Category Archives: art

Expanding the Definition of Avatar: Artists, Avatars and Self-Portraiture

Posted on October 29, 2011 by An Xiao

Artists and avatars. I’m always very conscious about the way I use my avatar, the message it sends to the world. Some call it branding, some call it self-expression, some call it communication. But my avatar represents me in some fashion. Kyle Chayka in LA Weekly wrote a thought-provoking essay about artists and their online [...]

Why I Love ArtsTech, or, the World Needs More Villages

Posted on October 25, 2011 by An Xiao

There’s a very nice piece out in this past Sunday’s New York Times about the Arts, Culture and Technology Meetup (aka ArtsTech). Here’s what writer Jennifer Preston had to say: Unlike some people who never step outside of their online Twitter streams, members of this group use the micro-blogging service to help them follow each [...]

Talking about social media art in China

Posted on October 20, 2011 by An Xiao

Two social media-related events these past few weeks in Beijing. I’ve spoken about social media art and done social media art in a few countries now, but China always presents the most potent site for exploration. I gave a talk at the Maker’s Carnival, a festival of making in partnership with UNESCO, Qinghua University, Shanghai [...]

At the Old Drum and Bell Towers in Beijing

Posted on June 26, 2011 by An Xiao

Swung by the Old Drum and Bell Towers area this weekend to see Chak Man Lei’s tango dancing, as part of Stephanie Rothenberg’s Travel Office, an art installation/performance art intervention she’s set up in Beijing. The area reminds me a bit of Brooklyn, a historic part of Old Beijing quickly gentrifying and attracting “hipster” types [...]

ARTnews, Creator’s Project, and Why Social Media Art is Important

Posted on June 4, 2011 by An Xiao

I’m thrilled to appear in “The Social Revolution: The Art World on Facebook“, a cover story by Barbara Pollack for the June edition of ARTnews: “Artists who have been working with the Internet and with new media since that genre began are interested in participatory systems and social networking,” says Lauren Cornell, the curator of [...]

A Weekend of Social Media Art: Xindanwei and Welcome to Enter at the JUE Festival

Posted on March 30, 2011 by An Xiao

An excellent weekend in Shanghai, my first of what I’m sure will be many times in this city by the sea. I first spoke at Xindanwei (新单位), a co-working and new media space that I’ve been admiring from afar. For their Weekend of Social Media (社会性媒体周末), I introduced the audience to social media art and [...]