If the relation between different aspects of our society could be described in the gaunt style that characterizes the informations on our social profiles, Fame and Power would definitely be in a complicated relationship.

In the age of information, one of the characteristics of power is indeed its capacity of obscuring and rendering opaque the data that belongs to powerful people, sometimes to the point of making them almost invisible to the public; a capacity complemented by the Midas touch enabling power to make others famous and recognizable.

But what is the essence of the bond between Fame and Power in the digital age? (READ MORE)

If the characteristic of power is to be pandemic and incorporated in the discourses it produces, thus belonging both to the oppressor and to the oppressed, fame can be seen as performing a very similar operation in these times of constant exposure and contact. Fame doesn’t belong only to the famous and to the renowned, it is shaped and produced also by the desires and ambitions of the ones excluded by fame and celebrity. Furthermore, the rarity making fame so desirable is artificial: another point in common with power. But what unites these two powerful and influential phenomena the most, is possibly the unsatisfactory attempts at explanation and analysis they produced.

To quote Foucault, ‘The exercise of power is not simply a relationship between partners, individual or collective; it is a way in which certain actions modify others. Which is to say, of course, that something called Power, with or without a capital letter, which is assumed to exist universally in a concentrated or diffused form, does not exist.’[1] While we may affirm to know the effects of fame and its manifestations, can we really claim to know what Fame intrinsically is, especially in an age that potentially grants at least 15 minutes of celebrity to everyone? And, most specifically, can the conditions of fame and obscurity be present simultaneously, in times when we can be extremely well-known to some communities and clusters, but completely unknown to others?

If, starting from this reflection, we shift from a personal and intimate point of view to a much wider perspective, while maintaining our attention focused on the emerging forms of power and fame in contemporary society, some distinct mechanisms become visible: the economic revolution driven by information technologies without any doubt needs to be fueled by a constant production of meanings and semantic discourses; in other words, our expressive capacities need to be kept in constant activity. This is a basic need for all those industries, born thanks to the 90s first Internet boom, that slowly but constantly evolved into a new stage of neoliberism epitomized by Social Media and, more generally, platform capitalism in its many glaring manifestation. As some of their own creators admit, these platforms are basically built around the question “How do we consume as much of a person’s time and attention as possible?”[2] Pushing forward this assumption, what is the main way to obtain someone’s attention, if not to give him or her not only our attention, but a crowd of contacts and profiles ready to like, discuss and share every kind of content they produce?

Inevitably, we can observe a widespread reaction to this state of things. The true or presumed rebellion occurring through memes and politically uncorrect communication may seem like a perfect response to an attention economy that demands all our free time: what better than totally inattentive desecration and distracting idiocy to fight off this extreme demand for care and focus? Truth is, the self-consolatory narratives that followed the Arab Springs, hailing the progressive and democratizing virtues of Twitter and the Californian ideology, have been brutally swept away by the rising tide of the Alt-Right and the resurgence of reactionary ideologies worldwide. As the first “Twitter-President” in the White House doesn’t look like anything digital evangelists had expected, Silicon Valley has rapidly adapted to the new state of things and seems more than willing to cooperate with whoever holds the levers of power. The latest experiments by Facebook and its Chinese counterparts suggest a rather bleak future for freedom of expression, as Social credit systems[3] determining the strength of digital citizenship are already being implemented on a local scale. It could very well be that one day, being “Internet Famous” could save your life.

SUCCESS IS JUST A STICKER AWAY

Andy Kassier and Richard Munaba

"Success is just a sticker away" by Andy Kassier and Richard Munaba allows everyone to be part of Andy’s successful life. You can stick him and his bossy motivative energy everywhere around you online. So you can connect your life with his life. Having him on your website gives you a playful tool for instant success , even when you are just scrolling down and pressing some buttons. You are the actor now, with a little help of Andy you will be the next star of your own universe.

Andy Kassier (1989, Berlin) studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. He lives and works in Cologne and Berlin.

Andy is a conceptual visual artist. His body of work comprises self-portraits, sculptures and installations in which he discusses matters of wealth, success and the related self-representation in our time.

