About

Post Internet Creative Practice

I am not a digital native. 

Growing up in rural Canada in the early 1980s, my first computer interaction consisted by answering basic questions—multiple choices—for a personality test in my “Éducation au choix de carrière”(career) class. In the late 1990s, I first used the internet for email communications. What brought me to study Fashion was the fascination for the unknown and undiscovered. I didn't learn about fashion on Youtube, Blogs, or Vogue.com; but in books, magazines and DVDs.

I am writing this in the middle of the 2020 pandemic. In quarantine, I have ritualistically been reading about post internet, performativity, art practice, collaboration, inclusion, collective leadership, and justice; had many conversations with sociologists, colleagues, family and friends; and completed an online certificate. I participated in the online chaotic response. At this moment, writing down my thoughts seems the most appropriate thing to do. 

In a world where individuality or isolation is new normality, we are all reinventing daily rituals, behaviours, and reconnecting with our values and beliefs. Conversations with friends about life and the larger meaning of life has taken an important virtual space in the past months. 

In addition to the wall of post-its in my apartment, I have started to bombard my computer with daily  iCloud notes titled: “Thoughts”, “Inspirational quotes”, “Notes to self”, “New ideas”, “to do”, “How Covid is changing the creative process”, “Reinventing daily life”, Vogue live Talks + BOF live”, “Conversation with...”, “Collaborative consumption”, “ Values and personal beliefs”, “Fashion Revolution”, “Career”, “Maison[house]”. I have become a professional categorizer, tabber, note-taker, and an online archivist. I screenshot, record, gather, and document. I type, draw, and listen. I miss nature.

“Out of office”. We now see clearly how fast we were irrationally running. Running to nowhere. Running for no one. The expectations from our workplace, parents, followers, family or industry might change. If I don't post in a few days, my mom texts me to make sure everything is “alright”. 

“Sorry, I haven't posted in a while”. After physical “self-care” it is now mental “e-care” and “self-happiness”. Knowing yourself has become such a foreign mandate. We have forgotten why we do things.  We took such pride in running. Pride in being constantly “busy”, “unavailable”, “booked”, or “out of town”. Now, the tables have turned. We are at home, “available”, and very much “in town”.

If we look at how fashion emerged from moments of crisis - we can think of designers during WW2, Post 9/11, 2008 recession - we see creativity flourishing. Post-pandemic, we will want optimism, quality, responsible and ethical products, products and things that make us happy, that provide emotional connection. I am optimistic.

The internet has become a way to get information, communicate with people globally and to spread political insanity. Trudeau, Trump, Macron, Cuomo, Giuseppe Conte, or Xi are very much part of the popular culture—#xijinping, #trump, #JeSuisCharlie, #yellowvests. We believe conspiracy theories, fake news, false information, memes, and any internet garbage(visual, literal, and physical). Please keep in mind that we are continuously polluting our planet with the electric underwater infrastructure of the Internet.  Who owns the underwater internet cables? Google.

I am interested in the creative relationship with the internet and hyper-consumption. I define hyper-consumption as an extreme level of consumption or over-accumulation—physical or digital hyper-consumptions—that leads to boredom, distraction, and alienation. The Internet knows it best. Visual consumption has surpassed material consumption. If we daily produce and consume images, are we only designing for images? Clothing will continue to be necessary but fashion will become immaterial, visual, digital, and virtual.  How has the internet changed our emotional relationship to clothing? Do we still appreciate the touch and comfort of clothing or do we take more pride in the “likes”? How famous will this outfit make me? 

Designing for “Likes”. 

Designing for a 280-characters-tweet.  

Designing for live-streaming. 

Designing for comments. 

Designing for shares. 

We often censor ourselves, online and in real life. How does this affect creativity? We edit ourselves way too much. “Don't show everything”. “Edit down your work”. I believe in rawness and intuitive work. I always did. The internet has modified our relationship with research, design and production.  Why not produce a series of daily creative “projects”? There might be something there to move forward education. No more accelerated creative projects or “collections” but daily reflections, ideas and solutions. No more editing. Present all ideas: good and bad, dirty and glamourous, innovative and uncool, boring and utopian. No more running alone, but walking together.

We are pros at constructing formulaic capitalistic ways of speaking and presenting our work. We are no longer connected in an authentic, honest way. With highly technical video and graphic elements, the online has created a disguise for meaningless designs. Professional fashion photography hides poorly finished garments and the lack of conceptual narratives. We hide. We camouflage. We have come to value presentation over thoughts; the image over material garment. Let’s see what Barthes thinks about this. What is “real” and what is “altered documentation”? In art, the act of painting is no longer external to the photograph. The same is true for fashion: the act of designing is no longer external to the photograph. 

