On

the death of the artist or the birth of ubiquitous authorship

Alexander McLuckie

Contents

Introduction Main body Conclusion Illustrations

3-4 5-14 15-16 17

Bibliography Appendix

18-19 20

Sitting in a darkened room in East London listening to James Davis, head of the Google Art Project, talking about their plans to use their street mapping software in an ever-increasing number of international institutions, being drawn through a succession of stills demonstrating how the software will operate it seems apparent that something is missing; the aura surrounding these paintings is gone .
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[Fig.1]

The idea is to propel artworks, at brushstroke level into an instantly accessible global archive of both historically important works of art as well as more contemporary pieces. Several questions are leveled at the panel that also included Louise Shannon, Deputy Head of Contemporary Programmes at the V&A, about the democratising effect the Internet is having upon previously elitist pursuits like the arts. How can infinitely reproducible, instantly obtainable works demand any financial reward? How far does our increasing obsession with screens remove us from a sense of object fetishism and does this endless reproducibility and rhizomatic authorship redefine what an original artwork is?

At the root of Internet arts un-sell-ability is the point that art (like all digital data) is infinitely reproducible, making any attempt to harness it for sale an exercise in maintaining artificial scarcity. (Troemel, 2011, p.63)

1 Digital Disruption was hosted by Protein and Crane.tv at 18 Hewett Street on 13/10/12 2
I have borrowed heavily from Latour & Lowes writing on The migration of the aura, for more information see <http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/108-ADAM-

FACSIMILES-GB.pdf>

The assimilation of art into network culture, as reality television, micro celebrities and as everyday life has raised some challenging assertions. Brad Troemel, an American artist, writer and a graduate of the school of the art Institute of Chicago, has even suggested we are living in an era of artists without art (Troemel et al., 2011) Does the art gallery really represent an outdated mechanism for arts reception? Have we not then reached a point where traditional modes for the creation and distribution of art have to be rethought?

[Fig.2] Privacy in art and the subsequent mystique surrounding the artist and her obtainable intuition and noble intelligence have reinforced the prominent clich through the ages of the artist as somehow otherworldly. Increased media exposure has helped to curb these previously held views giving way to the idea of the artist as a ruthless capitalist more in the mould of Damien Hirst. South London based artist Yuri Pattisons project http://www.explorethemuseum.org uses the copyright implications of Googles recent MoMa show as its subject matter. Artworks that Google were unable to obtain licenses for are represented by abstracted blurs. I was really into the censored artworks, conceptually and from a purely aesthetic standpoint and wanted to capture these. (Pattison, 2012) Drawing attention to the privacy in art, these series of images eloquently demonstrate the obvious financial implications that removing the distance between viewer and art object can have. The value of an object grows in proportion to the resistance met with in acquiring it. (Girard, 1978, p.295) As these artworks on Google Art Project become instantly acquirable, immaterial or not. They lose something. We are almost unable to distinguish between the original work and the one that we are presented with on the screen. The aura of the original has shifted; we are no longer mystified by it. The best way of chastising mankind is to give the people all they want on all occasions. (Girard, 1978, p.288) For Yuri this work was about understanding the relationship between art objects in museums where the censored works are a really nice allegory for Googles relationship with art & copyright and these implications in terms of the greater Internet and digital landscape. (Pattison, 2012) recognising them as the products of private ownership. Troemel draws stark comparisons between the art object and the decaying archaeological artifacts of human existence. (Troemel, 2011, p.49) He describes viewing them as more akin to family members at a wake viewing the eternal resting place of a cherished love one. Is material art really approaching its demise?

Class structure and the means of access to the modes of production had always dominated the channels for artistic rendering and deliverance, until the invention of the Internet and more specifically the introduction of web 2.0 in 1999 . New digital technologies like image manipulation software and 3D rendering have unlocked a potential infinitude of forms. Contemporary technologies have allowed the artistic object to be liberated from its metaphysical form; it is precisely this characteristic that allows for an exponential change in speed of mimetic transference potential amongst a group of networked users. For what these works lose in materiality, they gain interactivity and worldwide visibility.
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[Fig.3) The implementation of HTML 5 most modern web browsers in 2012 has also led to the creation of numerous websites dedicated to enhancing the interactivity experienced by users online. One such project is http://www.leduchamp.com which takes modernist artist Marcel Duchamps 1913 work Bicycle Wheel and allows us a level of intuitive engagement with viewers able to spin the wheel on its axis, complete with a perfectly timed sprocket sound effect, clicking in rhythm with the circular motion of the wheel. Works like this are able to break the sacred fourth wall ; the imaginary boundary between the work and its audience. Something that has been a staple feature of almost all gallery and museum based material art. The most interesting element of this piece is the fact that it is up for sale. The artist Rafael Rozendaal states on his personal website that domain names are the one of the few scarcities (Rozendaal, 2012) left on the internet. Rozendaal represents the contemporary avant-garde entrepreneurial internet artist and this work and others are for sale where each URL is the title and the location of each art piece. Alleviating material arts space and
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3 4 5 Darcy DiNucci is credited with coining the phrase in her essay Fragmented Future, available here: <http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf> Exposing the fictional illusion of an alternate reality, traditionally in theatre, by speaking directly to the audience. Rozendaal, R. (2012) Art website sales contract, [Internet] <http://www.artwebsitesalescontract.com/> [Accessed: 07/01/13]

