One of the great things about where I live in Port Kembla (home of the Wodi Wodi people, on Dharawal nation) is the growing array of murals adorning the place. Since 2019, the Wonderwalls festival has been gradually transforming blank walls in the main drag and around the town generally, into vibrant pieces of art. The festival’s on this weekend, although the murals, of course, remain long after it ends, and a walk up Wentworth St is now rewardingly full of colourful, thought-provoking public art from previous events. The pic above is Scott Nagy and Krimsone’s work in progress, on the wall of The Foundery, a good place for coffee and browsing second hand books, if you happen to come for a gander.
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| Will Mastodon make Twitter extinct? And is it better for creatives?
So Elon Musk bought Twitter and rival platform Mastodon has added half a million new accounts since October 27. I’d seen the hashtag #TwitterExodus but had little awareness of Mastodon until I read Josh Taylor’s article in the Guardian which claims to give you “Everything You Need to know” about it. Technically it’s a network of over 4000 decentralized “servers” which are community moderated against racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. Posts of up to 500 characters are called “toots” and are presented chronologically, not based on an algorithm and there are no ads. I’m hesitating to follow the crowds flocking to Mastodon; I don’t want to be a lemming but also don’t want to be a dinosaur. (Reviews from ex-Tweeters, by the way, are mixed.)
One problem for creatives trying to build their business is deciding which social media platform to invest time in. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube offer secondary income streams such as ad revenue and product promotion, but I think those that offer opportunities to facilitate sales onsite – even much maligned Facebook – are a better bet. At least you can grow a community and sell to them within one platform. Mastodon might have it over Twitter on that aspect, because a dedicated Mastodon server ensures you’re communicating with like-minded users. But as for distinct monetising platforms for creatives? Think Patreon, Twitch, Memberful and Ko-fi.
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| Representation of First Nations designers more than just fashionable
Representation of designers from diverse cultures is frequently talked about in the fashion industry, but how much progress is actually being made? Whadjuk Noongar model Nathan Maguire challenges the performative approach of First Nations allyship taken by members of the fashion industry in this interview in the SMH. “The fashion media has a responsibility to be part of all the conversations. Not just the ones that look good to them for ticking a box and to benefit the publication on a surface level, which is performative allyship.”
This article in Vogue, “14 First Nations fashion designers and studios to know now”, could have been another example of such performative allyship but instead, it is a celebration of Indigenous artists, designers and studios who incorporate traditional techniques and imagery into mainstream trends and message of truth-telling telling and empowerment of their communities. Yonglu swimwear designer Liandra Gaykamangu, for example, names each of her designs after an Indigenous woman who inspires her. Well worth reading.
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| Virtual idols are the new Key Opinion Leaders
First, there were influencers, then there was the Metaverse, and now there are computer-generated AI influencers who are attracting younger customers to brands, particularly in China. I had never heard of virtual idol Ayayi (get it?) before reading this article, I now know that she was the first virtual influencer in China and has one million social media followers. Ayayi has partnered with over 30 high-end brands, including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and Prada for marketing campaigns in China and even hosted a virtual art exhibition in Shanghai in October.
Virtual idols give brands the creative control impossible with flesh-and-blood key opinion leaders (KOLs) and their personas can be customised to appeal to different audiences. Alimama (the digital arm of Alibaba) created its latest idol Noah, a handsome dark-haired dancer from input from 210,000 responses to surveys on Weibo. Virtual idols have moved on from posting about their “lives” on Instagram to interact with humans on live streams, chatting with customers, and even dancing with them. Virtual influencers have multiplied from nine globally in 2015 to more than 200 this year and I’m certain we’ll be seeing more since they won’t get into scandals or go off message.
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| The great Australian film (disaster)
Have you ever seen the 1967 Australian film Oz, A Rock and Roll Road Movie? Not many people have because despite having funding from the Australian Film Commission, music by Ross Wilson, and respected acting talent including Bruce Spence, it was a complete flop. David Stratton liked the Aussie take on the Wizard of Oz but not many other people did. I read about it in John Safran’s blog Hide Me Under the Floorboards where the disenchanted director Chris Löfvén and the disgruntled main actor detail everything that went wrong from the low-budget shoot in scorching heat to the horrific blizzard that ensured nobody got to the New York screening. I really want to see it now.
As you might expect, Safran’s blog mixes religious and political issues with satire in short pieces ideal for the train commute or waiting for a delayed flight. Another post, The Other Puff Piece, details how he discovered that since the release of his latest book Puff Piece (“a fun investigation into big tobacco and vaping”) another book with the same title has been released. Its main character is a reporter but it’s not investigative journalism or even satire, it’s fiction from a specific sub-genre of erotica. I’ll leave you to read about it yourself.
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| Risky playgrounds, public art and protest burgers
A while back I wrote about Scandinavian playgrounds that mixed elements of art and adventure and now Melbourne’s Southbank has its own risky playground designed by New Zealand artist Mike Hewson. The seemingly unstructured area that combines large rocks, brick walls, ropes, and metal frames is actually carefully designed to encourage imaginative play and let children manage their own risks and limitations while building psychological resilience. Sanné Mestrom in The Conversation describes it as “sculpture taken off its pedestal” and the accompanying images show children enthusiastically climbing and sliding over the sculpture/ playground while parents helicopter close by.
Talk of Mike Hewson allows me to end this month’s Wrap as it started, on a mention of public art in the Illawarra. Hewson was the artist commissioned to reinvigorate Wollongong’s pedestrian shopping mall, and his efforts involving large sandstone blocks and tethered, displaced palm trees has proven controversial (to say the least). Earlier this year, someone even set the most elevated one (the “palm up a pole”) alight. Now local beer and burger joint His Boy Elroy have made a video, and a burger, to campaign for the long suffering tree’s removal. The artist is, apparently, mystified at all the fuss.
Only in the Gong.
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