/industrial complex (the Web) would be hijacked and reformed by the mob (general population) to address this basic human inclination.
That being the case, Bartholi’s “Are You Social?” cuts to the heart of the matter. Succinct as a 3-minute date, participants may instantly profile potential ‘matches’ by means of a T-shirt displaying leading web services the wearer habituates (or doesn’t.) If that’s all you amount to as a person then, by all means, roll onto further triumph and get the matching pants as well.
Schmidt’s, “Compressed Portals” and Arikan’s, “Terms & Conditions” offer a much more oblique commentary on participation in virtual communities. We’re asked to look up from our keyboards for a moment and evaluate web services in addition to consuming them. What conclusions may we draw from our collective fingerprint? Like most contemporary art, it invites us to examine our priorities and address sometimes-uncomfortable questions.
Social? Are we really being social just by tapping out some letters and phrases on a keyboard? Maybe I'm just showing my age but to me being social used to mean you had ACTUAL interaction with another human, seeing a face and the expressions, hearing a voice. That to me is the joy of being social. But I know that in order to progress one must change conventional thought. With that being said, yes it is a great way to meet and interact with other people of like minds, to give and receive criticism anonymously can be a great help, but at what cost? In checking that little "Terms and Conditions" box in order to use your site of choice, are we really aware of what liberties we are giving up. Are we aware that the companies that own these sites are tracking our browsing habits and compiling that data and selling them off to research companies so they can advertise another site that we can sign up for and the cycle goes on... I think we must be vigilant in how we use these social networks and understand that just because you are in the privacy of you own home, there is still someone out there that is watching. Call it conspiracy theory, but I'm a firm believer of better safe than sorry.
@Brian: "some get to involved in these social networking sites, and in turn may become the one being controlled."
I really like what you said here. I knew this girl in highschool who was so involved in some online social gaming thing that she didn't know how to function around actual people. As the author of the article said, it can be about people surrendering to, and living through Web 2.0.
I also though it was interesting that people do fragment themselves up for each different site, depending on their purpose for joining. Many times, a person may come across one way on a dating site and totally different on facebook. But "Are You Social" kind of takes these fragments and reunites them to form a whole person again.
"Compressed Portals" is a very interesting piece. One way, it's a bargraph showing simple statistics. The other, it almost has a bleeding or over flow effect, which is interesting because sites that are visited so often sometimes become part of the user.
@Suha, I love what you said about checking that Terms and Conditions box without a thought, but at sometimes a high cost; privacy and sometimes contractual obligations. The fact that sites make their Terms and Conditions so easy to skip over, a box to check with a link, as if you're really going to read them, is what makes the artwork so intriguing. Putting them up, making it interesting to look at with filters and typography. You have to look and study and figure it out, as you should with a site's real policies. But as far as i can tell in the picture, you still can't really make out what's being said. Again, like trying to read a site's policy, you sit there scratching your head and thinking "WTF?!" I think that is what Arikan was trying to bring into our consciousness.
@mike lovett I really like your post. Especially the end. "Think of all the site that you DON'T use but now are going to look up because of that shirt." It's an interesting kind of advertising. I was in a graphic design store and saw a paper about the cost for an ad in the newspaper compared to getting your car "decorated up". I forget the cost, but newspaper ads last a certain amount of time. Your car is a moving advertisement. I know you can 50 shirts for about $320 and now you have 50 people walking around advertising you and it's easier for others to notice.
These pieces were very interesting. I really liked "Compressed Portals" and "Terms and Conditions". The most interesting thing I found about these designs were that typically these communities can be very vast in terms of size whether it be members, to submitted work and so forth but these authors/designers take these extremely vast websites and narrow it down into abstract but manageable design. Something you can actually grasp in one shot. I never read over "Terms and Conditions" because I always feel they all say the same thing just each companys name gets swapped out with a new one. It was definitely another way to look at that basic text when a different style and design is applied to it. As far as whether they control us or we control them, I'm not really sure. There are both positives and negatives with these communities and from looking at the t-shirt design "Are you Social?", it kind of freaks me out because 1. I wasn't aware of so many social communities and 2. What does that say about a person that is enrolled in EACH one? Does being social online actually help with ones social skills in person? I guess only time can tell when there is an abundance of online social communities ... what would happen then? What exactly would "Social" be defined as then ...
I love the idea of the social network shirt. It's creative and "supposed to define" you by what social network you use, but I think that people assume you can find out what it says about a person. As for Compressed Portals, it's kind of cool looking at top websites that are looked at them compressed horizontally on one artistic piece. For Terms and Conditions, that's very relevant because nobody ever reads that stuff. I don't. I didn't realize that it probably has relevant information in there but because it's so long, nobody wants to read it and then rules are broken.
Well I had many unfamiliar words reading this article, so i'm not sure if I understood correctly(dictionary didn't help that much :( ).
I believe that being social is communicating with other people. By communicating I mean really knowning the other person, know their beliefs are, their way of thinking, interact with them and by interact I mean physically and mentally. I believe that Internet holds a small percentage of our social lives. It is just a tool that we use to interact with people. For me the most important thing is to have the person I'm talking to in front of me, NOT through a machine! You're gonna ask me what I am studying and why...Yes I'm gonna use the Internet and the technology on my work, not because I'm gonna have to but because it's something i like doing, but It is not the only thing i like doing! I like being around people and talking to them, too! You CAN'T say that you meet people through the Internet! NOONE can say it! A huge example: Our professor, Meg, told us the other day a story about a girl(or it was a boy? not sure but that's not the point)that she met through the Internet and she became in a way "her best friend" but later she met a person who really knew that girl(boy?) and she learned things about her (him) that she would prefer she wouldn't have learned! That means that you can never really know someone through the Internet, but you can really know someone when you have him in front of you! Exploring him by his facial expression, the tone in his voice, etc. Yes the Internet helps you a lot with displaying yourself in order to find a job, find your old friends,etc. But this is just another way(tool) of communication! Well, i hope i'm not that far off the topic! If yes then sorry! :)
Viewing you're thumbnail enlarged was a miserable disappointment.
Try to find the photographer in mine enlarged. You don't think I have a Daffy Duck neck do you?
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