Enduring Messaging: Are microcommunicaions an art form?
Canadian Art, Fall 2008, v. 25, no. 3, pp. 118-121
In our current era of digital literacy and popularization of microcommunication technologies for "think[ing] out loud...instantly, hourly, daily" within the network society, Tom Sherman attempts to predict Messaging as an emerging art with a capital M.
Quoting Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys' democratic and participatory beliefs in art production and reception as a platform for discussion, Sherman argues that messaging of all forms from status updates to text messaging can precipitate a spontaneous and anti-institutional form of art. However, the brief and instantaneous, transitory properties of messaging can render meaning insubstantial and superfluous. Therefore, it will depend on the users' innovation and desire for attention to produce salient notions of Messaging.
ITEM 2008.055 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
I Love You, I Hate You, Emaciated – Ann Hirsch
McLuhan's on my iPhone – Guy Carlo