I applied for a studio space in London and was asked to send details of my “socials”.
When I was a teen, the ultimate oddball was someone who didn’t own a TV. I couldn’t understand why anyone would deliberately deny themselves the primary cultural vehicle of the time. I mean, what did they do in the evening? Nowadays, I suppose teens think anyone who doesn’t use social media is bonkers, and somewhat ironically I find myself rapidly hurtling toward being the oddball that I used to mock.
Does anyone else see the absurdity of Instagram reels? (Please read my last substack post for an intro into absurdism as an art form). While the world is burning, we’re all spending time turning our lives into Wes Anderson shorts as if the perfect symmetry will fix our problems.
At the moment it feels a step too far to delete my IG account and I wonder if applying common art principles to my socials might help me feel less overwhelmed. The first principle I’m trying is to narrow down my field of view by holding up a viewfinder to Instagram and identifying which bits of it I want to bring into focus and which bits I want to leave outside of the frame. Immediately apparent is that the 1400 folks I follow can’t all fit inside the little viewfinder aperture. I’m clicking the unfollow button but it’s a slow process ridden with guilt at exiling talented people and I’m not sure it’s the best way of achieving my goal. I know an author who deleted ALL of her followers (and there were thousands) in order to give herself space to complete a book she was working on. Maybe that’s a better approach: start with a clean canvas and then add accounts back in. What do you think? If you had to follow only ten accounts, which would they be? I think it might be useful to narrow down, like using a really tight colour palette for a painting. I’ve unfollowed around 100 accounts and already a different composition within Instagram is emerging: folks that have been hidden under huge content creation machines are starting to poke their heads through the endless reels. It’s refreshing to see these tiny accounts and their totally non-algorithmic posts - like a stroke of acid lime paint on a landscape.
I find it bizarre and absurd that posting a little image or video to social media has become such an integral part of my art practice. At what point was this solidified? Am I really an artist if I don’t post my art on Instagram? I’m weary of the constant push to become bigger: increase productivity, followers, engagement, sales. At what point does this expansion cease? Physicists talk about the “Big Rip”, the point at which the universe stops expanding and tears itself apart. Maybe I’ve reached my own Big Rip? What comes after the Big Rip? The Small Mend?
I deleted Facebook right after my mum died five years ago (can’t believe it’s been that long). I don’t really know why, I just knew it wasn’t a place that would hold my grief in the way I needed. I never bothered rejoining and I don’t miss it one jot. Folks who want to stay in touch find other ways. I briefly jumped into the TikTok circus but that ring is way too performative for me and I exited the tent about three minutes after entering it. Twitter has never been my space and even less so now that Musk owns it. So Instagram is my only social media account, although I suppose with the new Notes feature you could argue that Substack is becoming a social media platform (urgh, I really hope not). I remember how difficult it was for Dad once Mum became so incapacitated by cancer that she could no longer run the household. Dad had no idea how to pay bills by direct debit, how to place an online order, or how to use his debit card safely even. It was like he had been rocketed to an alien world. I don’t want to be so disengaged from contemporary culture that I find myself in a vulnerable place. Or maybe I’m exaggerating the role of social media?
Questions I’m asking myself:
What if I got smaller?
What if I became less productive?
What if I became slower?
What if my art were a capsule collection?
What if I only showed my art in person?
I’ve been reading about artists whose Instagram images have been taken by AI prompters and inputted into platforms such as Midjourney to generate art prints. Is this the end of copyright as we know it? I don’t know that anyone would want to copy my quirky paintings but if they did, there’s nothing I can do to stop them. And while there’s never been anything I could do to prevent folks from taking a screenshot of my art and printing it out at home, the idea that they can now generate a complete portfolio of printed works in my unique hand is somewhat unnerving. Everyone is now an artist plagiarist.
Words I’m banning from my studio:
Trending
Productivity hack
Algorithm
Growth mindset
Batch creation
I was talking with my lovely artist friend, Clare - hello Clare, I know you’re here! - about the concept of being “unreeled” women artists. How would it feel if we unhooked ourselves from trends, hacks, reels and content creation, and cast ourselves a long, long, line of freedom to create what we want? It’s no surprise that fishing metaphors are used throughout social media marketing, we are all flapping around on a hook like wet fish. And the fish never win. If we’re lucky we get thrown back into the water only to be trapped again by the next shiny piece of marketing clickbait. This week it’s Wes Anderson-style reels, next week who knows? Remember, the hook is always sharper than the fish.
Time to swim away. Swim away from the shiny hook!
Until next time.
JC
RESOURCES
I’m a huge fan of Marlee Grace and this tiny zine is worth reading, click the image to be taken to Marlee’s website where you can buy this zine
I really enjoyed this book and found it very useful, click the image to be taken to Amazon
Hello! and yes I am here! I agree - I am still unreeling and love how you have expressed some of the things we have talked about. I am going to excavate my Instagram when I get the willpower up - this week some time. I feel quite tearful reading your post - it hits a nerve; the nerve being that which is starting to feel the pain of our neurology being connected and affected by an algorithm. So my neurological system is being hacked by bigTech's idea of how I should function day to day. I want my neurology to be affected by trees, plants, a good diet, true friendship, yoga, my own chosen rituals, art (mine and others), an idea of something greater than I (which is not man made), cats, my garden, camping, exercise (gentle), people I meet in person, drawing, painting, lunch with friends and my family. Not a head of a tech corporation.
I will continue to use instagram as a diary/record and as a connection in a limited (very)time frame. I will not see it as a means to market, be a slave to reel-making or a view of any kind of real life. I will not compare myself to others nor judge others. This is my pledge!
The idea of my neurology and DNA function being altered by Tech is not one I wish to agree to. Here is to women who UNREEL and go SLOW! x
The whole Wes Anderson is really making the rounds hey? So odd. I'm appalled that the studio had a stipulation such as that! Are you kidding me? Do curators ask to see your IG followers? It's really another form of capitalism. How many followers = how many people through the doors = $$
Popularity is not what we need. We need material that is punching through this veneer and not following the rules. We need people who are changing the narratives, not lifting them up! Who wants art that just appeases the masses? No one!