“I think social media can be anything that they want it to be. I think
Barnett, M. [in] Pfab, A. (2017)
that as long as you have got a strong vision from the base, social media is going to become an extension of that and it’s a great way for you to implement your ideas, but also see how people react to them.”
Listening to this week’s presentation has proved intriguing in regards to Barnett’s comments on social media which has resonated with my current stance and approach in usage, but in a sense his comment ties well to Ravetto-Biagioli’s comments that your social media presence is ultimately what you feed and input into it.
In the forums this week, we were asked to post a link to our CRJ, and comment on other peers, with suggestions. I largely received positive feedback on my reflections, my use of quotes and the detailed progression of my WIPP and the research that ties into it. I had one suggestion on adding the original image to an image edited in a prior week’s entry, which I have now done, as I agreed that it probably made more sense with a visual reference to the original version.
Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) I thought to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.
On thursday I had my last webinar of this module with Colin and as ever, it was very insightful in regards to last minute tweaks to my WIPP, including a final adjustment to Figure 1, replacing the yeast tin to a tube of anti-yeast cream. A previous tweak to the harsh lighting of the washing machine image, was felt didn’t work as well as the original execution, which was in line with my thoughts as I felt my eye was being drawn to the wrong area of the photograph.
I introduced to my WIPP a cover and introductory frame, as a lede into my work, to add contextualisation, and tie back to my previous work with the glitchy cover, which incorporates a cracked phone screen. I don’t feel my introductory frame which mimicks twitter subtweeting works despite an attempt to use a font (Arial) that closely aligned with what twitter uses, the spacing is not correct, and the colour palette of the font itself appears to be wrong.
Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Introduction
Whilst I largely have been thinking throughout this module that my choice of display for my current work in progress, may be more of a traditional choice, such as a zine or choosing the same as previous modules in choosing to display via the web itself, a direct response. However this week I’ve begun to think that my primary intent for my work may be to display in a guerilla style (in the style of Figure 4), displaying the work by turning the virtual into the physical, placing the tweets and my response into the real world in the form of stickers with a QR code in the corner of the white space where the tweet is displayed, below the main image which directs to either my website or social media encouraging those who scan it to leave feedback, subjecting the unexpected public to the same as the women who were targets of the original vitriol. This approach would also allow a participatory approach in that I could sell stickers for others to place in their own locality, a pop up exhibition that can be in various locations like a treasure hunt.
Ethically their may be some issues in opting a guerilla approach and placing my work in public places, especially if I haven’t sought approval to do so prior to installation. Historically this is why guerilla artists go by nom de plumés, like Banksy, Slinkachu or JR, or as a collective like Dysturb. I have looked in a previous module at the works of JR specifically the series ‘Woman Are Heroes’, where JR brings the images he has taken back to the community in a participatory nature, ultimately different in intent to my own.
Slinkachu arguably does the opposite of my intentions in that he places miniature sculptures in situ and leaves them behind after photographing them for others to enjoy and subsequently sells artist prints of his photos of his set-ups. A lot of Slinkachu’s works make a comment on consumer culture mirroring the real world albeit in miniature form, often with a sinister dystopian twist, like the beach being not a beach but a yellow line down the road.
Dysturb collective is closer in intent to my own, in that they primarily use the guerilla approach as a means of getting a message out that they want to communicate to the masses, placing large scale images onto the walls in cities to highlight the stories being missed in the noise of news. The images are usually combined with a short snappy headline to assist in the communication of the message they want to send, with their most recent installations providing commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, showing a dystopian landscape not amiss from a 1980s sci-fi film such as Bladerunner.
Really, the most relevant of practitioners in relation to my practice in this field of display would be the Guerrilla Girls, who provide factual messages of inequality, yet often deliver this in a satirical manner to communicate to the masses, interestingly their decision to run the original 1989 version as an ad on the buses stems from being rejected by the public art fund, in an ironic sense them being rejected by the art fund, led to their work being shown to a wider audience, and allowed the message to go beyond it’s original audience to international interest due to their unusual method of display attracting the news.
I would define my visual language as a construct of scale dolls melded with pseudo-realistic environments, to provide social commentary on how personal identity is created, framed and manipulated on social media. Within my images I explore the superficiality that individuals engage in online in relationships and identity via the circulation of self-fashioned socio-visual inauthenticity.
Other photographers, particularly Hayley Morris-Cafeiro and Amalia Ulman who’s work I admire, also comment on and satirise social media. Whereas Morris-Cafeiro makes personal comment on being judged online about her weight, via staged self-portraits and wearing online bullies words on clothing, Ulman dons alter-egos and personas to create fictional realities.
Also worthy of mention is Richard Prince, who also has used photography to comment on social media, however his work differs significantly in that he relies on rephotography, with the only alteration beign his addition of comments, some of a dubious nature, but laden with emojis.
References
Figures
Figure 1 Murray, J. (November 2020) I though to myself “she is prob a crazy cat lady with colored hair that prob looks like she smells like a yeast infection.” And here you are.
Figure 2 Murray, J. (November 2020) The Mirror Hack’d.
Figure 3 Murray, J. (November 2020) Introduction.
Figure 4 Murray, J. (December 2020) Guerilla Sticker Mockup.
Figure 5 Slinkachu (2016) Shore Line (Honolulu, Hawaii). [Online] Available from: https://slinkachu.com/work#/new-gallery-74/ [Accessed 01/12/2020]
Figure 6 Dysturb Collective (2020) Stay home in Paris, in front of the Saint Louis Hospital. [Online] Available from: https://www.huckmag.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/information-should-be-clear-accurate-and-accessible-to-all/ [Accessed 03/12/2020]
Figure 7 Guerilla Girls (2012) Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? [Online] Available from: https://www.guerrillagirls.com/naked-through-the-ages [Accessed 02/12/2020]
Bibliography
Barnett, A. [in] Pfab, A. (2017) Falmouth Flex: Week 11: Presentation – A Conversation with Maximus Barnett. [Online] Available from: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/671/pages/week-11-presentation-a-conversation-with-maximus-barnett?module_item_id=43431 [Accessed 01/12/2020]
Battersby, M. (2010) The Independent: Genius or vandalism? The guerrilla artists subverting our streets. [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/genius-or-vandalism-the-guerrilla-artists-subverting-our-streets-1954614.html [Accessed 01/12/2020]
GuerillaGirls (1985-2020) Naked Through the Ages. [Online] Available from: https://www.guerrillagirls.com/naked-through-the-ages [Accessed 04/12/2020]
Ravetto-Biagioli, K. (2019) Digital Uncanny. pg 52. New York; Oxford University Press.
Jasmine Murray Photography 