Richard Munaba is a multidisciplinary new media artist based in Brooklyn, NY. His body of work ranges from video, to sculptural objects, to interactive installations. His recent work titled "Windowed Vistas" explores the relationship between human-technology-nature. For the Internet Fame show, Munaba utilizes the tool and connection he built while he worked for GIPHY to create a sticker pack in collaboration with Andy Kassier.

“Success is Just a Sticker Away” bridges the gap between you and your success. Using GIPHY World AR application, you get to stick Andy wherever you need the extra motivation to break the glass ceiling and reach that goal you have always wanted to reach.

ameliazhang.com

GNOTHI SAUTON

Amelia Zhang and Colin Rosati

Feeds of consumption and systems of commodification change perceptions of the self and community. The attention-based economy mediates relationships, elevating them to similar operations as products. These interfaces blur the boundaries between spectacle/audience and consumer/product. To navigate this database logic, we engage in rituals of self-homogenization. These dynamics are often not visible on the surface of GUI, software and interface.

Gnothi Sauton holds a mirror to the inner world. Through the creation of apparel we embrace symptoms of networked technology. By examining self-branding in this era of consumption of relationships we can see a trans-medial smearing of physical and digital. Apparel via branding appeals to our desire to identify with a brand as well as simultaneously promote one's own individuality. Gnothi Sauton co-opts ads into data-aware personalized clothing that reflects taxonomizing algorithms.

Gnothi Sauton merges personal branding and honest depictions of self. Clothing that is brutally honest with the networked technology. Gnothi Sauton intentionally presents “actions speaking louder than words” rather than the curated self. Gnothi Sauton is a concept-based clothing brand converging multiple identities, both material and digital. Drawing from your Facebook's ad profile, we create a custom API to create personalized apparel.

Amelia Zhang born in 1993, is an interdisciplinary new media artist. She is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Painting. She is interested in queer technofutures (or rather techNOfutures). She is currently based in Beijing, China.

Colin Rosati is a Toronto based media artist using researched methodologies employing video installations, web based tools, mobile technologies and electronics. Colin's work often revolves around authenticity, human experience, fallibility and community. He has exhibited in Canada, most recently at Trinity Square Video Gallery’s vitrine space. In 2015 Colin has won Canada’s first emerging digital artist award with his video Autocidal After Image collected by Equitable Bank.

ameliazhang.com

STRICTLY

Carol Breen

Strictly is created from re-edited, reframed and re-choreographed sequences ​taken from episodes of Strictly Come Dancing. Dance steps are repeated and repositioned and as such the performance begins to mimic itself. This piece is a parody, created through the repetition of certain exaggerated gestures and facial expressions that portray a certain type of inauthenticity. This is one part of a body of work which is in development which will involve remaking Strictly Come Dancing by assembling sequences, some made from gifs and online apps, as well as splicing sequences together from screen recordings. Parody is a valuable tool, which can help push content through different value systems. The UK amended the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA) in October 2014 to allow fair dealing with a copyright work for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche (section 30A). The European Court of Justice has held that the parody exception is an autonomous concept of EU law and so should be interpreted uniformly throughout the EU (Lagarde, et al, 2016). I am interested in the power that humor has been afforded by the law. Humor can be used as a tool to liberate content from certain value systems. I am specifically interested in the relationship between film and still image. The speed at which entertainment and distractions operate indicates they are happening faster and faster. How is this affecting film space in the digital age, and how is this speed affecting the boundaries of artistic disciplines online? As content glides through digital platforms, disciplines are eroded and new spaces formed.

Carol works through various mediums to examine how the processes of remaking, re-recording and re-choreographing, can reveal tensions between temporal regimes. Her work explores the impact entangled technologies have on how practice is defined and categorized and she is interested in the politics between digital and physical spaces and places. Carol studied Visual Communications at The Limerick School of Art and Design in Ireland, and completed an MA in Communication Design at Central Saint Martins, London. At present she is doing a Practice-as Research PhD at The Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University England.

