Kinetic typography about Issues on Instagram
The brief for this project includes responding creatively to my dissertation theoretical research. The chosen subject of my dissertation is social media. “How has the social media site, Instagram, affected the way artist promote, exhibit and sell their work?” is my intended question for my dissertation essay. This video shows three video clips, meant to be posted on Instagram, exploring the issues surround Instagram by interviewing different people in the art world.
Project Development
For this project I looked into the issues of social media, especially issues that arise on the app Instagram which is primarily a visual platform. Your outcome should explore sequence and narrative in an interesting and experimental way that develops your personal visual voice. It must be presented to a high professional standard. For my final outcome I want to create a set of gifs or still images which explain some of the issues on Instagram. The idea behind this is that I take images off social media, manipulate them and then re post them back onto Instagram and see what response I get from the public.
I have found this account on Instagram called ‘dearcatcallers’ that takes images of her cat callers and posts them along with a caption that states what they had called out at her. She has over 330k followers with only 29 posts. Throughout all these posts are people commenting their opinions and views in the comment section. Personally, I think this concept is very interesting as it turns around the position of power in which she puts herself and the cat caller in. This is a good example of how social media can be used to raise issues in public which is what I intend to do myself.
Another artist that has inspired me is John Holcroft and his pieces to do with social media/ being online. I found him when I was researching for my gifs trying to find some inspiration. John Holcroft is an illustrator based in England. Graduating in the 90s he started going freelance, working in acrylics on board. Since then he has reinvented himself many times. Currently he works digitally but emulates a screen print style, rather like 1950s poster ads. Working digitally is much quicker than in the traditional way plus it allows him to make alterations and send work via email. John has widened his repertoire in order to appeal to different markets such as publishing, editorial, advertising and design. His success is due to the various ways in which his style can be used whether it be for a child’s simplistic book illustration or a more edgy image to illustrate a more serious subject. For those who are familiar with his name, you will be aware of the cutting, satirical messages in his concepts, however this is just one side to his work.
Another image that has inspired me is ‘nobody likes me’ by a anonymous street artist in Vancouver. I think the image is so relevant to my research for my dissertation and my project as it brings to light the issues of Instagram and the affects it has on people who use it. It depicts a young boy crying over having zero likes or comments on his Instagram that paints a sad reality of today’s social media “liked/favourited/retweeted” driven society. The image received a major boost from Banksy, the elusive yet famous British artist, after it was republished on his Facebook page this morning. At the time of publication, within two hours after it was posted on Banksy’s Facebook page with #NotBanksy as its description, the photo has already been liked by more than 60,000 people and shared nearly 7,000 times. Not much is known about the Vancouver artist, although on his website he describes himself as “just a boy with ideas, opinions and a whole lot of aerosol.” The artist is selling 11’x17′ limited edition prints of the work for $30 plus shipping. Banksy’s worldwide fame has transformed his artwork from acts of vandalism to sought-after high art pieces.
https://www.instagram.com/ihatestencils/
From my research I have decided to base the first gif on bullying and how words can hurt people and cause a lot more damage than realised. The idea behind this gif is that the phone has turned into a gun and shoots people with hurtful words. I got this far with the still image before turning it into a gif.
I have drawn the mobile myself, the hand holding the gun was collected from the internet and I have edited it on photoshop by just adding noise and changing it to black and white. The words behind have been scanned in. I used an old nokia brick phone as both the gun model and phone are old which reminds me of the saying ‘bricks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’. Now days this saying isn’t true and this image is supposed to bring light on how much bullying words can hurt someone. The reason I didn’t include a person along with the hand was to represent they aspect of how people can be anonymous online, however still have a big affect on their victims. Overall, I am not happy in the way this has come out as the whole asthetic is not how I pictured it looking. Also I don’t like the fact that the phone and the hand don’t merge very well.
