ALSO

Why make a sculpture or new art product of something that you can properly express in two (or twenty) images next to eachother?

Unless there is something to be learned materially from that process…or unless that process will give things a new meaning beyond just attaching your artist brand to them in a way that is justified by a gallery system…or is that the intent?

That does happen and making things is still important, as a means of learning or collaborating, or as a means of presentation. “Making” can mean lots of things, too…sometimes it’s just about merging elements of things, polishing up sequences, etc. Some things can’t be expressed or explored without a more rigorous element of making. Some things also can’t be expressed in a jpeg or a video.

Plus, Tumblr gets old, and heartbreaking, and exhausting at times. There are days when it all feels like noise, and when the brand feels tired. (Those days are good for bootlegging.) There are days when it feels like none of this is collaborative at all, and “none of them get it :’0.” There are days when you don’t want to share….you just want to be buried in the trenches of your solo studio factory. I’ve abandoned Tumblr a few times, now.

To be honest I really do see some of what I do on Tumblr as art. I think of my Blackmoth.info blog as a video and a print at once, as one ongoing core sample.

BUT

Do those two images count as the expression of that idea? As the idea itself? As the product? Are those the same thing? Do the people reproducing it really get it? Or did they adapt it to fit their own interests?

Do you have to extract it into yet another product or object (or art show) in order to prove it? What if you simply don’t have the resources? How long can you hold onto that idea?

What if one image is from one account, and one is from another? (TRICKY)

How do you claim what your idea or experience was when it’s already in the pool and being instantly replicated? Give it a name? Make a new account? Brand it?

To me these are the biggest issues facing production (in a world of seemingly abundant products and content) today.