Net Art: The Poetics of Minimal Letter Artworks

Alain Barthélémy. Dimensions Variables

Usually, the act of writing is something one does not relate at first to technologies. There is a delicate beauty in hand calligraphy and an intimidated power in street art, which are not included in the computer-typed letters.

Or so it seems.

Since the apparition of easy access to Internet and easy creation of websites, net artists have spread on the World Wide Web. They are called Jodi.org, An Xiao or Peter Stemmler. Between this big number of artists, we can find « poets of the web » as I would call them. Halfway like graffiti artists, halfway minimal poets, these poets 2.0 play with the opportunities and interfaces of the web to spread their word. Between poetry, emotion and humour, these flash performances and websites make us think on the meaning of art, Internet or poetry.

Alain Barthélémy is a French net artist whose work is exhibited in the Internet art gallery Fach&Asendorf. His latest collection is entitled “Time Extended” and explores the question of time on the Internet, as well as language and web spatiality, as with the artwork entitled “floooooooooow”, where the word simply has no end. In the simple design of graphic letters and black and white, Barthélémy sends a message to his viewers and makes them wonder on the fastness and ephemerality of digital art pieces, as with the fun and frustrating “ten-past-ten”. The viewer is allowed to see the artwork only at 10:10pm. The performance lasts one minute and presents watches set on 10:10.

His art pieces are difficultly found on the Internet and are meant for an aware audience. They are minimal modern poetics and make us think on the meaning of one word or some concepts as colour.

Alain Barthélémy. Sixteen Million Colors

To put it in a nutshell, be aware when surfing on the Internet, you might come across meaningful 2.0 graffitis.

References:

• Barthélémy, A. Acid Color Variations Art piece available at : http://www.acidcolorvariations.com/ 

[Access date : 03/06/2013]

• Barthélémy, A. Dimensions Variables Art piece available at :

http://www.dimensionsvariables.com/ [Access date : 03/06/2013]

• Barthélémy, A. floooooooooow Art piece available at :

http://flooooooooow.com/ [Access date : 03/06/2013]

• Barthélémy, A. Sixteen Million Colors Art piece available at :

http://www.sixteenmillioncolors.com/ [Access date : 03/06 /2013]

• Barthélémy, A. ten past ten Art piece available at :

http://ten-past-ten.com/ [Access date : 03/06/2013]

• Fach&Asendorf Gallery. Website available at :

http://fa-g.org/ [Access date : 03/06/2013]

• Ortiz, S. Art: The minimal letter in Net Art Review.net Available at:

http://netartreview.net/monthly/sanOrtiz.pdf [Access date: 03/06/2013]

• Triangulation Blog (April 15, 2011) « Alain Barthélémy » Article available at :

http://www.triangulationblog.com/2011/04/alain-barthelemy.html [Access date: 03/06/2013]

• Wikipedia. Entry : Internet Art. Available at :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_art [Access date: 03/06/2013]

Social Medias - The Personal Museums of the Future

There are 300.000 works of art in the world’s famous Louvre Museum in Paris. If one wanted to see everyone of it, spending 30 seconds on each, it would take 104 24-hours day to see them all. In January 2009, the hosting site Flickr provided access to over 3 billion photographs, making the Louvre’s collection of objects seem tiny in comparison. Furthermore, every minute, 72 hours of video are uploaded on Youtube.  Most of the content posted is personal and meant to be viewed by less than 100 persons.

It is an interesting paradox that people are tempted to post personal contents on a worldwide viewed platform. I therefore consider Flickr, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube as the personal galleries of our lives version 2.0. Shared to the world, photos and videos become an open content to the public, yet they are meant to be in a way personal.

People share a lot of personal contents in websites like Flickr, Instagram, Youtube, MySpace or Facebook as the numbers show. While Facebook is meant for an exposition to people one knows, Instagrams works differently. Ideally meant to be used between friends, in practice the contents can be accessed by anyone who desires to do so. By scrolling through one’s profile, anyone can learn about the life of that person from the photos posted. The expression “personal museum” can be therefore understood two ways. The first is that these kind of websites are the museum of one’s life, a museum for one to remember his life. But the second understanding is that they are a real museum for anyone who visits the galleries of pictures and videos of one’s profile. An interesting concept has been developed in 2011 and turned into an application. Called Museum of Me, this app turns your Facebook profile into a virtual museum with the click of a button. It is like taking a walking tour of a virtual museum where all the rooms and galleries display exhibits you.

To conclude, the Internet is made nowadays of an incredible amount of small museums. This trend is shown by the results of the Shorty Awards category “The Best Museum in Social Media”, an award that honors the best in social media. The winner is Emily Graslie with her tumblr page “The Brain Scoop”where she posts videos, photos, and drawings. She appears before the Museum of Oxford or Westminster Abbey. One can therefore question itself if the memories of our lives will be better kept in the future thanks to the enormous amount of content or if the opposite will happen, due to the ephemeral nature of the storage.