monetary constraints poses exciting challenges to artists where the medium they have chosen to create work has become the subject matter itself.

Consider this - artists were previously (and continue to be) limited by the physicality of their art objects because they require money to produce...what possibilities arise when our limitations take the form of time as opposed to more physical limitations like space and material resources? (Troemel, 2011, p.82)

Recent years have seen technology increase exponentially to the point where image information exchange has reached a bad infinity , and it is this and the art worlds presumption of an endless discourse that contradict one another. James Elkins 2004 essay entitled 'What happened to art criticism?' explains the paradoxical quality of art criticism. Despite there never having been more writing about art, less is being said. How can there be a crisis in art now that more people than ever are able to create, consume and critique? '...art criticism is flourishing, but invisibly, out of sight of contemporary intellectual debates. So its dying, but its everywhere. Its ignored, and yet it has the market behind it.' (Elkins, 2004, p.2) the same can be said of contemporary artistic practice, At least from a historical perspective, Conceptual art assured its own legacy by the overwhelming volume of language produced within and around it at a time when summary-through-language was the easiest means of disseminating an object.' (Veirkant, 2010, p.5)
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Being an artist today is easy. In fact today, for many, the assumption is that if you work hard enough, you can be whatever you want. The processes and institutions are in place for anybody willing, to reach their full human potential and being an artist has long represented the pinnacle of entrepreneurial achievement. Web 2.0 users stream in real time, share instantaneously and create alternate realities. Part of this reality is an online persona. A web of verisimilitude, complex social intertextualities of tweets and posts; Facebook promised us we could all be Andy Warhol. Shaping our own avatar has become an integral part of succeeding at what Troemel calls the risk taking capitalist adventurer of the new economy. (Troemel, 2011, p.62) The ultimate objective for many artists using these networking facilities is to have the outward appearance of being artistic, much of the content on Tumblr blogs is work by other people, often these sites represent mood boards or sketchbooks, freely available to anybody who happens to be interested. This represents a dramatic shift in the privacy of arts production; thanks to the internet, ones confluence of interests and inspirations feed into the mass proliferation of imagery experienced on these image aggregation websites. The photos they are tagged in on Facebook will more often than not have them placed in the context of somebody else's exhibition opening, poetry reading or zine launch; situating oneself within and alongside contemporary practitioners is all the validation required today to label yourself as an artist. The Internet and more specifically Web 2.0, truly represents the point that creative participatory culture went

6 Martin, M. (2007) In Defense of Bad Infinity, [Internet] <http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~wmartin/BadInfinity.pdf> Accessed: [12/1/12]

global. Walter Benjamin would be completely stunned by the pace of pictorial reproduction in 2012, within the last decade we have seen the speed and growth of the Internet increase exponentially; internet speeds finally able to keep up with our imagination.

From now to the end of consciousness, we are stuck with the task of defending art. (Sontag, 1966, pg.2)

Along with the reduction in critically engaged writing about art we are also seeing a departure from the traditional modes for artistic deliverance, no longer constrained by space or time, the web browser allows mimetic transference of ideas on a global scale instantaneously. The decentralisation not only of art but all previously elitist skills such as journalism has already begun, away from institutions and museums towards web 2.0 users equipped with the means for critiquing and engaging with their own contemporary discourses. Andrew Keen, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned cultural critic argues in his book The cult of the amateur, that the effect the Internet is having upon these previously specialist careers is severely detrimental to our overall perspective. Democratisation, despite its lofty idealisation, is undermining truth, sourcing civic discourse, and belittling expertise, experience and talent. (Keen, 2008, p.15) This warning against subjectivism, masquerading as truth, should not be ignored. The conversations, however, are now able to take place. This will inherently produce problems as old money fights a burgeoning intellect but if there is anything evolution has taught us, its that chance favours connected minds.