ATEMPORAL MEMOIR

Cassio Moreira

At the Age of the White Plates We are continuously outdated A sweeping seconds hand reaches out for unknown nowadays i can Pay for a plate with Internet Images printed on it I Live in Brazil I Hope You Enjoy

Cassio creates high art; electronic music; fashion trends; literature; performances; installations; paintings and draws; videos; mental images; noise. Cassio was born at 1996 June 30. Cassio wants to be succesfull with art production. Cassio wants to meet you.

sites.google.com/view/cassio atemporalmemoir.tumblr.com stoned4ever.bandcamp.com/album/papayas-are-monsters

COOL SPOT

Fausto Marcon

The artwork represents a textual manifesto of modern times.
The text was composed using the beatnik technique of the cut-up; cutting and pasting several phrases, here "cropped" directly from the Internet. The text follows a random evolution of expressions and definitions that refer to the significance of “fame” within the art world and from the artist’s point of view. It includes some distortions of sentences spoken by 90’s counterculture authors, copy/paste from Wikipedia, psychology studies, gossips blogs and interviews to people considered famous.
The text doesn’t want to be a critique of the artist's “fame researching” attitude and not even a hymn to fame or celebrities, although in regard it expresses both positive and negative connotations, together with a reflection on the priorities of life.
The glitch aesthetic, visually "wrong", permits to perceive several layers that recreate a fake hologram effect; in the hypothetically broken frame we notice a particular emoji, inspired by the brand ambassador "Cool Spot", icon of the 90’s, which replaced "Fido Dido", another icon of that era.

Fausto Marcon, art and design enthusiast, musical composer, writer, graphic illustrator, independent publisher, multidisciplinary artist. His works, produced in various media and formats, mainly digitally distributed/promoted, both visible and audible, are composed by a mix of distortions, imperfections, micro variations, transitional harmonics emerging across the entire frequency spectrum and capturing synesthesias of unperceived reality.

marconfausto.wixsite.com

MEAT FRIENDS ON THE INTERNET

Ian Haig

The icon for a blank Facebook profile is re-configured to appear as a head consisting of visceral meat, layers of fat and tissue. While Facebook results in the over-sharing of personal information, such a notion is perversely represented here as the skinned human body - the veneer of our exterior selves broken down and our interiors revealed, left on display within the network of social media.

Haig’s practice refuses to accept that the low and the base level are devoid of value and cultural meaning. His work has been seen in numerous exhibitions including: The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; The Experimental Art Foundation, Adelaide; The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Artec Biennale – Nagoya, Japan; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany.

ianhaig.net

WORKOUT TIPS

Jessica Goehring

Inspired by meme and gif culture the videos are edited to feel both humorous and acidic. “Workout Tips” was created on an iphone using the blemish tool found in the Beauty plus app. The blemish tool not only magically wipes away acne but it can also abstract an image to the point of obliteration.

Jessica Goehring is an American multi-media artist living and working in NY. Her work focuses on themes like consumerism, feminist identity, gender politics and social media.

jessicagoehring.com

THE MEME MANIFESTO

Jules Durand

The Meme Manifesto is a super deep critical book that introduce memes as vernacular artistic movement. Through a graphic approach of several mechanisms inherent to remix culture, it asks various theoreticians and practicians of this phenomenon to look at memes from a critical and aesthetic angle. The book contains a flow of sentences that are defining the specifications of the memeplex spreading through the Internet. Anyone who feels concerned can add his comments during the exhibition.

Jules Durand is currently finishing his studies in Graphic Design and Typography at ÉSAAB Nevers. His master degree focuses on the framing of memes in digital culture. The way they spread, evolve and influence Internet users and our society. He’s leadings an editorial project in order to write and design a Meme Manifesto.

jules-durand.fr

THE SNAPCHAT STICKER SHEET

Kathryn Ashford

New media digital painting. Making sense of the coinciding realities which are upon us. I work to extend my palette and tools to the digital space of which I am fascinated and influenced. My work is driven by the manipulation and participation of technology and imagery: A tantric consciousness projected onto a screen or canvas creates with the intentions of false perceptions, media personas, utopian dreamscapes, telepathic kiss people, sideways dimensions, and abstracted simulated landscapes. Digi Phone Art Shiz is the processes and explorations of form and color, through non-isometric shapes and imagery created using varying methodologies: Snapchat, photoshop, gif, phone/computer apps, etc. Technology directly influences and shapes not only my work but my identity and personhood (via Internet 2017). Learning various ways to record the use of language, symbolism, and sarcasm through the lens of a virtual space. Living/Seeing/Making through artificial Paradox --- the World Wide Web!!!

