Rhizome invited a few of our collaborators to submit a few of their favorite links of 2014. These are published as part of Rhizome Today, a series of "ephemeral" blog posts. This post will be taken offline on January 1, 2015.
Still from a video clip on bilibili.com, with users' comments laid over it
Ying Miao:
My links all come from bilibili.com, which is one of the most popular video sharing sites in China. Users can upload, view and share video clips as on YouTube (which is blocked here). Unlike other popular video sharing sites, however, comments are overlaid directly onto the video, synced to a specific playback time. This allows comments to respond directly to events occurring in the video, in sync with the viewer—creating a sense of a shared watching experience and literally turning commentary into content.
This video entitled ”When smart meets wash-cut-blow” is one of the most popular videos on the site - as you can see, live comments quickly flood and cover the screen, masking the music video itself over time. This "shanzhai" Chinese music video was originally from a K pop band, but was remixed by a Chinese netizen into a love song about the story of a SMART boy who falls in love with a girl but is worried her family will not like him because he has no class. So he decides to become a salon boy to learn how to cut hair and be fashionable so they can have a sweet life together drinking Coke, Fanta and Wanglaoji (a popular canned tea) every day. SMART or shamate is a subculture in China composed of young migrants from the countryside that remain alienated from the great urbanization push. Their fashion style is a gawky blend of goth, glam and anime, and they are also the largest group of people who are still using internet cafes and local Chinese electric devices. http://www.bilibili.com/video/av761947/
- This video is made from WeChat (the Chinese version of WhatsApp) emoji "psycho cat". In the beginning of the video, the user who made this said" “i feel bored and made this animation out of this cat emoji, after i made this i feel so tired, will never love again” and is a reference to a Chinese internet meme that became viral on a social media site after a boy born in the 90’s first posted,“so tired, will never love again”/累觉不爱 . The phrase truly represents modern Chinese people’s common feelings, as mirrored by the SMART subculture, about urban sorrows in a humorous, self-deprecating kind of way. http://www.bilibili.com/video/av836198/
- This video "iPhone garbage" is a remix of the original video made to promote a Chinese smartphone brand called Jin Li. In this video, two men dressed in police uniforms shout about how good their products are and that only posers will spend so much money (the price of an iPhone 6+ in China is about 2 month average salary) on a phone that is easily damaged with no class and no design - almost garbage - while live streaming comments float over their faces. http://www.bilibili.com/video/av1630710/
Ying Miao is a new media artist who currently resides on The Internet, the Chinese Internet (the GFW)and her smartphone. Ying's current online solo show can be seen at Netizenet and Newhive.
Sis:
0a9’s journeys through transfemininity, neurodivergence and deep web spookiness. http://0a9.tumblr.com/
- A multiplicity resource that aided us in our developments. http://kinhost.org/
AzaleaCloud’s character, RoMi, exists in a form similar to ours and for similar reasons; in many ways she reflects embodied neuroatypicality. RoMi has/have sensory processing difficulties she/they also has/ have a surprising ability to regenerate from injury.
http://azaleacloud.deviantart.com/art/Cursed-Draconic-Scion-ROMI-390951816
Sis are a multiple system whose work can be found at http://s-i-s.us/ For more background, see this Artist Profile of Andrea Crespo.