July 20, 2009
Considering that immediacy and interactivity are what differentiates social media from the traditional media, I propose an experiment. Is it possible to incite and record interaction in a non-digital method? I intend to generate a campaign designed to make people think about what they are contributing to society, whether it is necessary and whether the act of printing a piece alters the way in which we relate to it. The campaign will include a series of posters and zines that make statements about the pervasive nature of social media and excess of information we feel obliged to contribute to it. For this campaign I intend to use primarily non-digital methods of production as a counteraction to the mass of digital material available. Digitally produced work, especially when it is viewed on a screen, is too clean and has less personality than a piece that has been well considered before making any marks on paper. We often put more effort and consideration into the material that we print, full words, rather than abbreviations, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and overall, finished pieces. If we put more effort into the material that we upload perhaps we wouldn’t be bombarded with so much mediocre content on the internet. Hand generated, lo-fi promotion and publishing is often the domain of those without a budget, namely, band flyers and zines, a way of getting a message out there on a large scale. These are mostly small scale, photocopied pieces, available to anybody who is interested. This aesthetic, as well as being low in production costs pays homage to the underground art tradition and steers clear of digitally manufactured work.

Considering that immediacy and interactivity are what differentiates social media from the traditional media, I propose an experiment. Is it possible to incite and record interaction in a non-digital method? I intend to generate a campaign designed to make people think about what they are contributing to society, whether it is necessary and whether the act of printing a piece alters the way in which we relate to it. The campaign will include a series of posters and zines that make statements about the pervasive nature of social media and excess of information we feel obliged to contribute to it.
For this campaign I intend to use primarily non-digital methods of production as a counteraction to the mass of digital material available. Digitally produced work, especially when it is viewed on a screen, is too clean and has less personality than a piece that has been well considered before making any marks on paper. We often put more effort and consideration into the material that we print, full words, rather than abbreviations, capital letters at the beginning of sentences, and overall, finished pieces. If we put more effort into the material that we upload perhaps we wouldn’t be bombarded with so much mediocre content on the internet. Hand generated, lo-fi promotion and publishing is often the domain of those without a budget, namely, band flyers and zines, a way of getting a message out there on a large scale. These are mostly small scale, photocopied pieces, available to anybody who is interested. This aesthetic, as well as being low in production costs pays homage to the underground art tradition and steers clear of digitally manufactured work.