Digital culture through an Andy Warhol lens...tracing the trajectories of our contemporary times as embodied by Warhol. Part of a "Gretzky is Everywhere" exhibit at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, September 1st, 2017.

1. Gretzky is Everywhere
how pop art & digital culture intertwine
Bonnie Stewart & Daniel Lynds

2. we grew up in a time & place where ONE of
these images was familiar
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyc/145786537 https://www.flickr.com/photos/solapenna/6304055976

3. Andy Warhol looks a scream
Hang him on my wall
Andy Warhol, Silver Screen
Can’t tell them apart at all
- David Bowie, 1971

4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/82549647

5. so eventually
i learned to explore
the unfamiliar…

6. digital media platforms *are* familiar...but
we need to take them apart & analyze them
Twitter amplifies celebrity

7. Warhol = a powerful lens for analyzing how
contemporary digital culture shapes us

8. https://www.instagram.com/p/BKtuN-TgRY1/?taken-by=dllynds

9. https://s3.amazonaws.com/vf-images/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/velvet-undergournd_nico_frontsigned.jpg

10. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/early-exposure-first-films-andy-warhol/
‘The more you look at the same exact thing,
the more meaning goes away,
and the better and emptier you feel.”
— Andy Warhol, 1975

11. “I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood.
They're so beautiful. Everything's plastic,
but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”

12. Andy Warhol was a prophet of our
contemporary times

13. ...because so many trajectories of change are
embodied by him
identity
commercialization
mass
participation
celebrity

17. so is Warhol to blame?

19. techniques & technology
“digital” derives from fingers/digits
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/GuaTew
et_tree_of_life-LHFage.jpg/603px-GuaTewet_tree_of_life-LHFage.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Cave_Paintings_Bhe
mbetika_%282%29e.jpg/1024px-Cave_Paintings_Bhembetika_%282%29e.jpg

20. c 1400

21. 15th century 1871
Ambrogio de Predis
James Whistler

22. pop art
dada & duchamp - 1910s - onward
https://www.nga.gov/images/decor/dadainfo_fs.shtm
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Duchamp_Fountaine.jpg

23. found art & mash-ups
tremors and after effects of duchamp
https://www.nga.gov/images/decor/dadainfo_fs.shtm

24. sports/celebrity/branding
http://www.scad.edu/content/privacy-and-terms-use

25. Gretzky the celebrity
https://www.nhl.com/news/wayne-gretzky-lends-voice-to-the-simpsons-episode/c-283830906

26. mythology
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2455/3895838980_372d8d099b_b.jpg
tackling Gretzky …
“was like wrapping your arms
around fog.”
- Denis Potvin

27. Warhol was
fascinated by
celebrity
& myth-making

28. he cultivated
celebrity, &
created
& fostered
spectacle

29. digital culture follows that arc

30. “Exposure and attention make a work famous - the
more you talk about it, the more attention it gets, the
more validity it achieves.”
- Andy Warhol
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37793379@N02/25916642724

31. Web 2.0 was supposed to be democratizing
It hasn’t been.
It has created
platforms for
microcelebrity,
sensationalism,
and amplified
societal bias

32. instead, influence is primarily about visibility,
connections, & perceived clout
● how many followers
do you have?
● do your tweets get
engagement?
● are your tweets
circulated by bigger
names?
● what conversations
do you show up in?

33. https://bjergblog.com/2015/04/28/digital-culture-didnt-turn-out-democratic/
shaped by algorithmic profiling
& ambient data collection

34. in spite of his
focus on mass
production &
“everyone,”
Warhol built a
cult of
personality

35. built partly on repetition &
remix of other people’s cool
https://www.flickr.com/photos/oddsock/139594672

36. roots of remix
gold marilyn
1962
www.flickr.com/photos/pestoverde/8476636051/

37. remix culture
marilyn diptych
1962
www.flickr.com/photos/pestoverde/8476636051/

38. Marilyn Monroe - 1967
www.flickr.com/photos/raelga/4408707590

39. filters now

40. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/22237211809/

42. was the “15 minutes”
quote serious?
with Warhol we
never know.
ongoing playfulness
wry approach

43. remix now = a
central feature of
communication,
self-expression,
& play

44. even work,
sometimes

45. breaking down binaries & boundaries
between “high” & “low” forms

46. Warhol’s work is, at its core, a blatant
acknowledgement of the commercialism of
American society.

47. sometimes
even an
embrace

48. Warhol started as a commercial artist

49. “After I did the thing called “art” or whatever it’s called, I
went into business art. I wanted to be an
Art Businessman or a Business Artist. Being good in
Business is the most fascinating kind of art.”
- Andy Warhol, 1975

50. digital culture, too, is all about selling yourself

51. Web 2.0, the web of platforms,
personalization, clickbait, and
filter bubbles...exists by
extracting individuals’ data
through persistent
surveillance, data mining,
tracking, and browser
fingerprinting and then
seeking new and “innovative”
ways to monetize that data.
- Chris Gilliard, 2017
...or being sold.

52. collaboration &
commercialization

55. the question is...how will we use these paths
Warhol paved for us?

56. omg. everything is terrible.
everybody go home.

57. WAIT.

58. none of our
problems
come FROM
Warhol, any
more than
they come
from
technology
alone

59. icon &
iconoclast,
survivor,
breaker of new
ground.
flamboyant &
vulnerable,
public yet
private.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andy_Warhol_by_Jack_Mitchell.jpg

60. really, WARHOL is everywhere, these days.
THANK YOU.