semi-online blues

My relationships to the online world is fractured. I spend a lot of time with it, but I still manage to keep it at an arms length. I don't dig too deep into online rabbit holes or spend a lot of time in any online communities. One of the most persistent cliche's you hear about the internet is that it grants the user a kind of anonyimity, a detatchment from your physical body that could make it easier, not to mention safer, to connect with people than it is in physical space. This isn't quite the case for me. I feel just as vulnerable typing a message into a discord server as I would walking into a bar. Either way, to engage is to be seen and to be seen in any context is always going to be vulnerable in a wholly unpredicable way. I'm trying to numb myself to that, both online and IRL, but it's hard :/

I've been off of most social media for a few months now, because it was seriously messing with my head. It hurts to be able to see what other people are getting up to without you, all the people you know well enough to follow but not enough to reach out. Some images have a way of getting under your skin, they seem to strike a nerve somewhere deep inside. You can try to untangle the wires, but for the most part it's no use - all you can do is stop looking and move on. Sometimes it feels like the whole thing is a giant psy-op.

Pulled the plug on spotify not too long ago. That's a transition that's been easier than I expected, considering how much I've used it over the past few years. Spotify's just a uniquely shitty company and I figured an extra $14 dollars in my pocket each month couldn't hurt. All the streaming services I had log-in info to put in blocks against password sharing, so I've actually been totally cold turkey on streaming. I'll live. For christmas, my brother actually got me a portable CD player which works pretty well. Besides that, I've rediscovered the age-old practice of ripping CD's and getting them onto my phone. It's fun and special collecting phsycial media - renting shit sucks.

So no streaming and no social media (including substack!) - cringe corporate bullshit anyway - but i am going to start daily blogging. Why?

• I like writing. Over the last year, I cultivated a habit of typing into the notes app on my labtop, just to think about things and work out ideas. It's useful sometimes, but I don't think it makes you a better writer. This is kind of a way to replace that habit with something more productive.
• I started this blog in 2023 to explore what it means to be an artist and make challenging art today, and I'd like to continue pursuing that line of inquiry.
• There is obviously a lot of really cool and valuable stuff being made right now, online, in the art world, and beyond. It's all worth exploring, sharing, and talking about.
• All this is deeply related to the global situation - the interconnected crisis we're facing alongside this weird, evershifting relationship to technology. The investigation into challenging art is also about the search for a meaningful form of resistance.

That's the pitch: art, tech, theory, politics, and media. I'll also keep you updated on anything I'm doing to get my art practice up and running.

Wish me luck,

-v0id