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Continued from A1...

Project Details

Visual Artwork:

     For the art work, I took significant moments from media over the last 50-60 years and grouped them into a subject. I then applied a text, logo or altering of the image in a subversive way. I removed the narrative from the event and rooted it in the singular issue that it occurred in; First Amendment, Cultural Appropriation, 8:46 (collective moments), etc. The repetition of the chosen word in large font strips the moment from emotion and reintroduces it as a mechanical product produced in mass quantity. Presenting the moment and issue in a singular abstract image.

 

Monolog for the Global Stage:

     With the invention of the 24h news network in the 80’s and 90’s, politics and entertainment began to combine into a polycephalic beast that is driven by advertisements’ dollars made from the viewership numbers. With the rise of social media every user has become a news anchor or opinionated host of their own talk show, each with their own perfectly time dramatic pause and “gotcha” moment at the ready. Politics became entertainment, entertainment became politics which then swallowed up our personal life and what has emerged is Social Media. #FreeBritney. We as viewers went from watching Stephen taunt and slap Irene, “the slap heard ‘round the world.” To watching “NOT TO BE MISSED, ONCE IN A LIFE TIME EVENT, WHERE THIS SEASONS CONTESTANTS COMPETE TO CAPTURE THE CAPITAL FOR THE FREEDOM OF AMERICA. TUNE IN JANUARY 6TH 2021.” We live tweet, gave IGtv confessionals or voted for our favorite contestant: Pelosi's desk guy, Horns guy, Neck Beard or Zipties. The next day we moved right on, faster than a Tiktok trend, because irony is the voice of the internet and outlandish behavior drives viewership, giving people what they want. Because if it bleeds it leads. Something to talk about and produce more content from, “I did the most outlandish and grandstanding political act one can undertake, I wrote a manifesto about it.” ; )

     I look at the zeitgeist of our current times and structured it around a few of the current hot button issues. I used a free-flow form of conscience to push the envelope of conspiracy theories. For the content, I used a technological utopian view towards a post-global depression in which a Libertarian society rooted in Objectivism emerged.

 

Performance:

     I built a website to be a depiction of a newspaper. Within the articles every word has the ability to be hyperlinked. As the consumer browses through the website they interact with the art by clicking and finding Easter Eggs. A song, a lecture, a stylized video, a Wikipedia page, each link is different and constantly uncovering more. This will lead to confusion and began to present a puzzle to the consumer. Continue down the rabbit hole. This will push the consumer to post on their social media accounts about the website and theories they may have. Making their reaction (a performance) part of the art in itself. As the consumer attempts to search the links and discover the truth behind the site they will produce more theories and ask more questions. As more content is posted by the consumer to social media and websites the project grows. Forever preserved online, waiting to be discovered once again by people and revived. Refreshing their feeds with new content. If I capture enough eyes then the art creates an event, or rather a cultural moment, and in turn the visual art, monolog, and the consumer combines to form a single piece of art. Constantly evolving and changing free from time, space and form.

     The art, the interaction, the performance all combine together and it becomes a media moment. A post-modernist art piece which leaves the viewer looking for some reason and rationality... if it is to be found.