References:

·   •  Agarwal, A. (June 01, 2011) Turn your Facebook Profile into a Virtual Museum in Digital Inspiration. Article available at:

http://www.labnol.org/internet/facebook-virtual-museum/19465/ [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·     •   Graslie, E. The Brain Scoop on Tumblr.com.  Website available at:

http://thebrainscoop.tumblr.com/  [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·    •  Kaplan, A and Haenlein M. (2009) Users of the World, unite! The Challenges and opportunities of Social Media Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Article available at:

http://michaelhaenlein.com/Publications/Kaplan,%20Andreas%20-%20Users%20of%20the%20world,%20unite.pdf [Access date: 03/06/2013]

• Shorty Awards. (2012) List of results available at:

http://shortyawards.com/category/museum [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·    •   Wikipedia. Entry: Instagram. Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram [ Access date: 03/06/2013]

·    •    Youtube. Press Statistics. Available at:

http://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·    •   Zarella, D. Viral Content Sharing Report: Motivations in The Social Media Scientist Article available at:

http://danzarrella.com/viral-content-sharing-report-motivations#  [Access date: 03/06/2013]

Are Social Medias Healthy For Our Social Skills?

According to the website Digital Trends, the number of mobile phones will exceed the world population by 2014. It seems as though we can’t go anywhere without seeing a sea of people using mobile devices. Furthermore, network coverage in the world expands drastically. Two billion users were provided 3G by five hundred 3G networks in 2010. People are connected almost everywhere at any time. And the first usage of Internet is for social medias. 56% of the world population has ever had an account on any social media. People spend on average 15 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook per month. Take a look at these interesting statistics on Facebook usage. It is therefore legitimate to wonder if social medias are healthy for our social skills.

Before the spread of Internet, common social tools used were handwritten cards, landline phones (even phone booths) and in-person communications. The development of Internet and mobile devices has affected communications and socialization in society greatly. The convenience of cellphones, even in the earlier stages, gave users an enhanced connectedness, notably thanks to text messages. Nowadays, with the use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks, blogs and apps, people have access to their online profile almost all the time and this has had a consequence on our social behavior and skills. Some say that for better or worse, our relationships are just different. Everyone agrees social medias are convenient, but are they healthy for our social skills?

On the one hand, people are more social nowadays, since they are connected and communicating all the time. They spend hours learning about their friends and relatives’ lives. Therefore social media has the ability to improve social skills and connectedness. However, on the other hand, people tend to spend less time together, the need to see each other seems less important since all that there is to know about each other is already read on the net. And when people do meet, the subject of social medias, what has been recently posted and shared is always around the corner.

According to this infographic, Facebook is ruining our social skills.

Going further in the research, scientists have proven the rise of a Facebook Psychosis.

Dr. Uri Nitzan from Tel Aviv University looked at patients who were experiencing “loneliness or vulnerability due to the loss of or separation from a loved one” and noted that “a connection was found between the gradual development and exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, including delusions, anxiety, confusion and intensified use of computer communications”.

So, are social medias really healthy for our social skills and health? The answer is up to you.

References:

·       Author Unknown. Social Networking Statistics in Statistic Brain.com Available at:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/  [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·    Carlson, D. (May 6, 2013) Facebook Psychosis : Social Networking Will Literally Make You Crazy in Social News Daily.com. Article available at :

http://socialnewsdaily.com/13720/facebook-psychosis-social-networking-will-literally-make-you-crazy/  [Access date : 03/06/2013]

·       Chatman, S. (October 29, 2012) Is Social Media Improving Social Skills ? A Look At Communication Today in Site Pro News.com, Article available at :

http://www.sitepronews.com/2012/10/29/is-social-media-improving-social-skills-a-look-at-communication-today/ [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·       Johnson, J. (April 8, 2013) Facebook Might Be Ruining Your Social Skills And Relationships in Social News Daily.com. Article availbale at :

http://socialnewsdaily.com/12282/facebook-might-be-ruining-your-social-skills-and-relationships/ [Access date : 03/06/2013]

·       Glenn, D. (April 8, 2013) Is Facebook ruining our social skills ? [Infographic] in Social Times.com. Available at :

http://socialtimes.com/is-facebook-ruining-our-social-skills-infographic_b123556 [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·       Hasson, S. (June 5, 2012) Time to Brush up on your social skills in research-live.com. Article available at:

http://www.research-live.com/comment/time-to-brush-up-on-your-social-skills/4007520.article [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·       Masmoudi, K. (May 16, 2012) Réseaux Sociaux, Premier Usage de l’Internet in L’Économiste.com. Article available at:

http://www.leconomiste.com/article/894459-r-seaux-sociaux-premier-usage-de-l-internet [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·       Matyszczyk, C. (May 4, 2013) Can Facebook lead to Psychosis? One study says so in Cnet.com. Article available at:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57582893-71/can-facebook-lead-to-psychosis-one-study-says-so/

·       Pramis, J. (February 28, 2013) Number of mobile phones to exceed world population by 2014 in Digital Trends.com. Article available at:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/ [Access date: 03/06/2013]

·       Wikipedia Entry: Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Available at:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System [Access date: 03/06/2013]