All modern thought is falsified by a mystique of transgression, which it falls back into even when it is trying to escape. (Girard, 1978, p.287)

It has, however, been stressed that there is an equally important regressive force at play in an increasingly heavily policed online domain. The fear of public scrutiny regarding one's artistic and or personal integrity can curb (potential) bold attempts into previously unexplored material and instead create artists more concerned with their outward appearance as artists than they are about the art they produce where they become performers intrinsically linked to the will of their audience. (Troemel, 2012) Images on sites from 4chan to Facebook find themselves competing against one another for affinity scores or bumping up threads to help sustain their fleeting existence, only delaying the moment before its inevitable decline into a bad infinity where old data seemingly becomes irrelevant in a continually expanding, regressive void. The low barriers to entry and corresponding low returns on their cultural sustainability (Troemel, 2012) are the potential danger concerning cultural productions post-Internet. Image aggregation sites highlight the inherent perversely fickle nature of our relationship with imagery.When you leave everything to the crowd when everything becomes democratised when everything is determined by the number of clicks you're by definition undermining the artistic endeavour. (Keen, 2012) On a networks of millions, content is judged suitable on its number of clicks where the The Like function itself (having been) explicitly designed as a binary function between total consensus and total lack of response. (Troemel, 2012) Perhaps we are in need of a more substantial dialogue than a mute sign of comradeship. What is popular on

7 Walter Benjamin, (1936), The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Reprint, London, Penguin Books, 2008

Facebook/Flickr/Tumblr (etc) is not necessarily going to be that which communicates complex and insightful ideas. There is a very real risk that instead of being exposed to enriching information capable of expanding one's world view, is that we are witnessing a sharpening or narrowing of aesthetic and cultural values based on previously demonstrated tastes. Thanks to browser cookie information and an increasingly personalised surfing environment, search results for information can be obscured or harder to reach. We risk entering into a hall of mirrors where we know more about what we know about what we know.

[Fig.4]

These new domains of power online do exist, however, we cannot be definitive who they lie with. The anonymous amateur relinquishes authorship to these rhizomatic image eco-systems where discourse is based on a new visual way that people succinctly communicate emotions and opinions with one another. (Stryker, 2011, p.133) One such eco-sysytem is www.4chan.org was started in 2003 and has quickly grown into one of the most controversial places on the net. It is also responsible for a vast majority of viral imagery you will have most likely seen on other networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit or 9gag. It attracts people from all over the world; in fact anyone can post, anonymously, which gives it the edge as a place for radically questionable content to emerge without fear of social retribution or artistic failure. Anonymity serves to allow for failure at a moment in time when people have never been more visible. It is this process of cultural inbreeding that has caused some, such as the Muswell Hill Stuckists to proclaim that the The amateur, far from being second to the professional, is at the forefront of experimentation, unencumbered by the need to be seen as infallible. Leaps of human endeavour are made by the intrepid individual, because he/she does not have to protect their status. (Childish, 1999, p.427)

4chan.org has also given rise to a political force named Anonymous who have been responsible for hacking government websites amongst other armchair political activism. Coined Hacktivism they are responsible for carrying out attacks on diverse targets including religious groups, government websites and piracy legislation groups. Due to the nature of an anonymous image board the ethical implications of questionable content inevitably emerge, 'so long as these secret places remain, they must by their very nature, tend to produce a lower moral tone, for the best of us are considerably stimulated to higher efforts, by the consciousness that other eyes are upon us.' (Tagg,1987, p.131) Ironically 4chan.org has also been credited as the birthplace of the LoLcat, one of the first mainstream culture Memes and its image board /b/ has been championing the metaphysical, ubiquitous art object since its creation, whether they realise it or not. Lolcats, more than just a throwaway bit of digital information, hold a mirror to humanity, criticising and celebrating all aspects of human relationships and interaction. It is this aspect of LoLcats and Memes as a whole that mean they represent more than just the disposable part of vernacular culture. John Tagg describes the importance of critically engaging with the motivations behind image production, something institutions are only realising now,
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'The object, however, is not to replace a social explanation with a discursive analysis, but rather to trace the relation between the two; to map out the productivity and effectively of successive, coexistent, contradictory or conflictual languages; to plot the limits governing what they can articulate and how far they can remain convincing by recruiting the identification of their speakers and channeling the convictions they address.' (Tagg, 1978, p.23)