I am Kathryn Ashford. 23 Years old. Cannabis Religion/A.D.D./introvert/nerd. My work is interested in technology, spirituality, virtuality, mysticism, and social media based identity.
Greater Los Angeles Area. Creator of Non-Empirical Realities.
Seeking to understand the depths of dimensions we cannot fully yet perceive… Studying/Creating to re-materialize spirituality through virtual aspects of reality that are ideal, but nonetheless real. ❤️
Combining Analogous Painterly techniques and intuitional realities to digital mediums.

kathrynashfordstudio.com

SELF-PORTRAIT (2015)

Katrin Krumm

The work titled Self-Portrait shows the famous Google logo with some of the letters being replaced by artifacts of 90/00s pop and subculture, such as the two anime TV shows Pokémon (the rainbow badge) and Sailor Moon (the heart brooch), and the icon of Windows' web browser Internet Explorer.
In her work, the artist reflects on her individual experience of growing up with the Internet and finding her place in a virtual room filled with like minded teenagers. Interacting with others via the first social communities, for example websites dedicated to a cultural phenomenon (for example recreating Pokémon adventures via role-playing games), created both a digital retreat for sharing unusual interests and provided the first possibility for self-display in the web.
In a broader sense, being an active member in various forms of digital communities (discussion boards erc) about subcultural phenomena helped its participants not only in establishing an individual, consistent Internet personality, but also in understanding the basic principles of Internet behavior and getting attention in the digital world, for instance using repetitive imagery through learned symbols (such as the brooch Sailor Moon uses) to demonstrate a certain kind of bond.

The work of Southern Germany based designer and digital artist Katrin Krumm critically focuses on the significance of modern pop-culture and its impact on society. In an often deliberately provocative approach, she recurrently uses iconic artifacts which reflect impressions and tendencies within the most important medium of the Western world - the Internet. Since 2015, Katrin Krumm is part of the artist collectives Very Very Contemporary (Sucuk & Bratwurst, SELAM X u.v.m.) and Freiburg-based Vapor Club.

katrinkrumm.de

INFLAGRAM!

Les Liens Invisibles

Every day over 700 million people use Instagram to follow VIPs and rich inheritors and heiresses living and sharing their unreachable standard of life: beautiful houses with swimming pools, sports cars, yachts, travels.
These so-called influencers are mostly young guys and girls living with the only goal of spending their fortunes in the most impressive ways and without any worry about finding a job.
What if you could show off the same way they do?
✓ having a cappuccino every morning in a different capital
✓ sharing travel pics of the world’s impressive places
✓ showing off the most beautiful food porn
✓ having a drink with a different Hollywood celebrity every night
Now you can with INFLAGRAM!
Finally, a useful App for Instagram that helps you choose magic moments to share from a catalog of amazing pictures taken by someone else.
INFLAGRAM is...
SIMPLE: Money and time are no more blocking problems.
FUNNY: Your limit now is just your imagination.
ECO-FRIENDLY: Differently from the real ones, your rich lifestyle has no impact on the environment. The environment thanks you!
HUMAN-FRIENDLY: Rich people can finally spend money for more useful purposes than stupid parties.
YAY! Let’s change the world’s mindset living in a new reality where everyone can be rich, having success where all the best utopian visions failed before.
Share the life you want, with Inflagram.

Les Liens Invisibles is an imaginary Italy-based artists duo comprised of Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini. Their work is an eclectic recombination of pop net culture, reverse engineering techniques, social media subvertising, and any other kind of media manipulations.
Since 2007 Les Liens Invisibles have been infiltrating the global communication networks in order to join and expand the invisible connections between art, the mediascape and real life.
Most of their artworks and online interventions have been internationally exhibited in galleries, museums (MAXXI Rome, New School of New York, KUMU Art Museum of Talinn) and international art and media-art festivals (International Venice Biennale, Piemonte SHARE Festival, Transmediale).
Les Liens Invisibles have recently been awarded with an honorary distinction at the Transmediale media art Festival (2011).

