I Am User Generated

Further to my last post, where I raised the issues surrounding the confluence of art, academia and social media storytelling, I’m also faced with the difficulty that most net.art artist face as well.

Art is in the flaws of the art. It is these in between spaces that invite more investigation. Evidence of this is the Grande Odelisque where the female form seems to be elongated with an unnatural leg position. Was this simply a mistake or a comment on the male gaze on woman? Are these flaws or open doors for further investigation. This can been seen throughout the ages in art, but now that we are all getting more used to using software and computer based applications that are based on closed circuits of true and false answers, we have no patience for flaws in art that are hosted on the internet as is the case with net.art.

The leap to make flawed art housed on the Internet is naturally a stretch considering that the whole purpose of the Internet and computer is all about programs working and helping our lives.  I see this as an interesting challenge that invites more exploration. I’ve always like the idea of creating art with a perceived value in which in fact has no use, purpose or value.  It is the exploration of the potential use that seems to stimulate the audiences mind. This stimulation of the mind is getting lost in the Internet and social media space.

I’ll apologize in advance if this comes across as a gripe, but the blog world is full so let’s get on board.

Working on the edge of art, academia and social media is proving to be difficult mix. Link ideas across this disciplines is seeming to be a counter intuitive self defeating task. Allow me to elaborate.

A huge value of art is the fact that it begets questions. That’s why I’ve chosen this field to address many issues that concern me. Art is often ambiguous, and invites more questions. On the flip side working at the master’s level art must be accompanied by academic research. This form of research has been understood in the form of scientific research that seeks to find defensible truths. Now let’s add the social media space into the mix. Social media is conversational and no one wants answers while they’re in a conversation, they want to talk it out. Conversations is for discussing ideas not for actually finding the answer. Art begets questions, research seeks truth and social media just wants to keep talking. Theses factors make it very difficult to judge the value of the art/research/social media project because all three things are usually trying to accomplish very different goals.

I’ve not settle on the answer to this quandary except to pose a question in an art piece, research a possible answer through academic reading and then talk about it through this blog.

I will also be developing social network that will help facilitate conversation as it relates to academia and art. More to follow