Twitter as an Art

Since we will be exploring the ins and outs of social media and I come from a performing arts background, I thought I’d share a few thoughts and articles where the virtual and art worlds are meeting up.

http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2011/tweets/

Creative Time Tweets is a series of three commissioned Twitter performances that aims to promote dialogue and engage audiences both in person and through Twitter feed.

The first project, #24hPort took place on May 25, 2001 in the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Artist Man Barlett spent 24 hours in the terminal asking people both in person and on-line, “Where have you been?” and “Where are you going?” Conversations were mainly based around memory and geography and produced real-time history of both the artist and audience’s collective experiences. The project also explores the role of the NY transportation system.

The second project explores the journey of the telegraph and the history of communication technologies through an “old-school” Twitter activity. David Horvitz will first make a hard copy of every tweet with the hashtag #5992 from June 17-23 and then on June 24 he will carry the stack of tweets and travel with them by plane from San Francisco to Washinton, D.C. following the original route of the first transcontinental telegram (1861). Once Horvitz arrives in D.C., the collection of tweets will be submitted to the Library of Congress public archive. The website best states that “Serving as an anachronistic messenger in an era in which distance is no longer an obstacle to communication, Horvitz will re-engage with the relatively slow pace of the physical journey as a meaningful and transformative phase in the life of the message.”

The third project is still underway.

I wonder – are these projects art? Are the projects just exploring and comparing our two separate worlds (virtual vs. actual reality or old vs. new practices in communication)? What does the word live mean anymore? Live performance art? Live feed on the internet? Live reactions mixing with virtual reactions? Is creative use of social media its own art form?

Other interesting Twitter and art intersections include:

- Audience members being encouraged to tweet reactions during a performance.

- The world’s first piece of music is being composed from Twitter posts. The Twinthesis project uses a computer program to transform tweets into sounds. Each character has its own tone – a range from high pitched bleeps and deeper humming. The artists goal is to create a global symphony using tweets from around the world.