Some Online Art Thoughts

16 July 2023

This post was originally made on Cohost.

I think the online art sphere is honestly probably as healthy as it ever has been. (Namely, not very.) It's complex because Twitter has convinced many people that we need a metaverse¹ for all "content" created by all "individuals," but I think it's honestly much more natural for art communities to spread across tailored galleries. I think the potential is there for very vibrant and unique communities to flourish, but I think it will require acknowledging that the universal presence of all art in one place is not some "necessity" for the art form.

It might be financially optimal and may have ensured some degree of survival for artists under capitalism but I don't know if we can make the argument that it has strictly been a benefit for art scenes themselves. Hell, the individualist nature of Twitter is rather unhelpful - most artists existed and exist in some community or another, and treating everyone as an island in an archipelago alienates us from eachother. Also, treating art as "content" is a disservice to both artists and to our own experiences. As much as we all dog² on furries for being on Furaffinity (and rightly so) we must admit that it is healthy to have a space like Furaffinity for furry artists to gather. Likewise I think other tailored art spaces such as pixiv³, Newgrounds, lospec, etc. are all very important.

What I do wish we saw more of was more explorations of web media art as a way to express ideas beyond humour. Cohost has been an absolutely fantastic exploration of the ways we can use web media for humour, instead of just "applications" and "information", but I do feel like there's a bit of a block on it expressing much emotionally beyond that. I'm hoping we get there though, and in the meanwhile I think Everest Pipkin is probably one of the most compelling web media artists working currently.

1. I think we really need to have a reckoning with how as much as we all dunk on Zuckerberg (rightly) for trying to make metaverse a thing, he was just picking up the collective poison we all brewed. I don't think there's much fundamentally different between the idea that every brand will have a vr space and that every artist needs to be on Twitter.

2. 🥁💢💢✨

3. I know pixiv has some notorious content problems but also I think we should admit that a lot of japanese artwork would basically not exist on the modern internet without it, and that would sincerely be a horrible loss.