lesliensinvisibles.org

I AM NOT MAKING ART, I JUST TRY TO FIND A GIRLFRIEND

Nikolas Müller

We call each other ‘man,’ but it’s a joke. It’s like imitating other people.” Says Ben Stiller’s character in Greenberg movie. Nothing can better express a substantial change that happened in our understanding of masculinity. The model of a restless, competitive, successful and heroic alpha „man“ has been questioned by a variety of other models (beta, omega, gamma, sigma etc.) that ALLOW men much more freedom in shaping their lives . The alpha man archetype stopped to be familiar and obvious to follow and FOR MANY became just a role that can be performed („imitated“) without A LOT OF authentic commitment.In a series of melancholic self-portraits the artist mourns the fall of this traditional view of masculinity. By means of self-stylization through its fetishes (Samurai’s helmet, laurel wreath, expensive cars, female attention) he presents contemporary man's ambivalent attitude towards the „alpha“ model where longing for it comes together with a difficulty in meeting its challenges.

Nikolas Müller (*1984) is a German analog and digital artist. He studied communication design at "University Treves". After his graffiti youth in the 90s, he kept collecting his sketchbooks and made around 40 unique books from the last 20 years. His handmade art is sometimes combined with found footage or rendered stickers to combine analog and digital worlds. Since 2004 he is working with digital 3D. As a music video director (for Jens-Uwe Beyer, Heike Hagen and Marco Schröder) his output is conceptual, experimental and narrative.
He was featured in a Feltzine Issue (No.6) and is the assistant of Tim Berresheim. His work got premieres at Denver (USA) and Museum Ludwig Cologne with Kompakt rec. He had a single exhibition at "Society for Fine Arts Treves" and "Gold+Beton" Cologne. He is in the Collection of the Diözesan Museum in Treves.

nikolasmueller.net @thedancingnickboe

THE POST REALITY SHOW

Randall Packer

As the host of The Post Reality Show, I work in my secret, underground studio bunker in Washington, DC, its precise location cannot be divulged due to its highly sensitive nature. Yet, through the alchemical magic of the Network, my studio is open to the world, where I conduct my daily ritual of making art in front of and for the camera. The underground studio bunker is a place not without its dangers. It’s hauntingly quiet down here in the bunker, like the calm before the storm, perhaps a little gloomy for most people’s tastes, but I manage to keep my spirits up ingesting the continuous stream, dreaming the impossible, jotting down a few inspired notes in my journal now and then, savoring some delicious bit of situational irony about the unfolding reality circus here in Washington, DC, and then feverishly broadcasting it all back out again. What can’t you do when you have your very own Internet channel beamed out to the whole wide world!?

Greetings! I’m Randall Packer: artist, composer, and all around virus in the virtual realm. You see, as a student of the virtual, I came to the realization that when reality tv audiences reach critical mass and elect their own leader, we will once and for all enter into a world far beyond the suspension of disbelief, a world of total SHOW, 24/7, in which there is no longer any differentiation between the real and the imaginary. Welcome, to The Post Reality Show.

randallpacker.com zakros.com thirdspacenetwork.com usdat.us

Selam X

xXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXXxXXXXxxXXxXXXxxXXXxXXXXxxxxxXXXXXxxxxxXXXX

selam-x.com

THE INTERWEB

Van Der Borght Bjornus

Information is like a jar of gold at the end of the rainbow. We are at the end of the rainbow trying to reach the top of internet bliss. We are like a new breed, researching, understanding, accepting and adapting to what comes in our path... kinda like mastering software...

In my gif this research is apparent, the artwork becomes objectified as an algorithm of practicing techniques by detaching the ego from an artwork. This is what drives me to create IRL work. In a sense software inspires my IRL work and the internet becomes its tool…

shortly put

Question everything. Break conventions. Step away from the gun.

In my work, I research the effects of an image on the public and try to make the perceived artwork take on a form that at first glance may be taken for granted. The reasoning there is that after you become aware that nothing is for granted the vision gets enriched. To create that through art is an absolution I think any artwork needs to carry with it, if not, you may want to question its existence.
If there is one thing I really hate in anything, in art, it must be commercialization. This is what keeps me from creating a “success story” … Be what u wish u want 2b yet from the point it becomes commercial it's nearly dead. It’s undeniable that relevance and the force driving the artist are more important than any social status an artist may require. It’s important to see through those misconceptions that could be generated by certain popularity. Art should be generous yet unforced upon its viewer, anything else is uncivilized…

@vanderborghtbjornus