The ease of access to the means of producing these images is almost certainly linked to the fact that hundreds of Meme generator websites have been set up, no longer constrained by the preconditioned role of money as a precursor to speak publicly these images allow everyone to express themselves, 'The art that is most germane to being released in everyday life is that which is able to converse with others' (Troemel,2011, p.109) Hundreds of Blank Memes featuring a variety of characters from the ironic art student owl to the exasperated overly attached girlfriend Meme mean that no matter how you're feeling there's more than likely a Meme whose constructed social attitude matches your own. Comic Sans is the typeface readily waiting to be punched in. They are read (by all outside observers) in the collectively accepted emotional dynamics specific to each Meme. More interesting perhaps than any particular Meme is the way these images rhizomatically come into being, ubiquitous authorship means Critics like Andrew Keen have even suggested that we are on the verge of a cultural blackout. Are we really in danger of drowning ourselves in an ocean of mediocrity? Keen supposes the audience and author become one and the dictatorship of expertise is disestablished, where we have been transforming culture into cacophony. (Keen, 2007, pg.4)

All art is mimetic. Are Internet Memes art though? In Werner Herzogs 2010 documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams , we see the earliest recorded examples of figurative depiction in the Chauvet cave in the Ardeche of France. 'The earliest experience of art must

8 9 Using computers as a means of political activism to promote legislative or cultural change. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, (2010), Directed by Werner Herzog. USA: IFC Films [Video:DVD]

have been that it was incantatory, magical; art was an instrument of ritual.' (Sontag, 1966, p.2) One can imagine early tool fashioning and these cave paintings in the same way a peacock flutters its brightly coloured feathers; these skills show aptitude to learning and these Memes can be thought of primarily as beneficial to the hosts gene survival hopes. Memes have been inferring experiences and notions of reality ever since; learning has always occurred through imitation. Human cultural evolution has been perpetually gaining momentum through progressively superior methods of information exchange. Art has revealed itself as the dominant mutating replicator of human cultural evolution; it is the cultural equivalent of a virus. Its selfish own interest facilitates its survival; ever deeply embroiled in commerce and political arenas. The earliest theory of art, that of the Greek philosophers, proposed that art was mimesis, imitation of reality. (Sontag, 1966, pg.1) Richard Dawkins first coined the theory of Mimetics in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene , where he describes them (Memes) as units of cultural data, which act like genesreplicating, spreading, and mutating, culminating in the form of cultural evolution. This evolution takes place on a much shorter time scale than genetic evolution. The dissemination of art, courtesy of the Internet has created an interesting discourse in representation, modes for artistic deliverance and indeed its very definition. We can certainly begin to think of a new suite of phenomenological effects occurring between the artists and the screen on which she views her work in our ultra mechanised world. The rhizomatic nature and sheer scale of interconnected groups of artists online results in remixed and edited versions of works occurring and consumed within drastically smaller evolutionary cycles each one pregnant with all past and future specifications (Barthes, 1957, p.58) this is most apparent when looking at Meme culture, for every successful Meme there will be thousands of other failed variations. These works will compete in the Memeplex jousting for position as the most successful variation, ensuring its own survival primarily through effective use of catharsis and speaking to people on more than just a cultural level; thus making them easily accessible to as many people as possible. Each and every new incarnation of these Memes gradually reveals in suspension a whole past of ever increasing density. (Barthes, 1957, p.37) The Meme contains remnants of all aspects of fine art practice, literature, sculpture, painting and photography. This global collaborative effort represents not only 'the death of the author' but also a death of the artist where 'the artist ceases to be an image producer and becomes an image himself. (Groys, 2009) If 'Art lies solely in the perfection with which reality is imitated' (Barthes, 1957 p.48) then what happens when reality imitates art? Cue the inevitable plight into infinite aesthetic exploration where an increased emphasis on aesthetic beauty means less focus on context,
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'For to be purely decorative is a certain death of sorts, a 'stilled life', a denial of the organic vitality from which the decorative originally arose.'

Contemporary works of art have a new found momentum where they find themselves in a continuous flux as they shuttle from one node of the network to another. Transforming from object, to image object and then again as material for another artists appropriation in an image eco-system. GIF art and Memes are the Internet's new cultural language and the success of this form of art, Troemel says lies not in the financial gravitas but instead they create an environment of active cultural participants online (that)

10 11 Dawkins, R. (1989). The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press Roland Barthes, (1977), On the death of the author: Image, Music, Text: Essays, Second Edition, HarperCollins UK

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looks forward to sustained dialogue as a marker of resonance. (Troemel, 2011, p.65) Memes exist in constant state of reproduction through intersubjective encounters; a post-Internet epicurean pursuit, free from any of the codified norms of art history. (Troemel, 2011, p,109) With unprecedented levels of amateur practitioners and large numbers of fine art graduates worldwide, neither the tools nor products of artists are specialist anymore. Are we witnessing the death of the image as a vestige of symbolic power?

