The Mercury Theater
Breaking down Instagram: understanding the issue of hashtags, between manipulation and competition.
Who will have the most "likes" on their photo?
Instagram is a competition where everyone plays stratagems to get as many followers as possible, in order to serve a much less brilliant but nonetheless realistic cause: self-worship. Everyone wants to be adored, to be followed en masse. Today we demand a lot from others, they are a reflection of our popularity; this is what Elsa Philippe - aka The Mercury Theater, tries to demonstrate to us through her new concept of "reality TV" games dedicated to art, where each participating artist will have to remain anonymous while trying to win the most like. What are the conditions of the game? Who are the participants? What are the issues ? What will this tell us? These are all questions that we will discover over the coming weeks via the @the_mercury_theatre instagram platform.
Analysis of Instagram: how to understand the stakes of hashtags, from manipulation to competition.
Who's going to win most of "likes"?
Instagram is a world of challenges where everyone needs to have a strategy to gain more and more followers; and this is not in order to "make friends" but to be admired. Welcome to the world of selfishness and narcissism. Nowadays, we're living through "audience's eyes" and we're expecting much more from people around us because they're the mirror of our popularity. That's what Elsa Philippe - aka The Mercury Theater - is trying to demonstrate in her new "reality show" concept dedicated to artists, where each of them create an anonymous Instagram account to show their work, and then run the "likes" pursuit.
So what are the rules of this game? Who are the participants? What will the stakes of this game reveal? So many questions we're asking ourselves about this performance we're so excited to discover for the next few weeks on @the_mercury_theatre Instagram account!
“The Mercury Theater is an art competition that takes place on Instagram in which several international artists participate. They are invited to question Instagram as a medium. The Mercury Theater uses the Internet as a playground: the artists are the competitors, they play with an anonymous Instagram account, obeying rules similar to those of a reality TV game with casting, challenges given each week, eliminations, winner, prizes. The public votes by “liking” the images / videos published . This project will be developed in residency in Heima (Iceland) and at the Laboratory in Spokane (United States). Elsa Philippe has invited 31 artists to be potential players. During the first week of February 2016, the public will be able to vote on Instagram for select their preferred anonymous identity. The candidates who have gathered the most 'likes' will be shortlisted. Depending on the creativity and relevance of the identity / project developed by each ur preselected artist, Elsa Philippe will make a final selection of 10 artists. They will have until the beginning of April to develop their identity / project on Instagram. The game will start in early April and will run for 8 weeks. "
"The Mercury Theater is an Instagram art competition which involves international artists and engage them to think of Instagram as a medium itself. The Mercury Theater uses the Internet as a playground: the artists are the contestants, they play with a new anonymous Instagram account, obeying rules similar to those of a reality show: casting, challenges given by a different curator each week, eliminations, winner. The audience votes by liking the posts. This project will be developed during residencies at Heima (Iceland) and Laboratory (US) . Elsa Philippe invited 31 international artists to be potential players. During the first week of February 2016, the public will be able to vote for their favorite (s) anonymous identities. The candidates who will get the more likes are pre-selected and Elsa Philippe will then make the final selection of 10 artists, upon the creativity and concept of the identities / projects developed by the artists. The 10 selected artists will have until the beginni ng of April to develop their new identity / project. The game starts at the beginning of April 2016 and lasts for 8 weeks. "
#feminism #pastelandrophobia #pastel #androphobia #selfie
#feminism #voyeur #camgirl #webcam #internet
#digitalloneliness #digitalinteractions #soloroutine #pullup #wet
This project will therefore take place in two stages. Initially, Elsa Philippe first carried out a "Casting" by sending an invitation to 30 artists, who sent her an image or video by email, accompanied by their hashtag which were subsequently published on the Instagram account of "The Mercury Theater". Each work is anonymous and was submitted to the public vote from February 1 to 7, 2016. The 20 artists who collected the most "likes" were shortlisted and Mercury (Elsa Philippe) will then make a final selection of 10 artists to participate at the "game" which will take place from the beginning of April until the end of May. In this last step, the selected artists will have to create an "anonymous" Instagram account, and regularly post "posts" whose goal is to get the most likes and meet challenges, each week an elimination will be made.
