Eleven Electronic Media Questions for Artists

2015-07-31 12.01.23

Q1. How do you like to communicate? Rank everything from voice phone call, texting, email, in person, etc. Top five only.

Q2. How do you search for art on the internet? What do you find?

Q3. What is your oldest digital file? How do you store it?

Q4. What is your oldest extant artwork? Where is it? How is it stored or displayed?

Q5. Do you have an art documentation system, and if so, what? Have you seen other art documentation systems that you liked? Do you remember how you made work ten years ago?

Q6. Search for yourself. Google, Facebook, etc. What do you see? Do you see anything missing?

Q7. Where is your oldest digital self hidden?

Q8. Do you have any media policies? If yes, detail. A media policy is an action or protocol that you put in place that regulates media. For instance, not having a Facebook account is a media policy. Only watching two hours of television a night is a media policy. Figuring out when to post on Instagram (Instagram Prime Time) is a media policy. Etc, etc.

Q9. List all current media and social media accounts accessed via the internet. Specify two or three favorites. Do you have any aliases, and if so, detail to your desired comfort level. Have you ever had an on-line account suspended or deactivated, if so, detail as above. Do you archive social media history, track meta-data, and if so detail.

Q10. Is your public representation a result of a deliberate strategy or strategies on your part, or is this just internet magic? Discuss. Do you own FIRSTNAME.LASTNAME? FIRSTNAMELASTNAME.com? OTHER.com?

Q11. What simple things do you do that are likely to work in the future? Especially for areas like password managers, image file formats, archival data, on-line, etc?

Something great from the New Yorker: The GNU Manifesto turns 30 by Maria Bustillos. Previously as Dream Freely. See Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Best practices for conservation of media art from an artists perspective for art best practices. Lynda Schmitz Fuhrig at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, in Preserving Your Treasures.

Statement

 
Benjamin De Kosnik is a multidisciplinary artist and engineer. He uses art to illuminate and demystify control systems in technology and media. He creates custom software, hardware, and networked systems that document human behavior on the internet, and uses that data to generate visual artifacts. He generates openly accessible archives, works on paper, single and multi-channel video art, electronic media installations, performances, and talks.

 

 
For all else, see Interests.

Being In the (Art) World

artwork by Benjamin De Kosnik

artwork by Benjamin De Kosnik

artwork by Benjamin De Kosnik


Portfolio of three prints. Inkjet, internet, wine, folds. Dimensions H x L (13″ x 19″)

2013


Variable-size works on paper and internet probing artist identity and personality. Self-description using hyper-linked terms from the on-line Art and Architecture Thesaurus from the Getty Research Institute, links to artist web sites, and lists from Wikipedia.