'Culture Post- Internet is made up of reader-authors who by necessity must regard all cultural output as an idea or work in progress able to be taken up and continued by any of its viewers.' (Vierkant, 2010,p.3)

Accepting the Internet Meme as art is problematic for many reasons, primarily that the barrier to entry into the previously elitist rarified world of art is significantly lowered, how can these art object expect any ontological and financial value in its metaphysical form?

The embellished capitalistic practices have to adapt to remain relevant in a society no longer willing to be talked down to. Postmodernism's hangover with conceptualisation has led many artists to vilify the ironies of contemporary artistic practice, As the cultural paradigm shifts from languages that are merely descriptive to languages that either imply, or result from, interaction, many artists have been purposefully challenging the nineteenth-century model of the artist as disseminator of knowledge within a nonparticipatory context of observation. (Dunn, 1988, p.10) Millions of amateurs now free from the dictatorship of expertise (Keen, p.15) having removed the need for confirmation that this is art from privately funded institutions or traditional art world power relations in order to get their work seen. The Internet not only demonstrates its capacity for mimetic transference, it also bestows knowledge on anybody seeking it. The mirage of what used to be known as new media through networked culture into art is inevitable as new technology increasingly dictates artistic production, distribution and reception, New Media is here denounced as a mode too narrowly focused on the specific workings of novel technologies, rather than a sincere exploration of cultural shifts in which that technology plays only a small role. (Vierkant, 2010, p. 4) The Meme has evolved out of the innate human desire for recognition through artistic expression from and of its past forms (comics, illustrations, tv sketches,) no longer dependent on archaic symbolism of the past. Selective pressures have mutated these into an ever moving, permanently relevant, social hieroglyph.

Over time this spread and democratization of image and object production tools has led to a perpetual iconoclasm, each successive volley of formats breeding a new dogma and its own particular set of aesthetic principles. (Vierkant, p.6)

Radical artistic departures, works that challenged the definition of art, throughout art history can be thought of as evolutionary mutations and Meme culture represents one aspect of progressive mimetic collaboration. The success of any new mutated input is found in its ability to move mimetically from viewer to viewer; failure to do so shall culminate in its death. And move Memes do. Distribution channels such as Facebook and Tumblr help move aggregated imagery across continents for the purpose of

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communicating and expressing ideas. These networks represent a seemingly endless opportunity to satisfy our mimetic desire. Rene Girard is a French social science philosopher who introduced the concept of mimetic rivalry developing from mimetic desire that suggests all our desires are borrowed from our rivals. This goes someway to explaining peoples insatiable lust for posting seemingly irrelevant imagery in vain attempts to associate themselves with a particular ambience.

'Everything that makes our world the most energetic and creative one that has ever been, in art, politics, modes of thought and, especially science & technology everything that contributed initially to the extraordinary pride of this world, its sense of invincible superiority, and that now contributes to its increasing sense of anguish can be said to rest on the 'liberation' of mimetic desire. (Girard, 1978, p.285)

[Fig.5]

In August 2012 a woman began amateur restoration work on 'Ecce Homo' in Zaragoza, Spain. The piece was born out of a 19th century mural of Jesus Christ and is a painfully inferior reproduction in terms of its technical competence in relation to the original. It was, however, an Internet ready, viral sensation. In the Migration of the Aura, Lowe & Latour argue that a badly reproduced original risks disappearing while a well accounted for original may continue to enhance its originality and to trigger new copies.' (Latour & Lowe, 2010, p.4). Clearly this definition will not satisfy our interest in the badly reproduced copy reproducing itself thousands of times. Instead of disappearing into obscurity, thousands of variations of what became known as the 'Monkey Jesus Meme' had been remixed and remade. An entire website dedicated to generating and exhibiting your own version of the Meme was created.

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Ceciliaprize.com is now home to tens of thousands of user created Ecce Homo's. What is interesting here is that not only were their new copies made of the original reproduction (some of which have become completely incomprehensible from the original restoration) but that the face of the painting was photoshopped onto other works, generating entirely new works. This included everything and anything other famous paintings became targets, images of the Mona Lisa and every single face on Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' became appropriate source material. Is the growth of this Meme merely rooted in catharsis? If we follow the traditional Aristotelian definition then this alone would quantifies the piece as a work of art in its own right. Each work subsequently created featuring the same face similarly highlighting the tragic decline in the comedy of superiority. Questions of authorship and appropriation aside here is the change in the mimetic capacity of this painting; as a technically competent but ultimately uninteresting piece of representational art, relatively unknown outside of religious circles, becoming instantly identifiable. As its quality decreases its rhetoric increases. The 'inextricable double bind of imitation' (Girard, 1987, p.267) has been broken; the imitator surpasses the master though not through technical competence; its aura has shifted from a historical relic to an antifacsimile. Where does this trajectory lead us?

