Archaic methods, subculture sensibilities, outsider aesthetics & Instagram

A humble cultural artifact attempts to resist the almighty algorithm

Abstract

This project grew from an assignment to design a potential cultural artifact that could resist the forces of control (often called "taste", reeking of cultural capital and long-gone scholars with their legacies of gatekeeping) within visual culture. During the idea-generating process, I quickly realized how easy, enjoyable and interesting actually creating such an artifact would be - and that I had the means to. So. I created an Instagram account, both to host the artifact(s) and be the artifact itself; a space online to populate and fill with homemade collages reflecting myself, my life, my "tastes" and, most of all, what sorts of materials cross my desk throughout a day (show flyers, magazines, poems, crumpled paperbacks and family photos, doodles and drawings and all that and more). This paper was written alongside the creation, generation and sharing of the account and collages, meaning that analysis informed experiment shaped analysis, and so on and so forth. This written portion of the project describes my experiences with the various stages of enacting this cultural artifact. Accompanying images were taken during this process. Where it will go next, now created, realized and analyzed, is beyond the scope of this paper, but certainly worth observing.