Now I have changed my idea from many low quality gifs about the issues of social media, to focusing on kinetic typography explaining an issue around visual culture on Instagram. I want to interview existing artists about their positive and negative views on social media, then take some of what they say and make a short subtitled video using moving type on after affects. Along with this I want to make a separate gif if I have time. Something that has really inspired me is the ‘itsnicethat’ Instagram account and their series of ‘Nicer Tuesdays’.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZyrXCPFA50/?taken-by=itsnicethat
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZPMwgFllHJ/?taken-by=itsnicethat
I really like the way they space out the text and the colours they use. It has been kept simple but I think its really affective.
I have chosen to take short clips from my interviews and subtitle them. I have then separated them and put segregated them into different volumes. Volume one being about security, volume 2 about time spent on social media, volume 3 about new digital gallery, and volume 4 about pressure. I plan putting these subtitled videos back onto Instagram and seeing if they get a reaction.
Logo Ideas:
I chose to go with the second type face for the ‘volme 1’ and for the different subject issues on each volume I will change the colour of the background and logo to separate them easily. I will just change the colour back ground and volume number to separate them even more but still show they are connected.
Volume 1 – Security
The issue I was looking at in this volume was the negative aspect of how intrusive Instagram can be. We post many things from our daily lives onto Instagram to share with others, but is it too much? Too much to the point where anyone can see, potentially locate where you are in the world and then intrude in real life, not just through a screen. I don’t think many people take this issue as seriously as they could which is why I wanted to bring it up in my series of ‘Insta Issues’. In March 2017 the famous footballer John Terry had his home burgled when he was on holiday. It was suspected that the reason the burglars knew he was away was because of the holiday snaps he had posted on Instagram. He had also shown pictures of parts of his five-million-pound home on Instagram and the luxurious interior which essentially made it a big red target for the burglars. Furthermore, Instagram now has the ability to geo-tag your location which anyone can see on a non privated account. I think this comes with positive and negative aspects. The obvious negative is that it shows where you are, subsequently making you more vulnerable. However, the positives are; it can bring the location more attraction and more tourism, it also serves as an advertisement for the building of place you are in, it can be informative for people searching what the place looks like visually. The discussion I wanted to talk about is do the negatives out way the positives of tagging and showing where you are on Instagram?
Volume 2 – New digital gallery
For artists, Instagram is seen as one of the best platforms to showcase work as its a very visually focused app. In this volume I want to look at the good and bad points about artists sharing their work on Instagram and the effect it is having on real galleries and museums. Instagram has over 800 million monthly users which makes it one of the biggest online gallery spaces. One of the positive aspects of this app is that it cuts out the middle man (art dealers and galleries) and anyone can go straight to the artist by either direct messaging them or commenting on a post. However, this does come with a downfall, not every message the artist receives can be relevant or positive. Furthermore, the effect it is having on galleries and museums is that the public can see the exhibition online now, either through people taking pictures of it and posting them or going straight to the artist’s online portfolio and looking at their work there. In 2013 Alex Hudson wrote an article for the BBC stating ‘Art sold more online than in galleries’ and pointed out how people where buying their art pieces through online shops such as Artsy rather than buying them through galleries. A lot of artists sell their work they post on Instagram or receive commissions through brands seeing their page. Nina Cosford, a well established illustrator, states “I'm often hired for a job off the back of someone seeing a project I worked on with another brand, a self-initiated piece or a sponsored post on my Instagram.” I think that there are many great things about an artist owning a Instagram page to post their art work as it creates work, gives instant feedback, shows what the artist is about and they have total control over what to post. However, it also comes with negative aspects which is what I want to look at in my next volume in Insta Issues. The discussion I wanted to open up was is it a positive that art is moving more into the digital realm and galleries?
Volume 3 – Pressure & Hate
To form a following on Instagram it is advised to post regularly with interesting content, which can subsequently cause a lot of pressure to share. In this volume I’m looking at the pressure maintaining a promotional Instagram for artists. I interviewed Nina Cosford to get her opinion on this matter. I think the amount of pressure you can feel is related to the amount of time you allow yourself to spend on social media and how you take the instant feedback.