[Fig.6]

Any change to an art object after its incubating studio stint would surely be considered necrophilic defilement. (Troemel, 2011, p.50)

In October 2012, Polish artist Vladimir Umanets defaced a Mark Rothko with the inscription on the painting reading 'A Potential Piece of Yellowism'. The 1958 painting was the high profile target of the artistic duo who proclaimmed to be revealing 'The beautiful end of postduchampian era' (Umanets, 2012) where any work of art has the capability to transform into a Yellowistic piece. One

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cannot help but draw connections between their Yellowism manifesto and an animal urinating to mark its territory. Examples of Yellowism can look like works of art but are not works of art. (Umanets, 2012) This is re-appropriation gone mad and serves merely as a public platform for those concerned to raise their profile by fashioning their own intellectual apparatus. It is a powerfully symbolic moment, however, as in the gesture of signing this painting Umanets has transgressed the distance between audience and viewer where we are no longer able to distinguish one from the other. Umanets and Lodyga want a piece of the pie and this shortcut to fame and recognition will serve its purpose well. We have arrived at a Utopia which exists, which no one can take away from us. Many would like to have what we have now, but they are unable. (Umanets, 2012) This supposed new level of conceptual thinking supposes a meta parallel position alongside but separate from art. It is massively ironic then that Umanets justifies his actions by referencing avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp, '"I didn't destroy the picture. I did not steal anything. There was a lot of stuff like this before. Marcel Duchamp signed things that were not made by him, or even Damien Hirst." (Umanets, http://www.theguardian.co.uk) Individualistic subjectivism turns criticism into creative writing and discourse into description. Indeed the Telegraphs article on the Yellowism founder consisted of what reads like a cut and paste from the manifesto on their Tumblr website. It is at this point we must tackle the problem of a future world full of worthless, defiled and self-generative art.

Art - like water balloons or capitalism - must continually expand in order to serve its purpose. Without room for infinite aesthetic expansions, art risks the possibility of no longer acting as a suitable vehicle for understanding alternative conceptions of reality. Stable and immobile, a frozen conception of acceptable forms or subject matters art may be expressed through would render it incapable of reflecting on anything other than yesterdays concerns by virtue of speaking exclusively through yesterdays artistic language. (Troemel, 2011, p.48)

Post-Internet artists recognise the potential of any objects capacity to become an infinitely moving art object (Troemel, p.48, :2011) evolving alongside art's continual expansion of form. The ease of access and possibility for redistribution has changed the focus away from traditional models for the deliverance of art to a newer democratic experience, based on peer-to-peer aggregation and participation. New online educational tools combined with the productive image systems I have talked about mean that the art world can no longer continue to limit the entire history of western art to such a small percentage of potential artists. There is now an ongoing dialogue rather than the traditional media model of a one to many communication. The changes in power structures have led to museums being more personable, public participation and civil engagement are now hugely important. (Shanon, 2012)

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[Fig.7]

The Photographers Gallery in Soho recently opened up The Wall, a space that invites public collaboration alongside experimental commissions and collaborations. Its recent show Born in 1987: The Animated GIF invited the public to submit a GIF they had created as part of the launch of the new space which is part of a research programme which aims to explore issues concerning the digital image, its dissemination and display on-screen. It is encouraging to see contemporary museums adapting the roster of exhibitions allowing a more interactive and democratic artistic experience. Despite these efforts the ratio between practitioners who earn a living from the work that they produce and those that do not has never been greater and In order for art to remain relevant and definitely unique, it must always fundamentally redefine itself or else risk becoming irrelevant. Conceptual art assured its own legacy by the overwhelming volume of language produced within and around it at a time when summary-through-language was the easiest means of disseminating an object. (Vierkant, 2010, p.7) As we emerge from this primordial soup of culture, a footnote on the new millennium, it is hugely exciting to think of material art's teleological narrative coming to a climax.
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This is not to say that we have entered a fully utopian age of endless possibilities but simply to claim that culture and language are fundamentally changed by the ability for anyone to gain free access to the same image-creation tools used by mass-media workers, utilize the same or better structures to disseminate these images and gain free access to the majority of canonical writings and concepts offered by institutions of higher learning. (Vierkant, 2010, p.6)

