15 Works of Art Inspired by Social Media

In 2014, research showed that over 2 billion people have used the Internet across the world. Of those people, nearly 70% have signed into a social networking site in the past year to connect with others, curate their personal images, and share information with people across the virtual universe.

Given these facts, social media has been a growing medium in visual art over the past 20 years. In the 1990s, artists who couldn't find commercial success began sharing their work on early webpages. In 2002, Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen developed "Listening Post," an installation that pulled real-time text from chat rooms, bulletin boards, and online forums, and displayed them across hundreds of small screens.

Today, artists regularly tap social media as a way to create a shared experience, crowdsource participants and ideas, and explore the dynamics between the virtual and IRL. While you ponder just what you could create in the approximately 3-4 hours you'll spend using social media today, check out these 15 Works of Art Inspired by Social Media.

The Artist Is Kinda Present by An Xiao (2010)

As a response to Marina Abramovic's The Artist is Present, which was taking place at MoMA at the time, An Xiao developed a performance piece held at the New York Zen Meditation Center called The Artist Is Kinda Present.

Visitors received the following instructions upon arrival: “Sit down with the artist. Find a comfortable position. Be present with the artist in any of the following ways:

A text message to: [PHONE NUMBER]

A tweet to @anxiaostudio.

The artist will respond in kind.

When you have reached a satisfactory connection, or you simply grow bored, you may leave.”

Script by Lauren McCarthy (2010)

For one month in 2010, Lauren McCarthy let strangers from the Internet script her life. According to McCarthy, “each day, anyone was welcome to add dialogue, setting, costume, and stage directions to my script for the next day. At midnight, the script was closed for editing, and it became the basis for the performance of my life the following day.” Each scripted day's activities were then performed, documented, and reflected upon on a performance blog.

Deb by Matt Held (2008)

Inspired by how we carefully curate our personal image on social media, Brooklyn artist Matt Held took Facebook profile pictures and turned them into oil on canvas pieces. What began as one portrait of his wife's Facebook profile picture turned into thousands of strangers requesting his Facebook friendship with hopes of getting a portrait, as well. These images became part of a collection called Facebook Portraits, compiled from 2008-2010.

#24Kith by Man Bartlett (2010)

As a performance piece during the “The Social Graph” exhibit, the artist Man Bartlett asked people to complete the phrase “I AM…” using the hashtag #24Kith to signify their addition. Bartlett then chose a feather to place on a form in response to each submission. Bartlett was filmed doing this for 24 hours, with the resulting work aired live only on Hyperallergic.

The Big Plot by Paolo Cirio (2009)

The Big Plot, by Italian artist Paolo Cirio, uses the mediums of Twitter, video, and blogs to deliver a complex spy story. The work examines espionage and personal privacy on the Internet and highlights the somewhat dysfunctional role of social media in our lives.

#FaustosWitness by Jill Magid (2011)

While visiting Austin in 2010, artist Jill Magid witnessed an odd shooting by a man named Fausto Cardenos on the steps of the Texas Capitol Building. Magid saw the act as tragic and poetic, served as a witness for Fausto, and reported from the hearing on Twitter as a piece, #FaustosWitness, commissioned by Shane Brennan for CreativeTime. The experience was also built into a greater exhibit called “Failed States.”

Public Access by David Horvitz (2011)

Between December 2010 - January 2011, David Horvitz traveled up the entire California coast, taking photographs of the Pacific Ocean from 50 different beach access spots. Carefully including himself in the frame of each image, Horvitz then uploaded them to the Wikipedia page for each coastal location, even creating pages for those that did not exist. Public Access caused an uproar in the Wikipedia Editor community, and in turn sparked a conversation about data, information, and ownership on the internet.

#175. Last Breath by Rina Dweck (2012)

After finding herself in a funk with her painting, artist Rina Dweck refreshed her art portfolio by refreshing her Facebook profile pictures—every day for a year. For Project Face, which explores how we interact with social media today, Dweck spent several hours a day creating a transformed image of herself before uploading it to Facebook.

Social Network by Jeremiah Teipen (2009)

Jeremiah Teipen's Social Network explores what the artist calls “the visual gluttony of the web.” Consisting of an HD screen and video footage, the work contains a succession of fast-changing videos compiled from pictures found via Google Image searches.

Edward Hopper's Sunlight in a Cafeteria (1958) by Nastya Ptichek (2014)

In her project titled Emoji Nation, Nastya Ptichek embeds icons from popular social media platforms onto great works in art history. One set includes several Edward Hopper paintings, with images of longing and loneliness poignantly highlighted by status updates and friend request icons.

Rachel is by Rachel Perry Welty (2009)

Rachel Perry Welty's Twitter handle description says it all: “I’m using Twitter as a performance space—always attempting to capture the daily life of an artist in one hundred forty characters exactly.” Welty's 2009 iPhone piece Rachel is portrayed a status update on Facebook for every minute in a 24-hour period, creating an online performance that was documented in a 551-page slideshow. The work highlighted her obsession with rituals and highlighting the mundane aspects of our lives.

Growth Spurts: Nodes and Links by Debbie Hesse (2009)

In 2009, artist Debbie Hesse curated an exhibition at the Haskins Laboratories in New Haven called Status Update, which examined the convergence of art and social media. Hesse's own string installation, Growth Spurts: Nodes and Links, was included, using the idea of the Facebook friend network to highlight connections she made with other artists at the show.

Fbook, What My Friends Are Doing On Facebook by Lee Walton (2009)

Lee Walton's Fbook, What My Friends Are Doing On Facebook was also part of the Status Update exhibition in 2009. Walton's project, consisting of 50 reenactments of friends' Facebook status updates, explored the dynamic relationship between private and public space that gets blurred with the existence of Facebook and other social media platforms.

Listen and Repeat by Rachel Knoll (2013)

If a tweet happens in the woods, and nobody hears it, did it happen? This is the question at the center of Rachel Knoll's art installation Listen and Repeat, which consists of a computer reading tweets aloud to a forest of trees in Washington. Knoll describes the piece as highlighting how how social media connects us through the virtual world but disconnects us from the natural world.

CarbonFeed by Jon Bellona (2014)

Jon Bellona's CarbonFeed, which was exhibited at the University of Virginia's library in August, brought attention to the carbon emissions generated from tweets by converting them into real-time musical carbon spurts in water-filled cylinders. While the carbon footprint of one tweet is estimated at a minor 0.02 grams of CO2, Bellona's hope was that the piece would highlight the impact of our Internet lives on the environment around us.