Masturblogging, 3’x2’, March 2011. I made this piece as a critique of Tumblr or blogging in general. The picture which fills the body of the woman (in the format of the Tumblr archive) is a picture I took at the Mauerpark flea market in Berlin this past February. I had posted the photo on here a couple weeks back and it had been re-blogged or liked by about 80 or so different people.  Generally speaking, I believe that this sort of feedback and online social interaction has become inherently pleasurable and potentially addicting to users. Without realizing it, we often post content online seeking reactions or feedback rather than for reasons motivated by a genuine desire to express ourselves or share information.  Specifically, it is the duality of sex as both a potentially positive and negative act (an act of self-expression or hedonism) that makes it relatable to blogging.  Typically on Tumblr, people are posting ‘recycled’ images of (usually) very visually stimulating material.  Our reblogging has nothing to do with the source of an image or its creator; we simply take it to post on our blog because we believe it to somehow be a reflection of our selves or taste, and want it to say something about us and our interests to a larger audience. Most often these images, however, exist on thousands of other Tumblr blogs and therefore are not unique at all and perhaps work to degrade the value of the images themselves, their effect, and creators. I know it all sounds overly negative, but hey, I’m on Tumblr, I post pictures of my art for others to see, I recycle images I find — I very much am the target of my own criticism. There are a million other positive things I can say about Tumblr and blogging. I just think that it’s important to be aware of how social media can affect the way we think, consume content, interact with others, and represent ourselves online or in real life.

Masturblogging, 3’x2’, March 2011.

I made this piece as a critique of Tumblr or blogging in general. The picture which fills the body of the woman (in the format of the Tumblr archive) is a picture I took at the Mauerpark flea market in Berlin this past February. I had posted the photo on here a couple weeks back and it had been re-blogged or liked by about 80 or so different people.  Generally speaking, I believe that this sort of feedback and online social interaction has become inherently pleasurable and potentially addicting to users. Without realizing it, we often post content online seeking reactions or feedback rather than for reasons motivated by a genuine desire to express ourselves or share information.  Specifically, it is the duality of sex as both a potentially positive and negative act (an act of self-expression or hedonism) that makes it relatable to blogging. 

Typically on Tumblr, people are posting ‘recycled’ images of (usually) very visually stimulating material.  Our reblogging has nothing to do with the source of an image or its creator; we simply take it to post on our blog because we believe it to somehow be a reflection of our selves or taste, and want it to say something about us and our interests to a larger audience. Most often these images, however, exist on thousands of other Tumblr blogs and therefore are not unique at all and perhaps work to degrade the value of the images themselves, their effect, and creators.

I know it all sounds overly negative, but hey, I’m on Tumblr, I post pictures of my art for others to see, I recycle images I find — I very much am the target of my own criticism. There are a million other positive things I can say about Tumblr and blogging. I just think that it’s important to be aware of how social media can affect the way we think, consume content, interact with others, and represent ourselves online or in real life.