American Artist Response:
I am someone who, in many ways, grew up on the internet. It's where I first discovered music and art, developed a sense of humor, and learned what sex was. Since I was 12 or so, I have spent a great deal of time exploring sites like Tumblr, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as countless chatrooms, image boards, and forums. I'd credit this early exposure with much of my personality today- I very much feel that I am a child of the internet. For these reasons, I've been very interested in art that is about the internet, internet culture, and its effects on society. I almost can't believe I've never heard of American Artist, because of how directly their work relates to my interests. The act of renaming themself is strikingly interesting. To me, it seems like an inquiry into what a name or descriptor like "American Artist" truly signifies. They are now the American Artist.
One of the lines that stood out to me in this article was discussing "the strange nature of avatars, digital images meant to represent technology users that exist only as shells online." I've often pondered this myself, as it presents an interesting question about what the true "self" is. In high school, I became familiar with a community on Tumblr known as the "kin community." The basis of this community is a feeling that you are or are meant to be something different from your physical body. I was specifically interested in the "fiction kin" group: essentially, they are people who relate to a fictional character so strongly that they believe they literally are that character, and act as that character online. Some of these people believe that they were this character in a past life, or else in an alternate universe. In this way, fiction kin becomes an extreme form of the internet avatar: people operating behind screens using pictures of a fictional character to represent themselves, acting like the character, and interacting with others as them. You could call this delusion, and in some ways it is. However, for the people acting behind these screens, and interacting with others, for all intents and purposes they ARE the character. So in this context, what is the true self? If someone lives most of their life online, might their avatar be a better representation of them than their actual body? I'm not sure, but I would love to explore these questions in our project!
I am someone who, in many ways, grew up on the internet. It's where I first discovered music and art, developed a sense of humor, and learned what sex was. Since I was 12 or so, I have spent a great deal of time exploring sites like Tumblr, Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as countless chatrooms, image boards, and forums. I'd credit this early exposure with much of my personality today- I very much feel that I am a child of the internet. For these reasons, I've been very interested in art that is about the internet, internet culture, and its effects on society. I almost can't believe I've never heard of American Artist, because of how directly their work relates to my interests. The act of renaming themself is strikingly interesting. To me, it seems like an inquiry into what a name or descriptor like "American Artist" truly signifies. They are now the American Artist.
One of the lines that stood out to me in this article was discussing "the strange nature of avatars, digital images meant to represent technology users that exist only as shells online." I've often pondered this myself, as it presents an interesting question about what the true "self" is. In high school, I became familiar with a community on Tumblr known as the "kin community." The basis of this community is a feeling that you are or are meant to be something different from your physical body. I was specifically interested in the "fiction kin" group: essentially, they are people who relate to a fictional character so strongly that they believe they literally are that character, and act as that character online. Some of these people believe that they were this character in a past life, or else in an alternate universe. In this way, fiction kin becomes an extreme form of the internet avatar: people operating behind screens using pictures of a fictional character to represent themselves, acting like the character, and interacting with others as them. You could call this delusion, and in some ways it is. However, for the people acting behind these screens, and interacting with others, for all intents and purposes they ARE the character. So in this context, what is the true self? If someone lives most of their life online, might their avatar be a better representation of them than their actual body? I'm not sure, but I would love to explore these questions in our project!
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