12 For more information visit <http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/>

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Outdated modes of production, distribution and the consumption of art have been forced to evolve alongside technology. I have already talked about attention as the new cultural currency of the western world and in this way it may be possible to think of a measurement system for a possible mimetic distribution value. Going viral should be the ultimate aim for all works of art - universal appeal beyond the confines of the gallery walls. Art for the masses isn't for everyone. Anti populist, anti collaborative, anti museum art will always be made but ignoring growing pressure from a continually expanding field of contemporary discourse would be to deny practising in the echo of recent art history, Todays most successful conservative portrait painter is no doubt aware of Duchamps readymade, though she likely chooses to engage classical portrait painting because of her affection for its history and formal qualities. (Troemel, 2011, p.81)

The reality is that for those in Britain looking to pursue careers in the arts is that due to recent conservative student fee increases combined with the democratising effect the Internet has had on art and seemingly self generating popular imagery combined with the fact that there is more competition for commissions, editorial work even internships there is subsequently less room at the table for people who want to make creating work a viable career. It all feels a bit stale doesnt it? An aesthetic conversation being dictated by the crowd may seem the most Utilitarian approach but art risks somehow losing its voice amongst the mundanity of popular culture. With applications to creative university courses down 27% in 2012 (Davis, R. (2011) Are Britains art schools in crisis, as fees deter a creative generation? The Observer, 30/10/11, p.12) inevitably resulting in fewer applicants from lower economic backgrounds being part of the emerging conversation in contemporary art in Britain will inevitably be that of those privileged enough to risk the pitfalls of pursuing a career in the arts. The privacy of art is a regressive example of cultural in breeding; it is a process that creates weak inventions only suitable for and responsible to rarified historical interests. (Troemel, 2011 p.109) Add to that the often intangible returns to labour on offer for the majority of fine art graduates and it really starts to become apparent that for many the only realistic way to have your voice heard is some sort of online collaborative effort. The art market, like any market is vulnerable to economic concerns and with an unstable Euro and mounting American debt even material art is susceptible to recession. Digital arts lack of value as a commodity points not to an inherent shortcoming in aesthetic resonance or lack of a conceptual voice, but to the framework within which we understand private institutions capitalistic motivations; job preservation. It appears as though we find ourselves in the cold light of a post-duchampian dystopia. Hyper-saturated awareness and the actualisation of self-representation threaten to de-throne the artist as the purveyor of grandeur. Perhaps weve reached a moment in time, some might call it a singularity, where at once we require a new art history, new models for the production and consumption of contemporary art. It should be thought of as an exponential trajectory, out of and away from, traditional notions of art; indeed our Paleolithic cousins would barely recognise todays artistic practices as evolutions of their own.

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Illustrations
Images

Figure 1 - (2013) Screenshot of Google Art Project displaying Apotryptophan by Damien Hirst (1994). [online image]. Available at: <http://www.googleartproject.com/en-gb/collection/british-council/artwork/apotryptophanae-damien-hirst/678363/> [Accessed 03/01/2012].

Figure 2 - [2012) Video still from http://explorethemuseum.org/ by Yuri Patterson [Online Video]. Available at: <http://explorethemuseum.org/> [Accessed 13/12/12]

Figure 3 - (2010) Screenshot of http://leduchamp.com/ by Rafeal Rozendaal [HTML 5 Art]. Available at: <http://leduchamp.com/> [Accessed 12/09/2012]

Figure 4 - (2012) Screenshot of an image posted on http://www.4chan.org/ depicting an infinitely regressive troll face [PNG] [Accessed 14/08/2012]

Figure 5 - (2012) An image depicting the three stages of the Ecce Homo mural that was defaced in Spain, Cecilia Gmenez [JPG] Available at <http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/online/2012/8/22/1345647849262/Ecce-Homo-by-Elias-Garcia006.jpg> [Accessed 07/08/2012]

Figure 6 - (2012) A Potential Piece of Yellowism by Vladimir Umanets, [JPG] Available at <http://www.thisisyellowism.com> [Accessed 19/10/2012]

Figure 7 - (2012) An image showing The Wall at the Photographers Gallery in London, [JPG] Available at <http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2012/07/interview-with-katrina-sluis-curator-digital-programme-at-the-photographers-gallery/> Accessed [29/12/2012]