"By confronting artists in the format of a reality TV game, The Mercury Theater questions the issues of social networks. By comparing certain similarities between our behavior on the Internet and that of participants in reality TV games, this project puts our finger on how we use images to shape our identities so that we can play with them and gain some form of recognition. "
This project will be developed in 2 steps. First of all, Elsa Philippe decided to make a kind of "casting", submitting her project to 30 artists she had chosen before. She told everyone to send her back a photo or video to represent their work, which has been published then on the Instagram account of "The Mercury Theater". She insisted on the fact that each image will be anonymous, so the public have been able to vote for their favorite one from the 1st to the 7th of February 2016. The 20 winners would be those with the more "likes" on their image and Mercury 'Elsa Philippe) will select at the end 10 artists to take part in "the game" which is really starting on April and ending in May. During that the last step, the artists will have to create their own "anonymous" Instagram account, putting images or videos on it as regularly as possible, and "likes" as possible, exactly like in reality-shows on TV. Every Week one of them will be exclude of the Game.
"The Mercury Theater aims to reflect on the issues surrounding social media by exposing the participating artists to the format of an online reality show. By staging similarities of our online behaviors and these of reality shows's participants, this project questions the ways we use images to polish our online identities in order to play with them and gain some recognition. "
This project asks us about our means of communication in order to make ourselves known, this search for recognition, this quest for the number of "likes" and "followers" ... How will visual artists find their place? Will they be judged on the quality of their work or rather on the strategic use of the appropriate hashtag? Elsa Philippe, highlights the duality of the IRL work and its social subjectivity linked to digital technology.
"Elsa Philippe is interested in the development of the human self in contemporary cultures, and especially in the ways we use images through communication technologies to serve the cult of the self. Her work portays a burlesque vision of narcissistic behaviors and the ways new technologies affect our daily life rituals. She creates a digital and chaotic universe in which its garishly colorful and excessive aesthetic depicts an absurd and grotesque experience of the world and deals with the comic sensibility of contemporary society and its evolution. "
This project deals with our everyday ways of communication, trying to understand our unstoppable desire of recognition, our will of being admired or being famous ... How these artists will find their place? Will they only be judged on their work or also on their ability to use strategic hashtags? Elsa Philippe wants to highlight the duality of virtual work of art and its social subjectivity due to numeric culture.
"Elsa Philippe is interested in the development of individuality in contemporary cultures, and in particular how we use images through new means of communication to serve the cult of the self. Her work depicts behavior in a burlesque way. narcissists and the way new technologies influence our daily behaviors, she fabricates a digital and chaotic universe whose garish and excessive aesthetic reveals an absurd and grotesque experience of the world and deals with the comedic sensibility of our society and its evolution. "
#art #heart #666 #photographie #asdeTreflequipiquetonCoeurCaroline
#food #cat #sexy #lol #heatlthy
#cute #bondage #kink #blackgirls #daddy
The artists in competition: Serafín Álvarez, Benjamin Blaquart, Arvida Byström, Marielle Chabal, Curt Cloninger, Jeremy Couillard, Valentin Dommanget, Taylor Ervin, Mike Fleming, Mathilde Ganancia, Hélène Garcia, Emilie Gervais, Julia Gorostidi, Steven Guermeur, Alice Guittard, Halina Kliem, Rafaela Lopez, Benjamin Magot, Antoine Mathieu, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, Danner Milliken, Momu & No Es, Porpentine, Ryan Rivadeneyra, Cecilia Salama, Kevin Senant, Valentine Siboni, Molly Soda, Liv Thurley, Rafal Zajko.
The Mercury Theater was recently exhibited, as part of Bricks & Clicks # 1, at Galerie Christophe Gaillard (Paris), curated by Romain Semeteys (Lechassis) (from 23.01.2016 to 06.02.2016)
The artists in competition: Serafín Álvarez, Benjamin Blaquart, Arvida Byström, Marielle Chabal, Curt Cloninger, Jeremy Couillard, Valentin Dommanget, Taylor Ervin, Mike Fleming, Mathilde Ganancia, Hélène Garcia, Emilie Gervais, Julia Gorostidi, Steven Guermeur, Alice Guittard, Halina Kliem, Rafaela Lopez, Benjamin Magot, Antoine Mathieu, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, Danner Milliken, Momu & No Es, Porpentine, Ryan Rivadeneyra, Cecilia Salama, Kevin Senant, Valentine Siboni, Molly Soda, Liv Thurley, Rafal Zajko.
The Mercury Theater has been exposed in Bricks & Clicks # 1, at Christophe Gaillard Gallery (Paris), with the curator is Romain Semeteys (Lechassis) (23.01.2016 / 06.02.2016)
http://bricksandclicks.lechassis.fr/
http://galeriegaillard.com/fr/expositions/presentation/101/bricks-clicks
More information:
http://bricksandclicks.lechassis.fr/
http://galeriegaillard.com/fr/expositions/presentation/101/bricks-clicks
Written by Aali Alien & Lonely † Boy