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Bibliography
Books Barthes, R. (2000) A Roland Barthes Reader: from Writing Degree Zero, London: Vintage Childish, B & Thomson, C. (1999) The Stuckist Manifesto in: Danchev, A 100 Artists Manifestos, London: Penguin Books Dawkins, R. (1989). The Selfish Gene, Oxford: Oxford University Press Girard, R. (1978) Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, London: The Athlone Press Keen, A. (2007) The Cult of the Amateur, United States: DoubleDay Publishing Sontag, S. (1966) Against Interpretation: And Other Essays, United States: Farrar, Straus & Giroux Stryker, C. (2011), Epic Win For Anonymous: How 4chans army conquered the web, London: Gerald Duckworth Publisher Ltd Tagg, J. (1988), The Burden of Representation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press Troemel, B. (2011), Peer Pressure: Provocative Materiality in the valley of Death, Brescia: Link Editions Troemel B. (2011), Peer Pressure: Making The Best of a Permanent Pay Freeze, Brescia: Link Editions Troemel, B. (2011), Peer Pressure: New Productive Systems, Brescia: Link Editions

Discussions Shannon, L., Digital Disruption: How the internet is shaking up the art world (2012) Protein Gallery: London. 13 November, with Louise Shannon, Shane Walter, James Davis, Reed + Rader

Emails Pattison, Y. (2012) Re: Explorethemuseum.org, 5th June 2012, Personal email to: ajmcluckie@gmail.com from contact@yuripattison.com

Films Cave of Forgotten Dreams, (2010), Directed by Werner Herzog. USA: IFC Films [Video:DVD] Press Pause Play, (2011) Directed by Dworsky, D. & Kohler, V. USA: House of Randon [Video:DVD]

Newspaper Articles Davis, R. (2011) Are Britains art schools in crisis, as fees deter a creative generation? The Observer, 30/10/11, p.12

Web Documents, E-Journals & PDFs Dunn, D. (1988) Wilderness as reentrant form: thoughts on the future of electronic art and nature, [Internet] <http://www.davidddunn.com/~david/writings/wilder.pdf> [Accessed 17/10/12]

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Elkins, J. Edited by Newman, M. (2004) What Happened to Art Criticism? [Internet] Second Edition, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, <http://criticaycontracritica.uniandes.edu.co/textossimposio/ElkinsWhathappened.pdf>, [Accessed 12/11/12]

Groys, B. (2009) Self-Design and Aesthetic Responsibility in e-Flux, [Internet] 2008, Available at: <http://www.eflux.com/journal/self-design-and-aesthetic-responsibility/>, [Accessed 10/01/13]

Latour, B & Lowe, A. Edited by Bartscherer, T. (2010) The migration of the aura or how to explore the original through its fac similes [Internet] Final Version, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, <http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/108-ADAMFACSIMILES-GB.pdf> [Accessed 12/09/12]

Troemel, B., Vierkant, A., Vickers, B. (2012) Club Kids: The Social Life of Artists on Facebook in DIS Magazine, [Internet] <http://dismagazine.com/discussion/29786/club-kids-the-social-life-of-artists-on-facebook/> [Accessed 22/0912]

Vierkant, A. (2010) The Image Object Post-Internet [Internet] <http://jstchillin.org/artie/pdf/The_Image_Object_PostInternet_a4.pdf>

Umanets, V. (2012) Manifesto of Yellowism [Internet] <http://www.thisisyellowism.com/>

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Appendix

The following is the transcript from an email from artist Yuri Pattison:

From: contact@yuripattison.com Subject: explorethemuseum.org Date: 6th June 2012 14:37:06 GMT+01:00

Hey Alex, great to hear from you. and things are good, hope all's going well in your final year.

and very glad to hear you're into the work. explore the museum was made in google art project soon after that launched. the MoMA section at the time was pretty minimal, glitchy and almost entirely censored. It was also the first gallery on there showing ''modern" works. I was really into the censored artworks, conceptually and from a purely aesthetic standpoint and wanted to capture these. The video is a screen capture of a perfect run through navigating the online representation of the gallery at the time and avoiding all uncensored works (my engagement with the digital space I felt was more akin to a game than the process of viewing artwork, even in a digital/web scenario)

I sound the censored works a really nice allegory for google's relationship with art & copyright and these implications in terms of the greater Internet and digital landscape. I also really liked the idea of a digital representation of physical space, sometimes publicly owned physical space such as national galleries being represented digitally with censorship imposed due to copyright / ownership issues.

The project is still going, I'm hoping to update the stills with new images not restricted to MoMA and revisit that video with the possible addition of a spoken word text.

Hope this helps, if you have any more Qs please feel free to ask.

Best, Yuri

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