Show me your #quarantinelook, #quarantineportrait, #quarantinebirthday, #quarantinecooking, #quarantinelife. More than ever we connect through videos, photographs, texts. We take photos of our home office or home work station; share photos of ourselves with pets, plants, food, drinks, haircuts; dance videos on TikTok, perhaps demonstrating hidden creative talents. Since many are at their parents house or cleaning up, we share photos from childhood. We give each other social media challenges. Museums are now cooking schools, designers are now cooks, universities are meditation centers, celebrities are now workout gurus. I am exhausted; I have entered Quarantine “fatigue”. “Seen just now” and a [❤️] has become an acknowledgement with disconnect.

How the internet and the pandemic impact productivity, motivation, and create new realities? I am tired of being stressed. May I ask permission to take time for myself? No matter what it feels, we are constantly reaching for more. We are questioning our self-worth, identity, career, relationships. What really matters? What is a sense of purpose? What do I want to start doing? What do I want to stop doing?

I recently came across Cory arcangel’ performative lecture in 2008 at Rhizome. It inspired me. It made me see the power of the train of thoughts.  It is fascinating how we connect ideas, comments, opinions together. He starts: "This performance is going to be about 'Continuous Partial Awareness', a phrase that was first described to me as meaning 'you know, like, when you have 3 IM windows open, 2 email inbox dinging away, are txting 5 different people, and also have 5 tabs open on your browser, each with updated content.' It is about paying attention to everything all the time, but not really concentrating on anything.” On the internet, I am constantly proving that I am working and multi-tasking, 24/7: posting rituals, adding stories, updating my website, working on shared google docs, sending email, message, clicking Like!, read and write comments, react to your stories [💗😂😮😢😡👍👎] . It is exhausting.

We are so internationally connected that we are now expert on sending calendar invites and understanding different time zones: EDT, GMT, AEST.  Private or public zoom sessions and live streaming events are constantly bombarding our social experience on the internet creating more noise than ever. We are now zoom travelers, in time and space, with tropical, silly, corporate, majestic generic stock photography backgrounds. The internet connexion breaks. Can you hear me?

Are you joining the Zoom dance party, watching the live conversation, attending the live art opening, cooking with Jay-Z? Democracy: Zoom code for all.

On the internet, everyone's an expert. Everyone has become a designer, or an artist, or an expert of some sort. I want to be a futurist.

Through IGTV videos, we become spectators, participants, and performers. We can be part of a celebrity private cookout, chat with a cake reviewer, be entertained by comedy & cooking, obsess with makeup tutorials, watch Nasa's mesmerizing views of the earth, try fitness moves, paint, draw, sing, and the list goes on. Long live the marketization of humans!

I got tired of international zoom discussions with big fashion industry players. And by “big”, I obviously mean whoever attains a powerful position in the capitalist landscape or social media authority.  The old definition of success, I hope, will quickly change.  The idea that Vogue or Business of Fashion control the discussion on the future of fashion might be dead. Cultural gatekeepers can be wrong, who do you look up to? YOURSELF.

As a professor I think a lot about performance and active engagement. Teaching online requires even more showmanship (or showwomenship) than the physical classroom. The online presents a series of short commentary or explanatory back and forth engagement where attendance is taken on the promise of “joined the meeting”.  Participants answer with emojis(👏 or 👍), text, voice (mute/unmute), video, and share screens. This new mode of communication might present more opportunities for “instant learning” and “collaborative presence”. Students can screen-record, screenshots, as they worship.

Algorithms are my lifestyle. Spotify recommends your top songs, Instagram recommends sponsored ads, Wholefoods recommends organic bananas. The online world is “made for us”. It reminds me of the movie Truman Show. You are born on a virtual platform, made public. Spectators are watching, following, commenting, liking, adding, and sharing YOU.  Truman was not aware of the alternative reality he was part of until the end of the movie. But as a human being, he chose to leave the constructed experience to enter “reality”. The internet has created a world for “us”. The outside world is scarier. We fear the “no wifi”, the “in-person” presentation or appointment.  You are “live” in front of the whole world. If we stop social media, what would happen to us? If we control the internet, what are the possibilities? The dial-up internet service is still available.

I am a hugger in touch-starvation mode. Do I want digital clothes? 

“The world doesn't need more physical clothing”, voiced Kerry from The Fabricant. The Amsterdam based digital design house has been experimenting with digital fashion for many years. They became famous for their $9,500 digital dress sold in 2019. The dress doesn't exist, at least not physically. They created an open source platform for anyone to upload, wear, and interact with virtual people. For Carlings, a fast fashion company based in Oslo, their e-commerce platform presents only digital garments. You can buy their augmented t-shirt, go to AR filters on Instagram, modify the design as you wish and share with all your friends. Gaming and Fashion are now a thing. Second Life not only offers a digital environment, but also digital clothing; Moschino collaborates with Sims, Burberry with B Bank, and Animal Crossing has its own digital fashion archive.

After the digital shop for physical fashion, we now have the physical shop for digital fashion. Virtualism takes time and money but creates less waste. In 2019, HOT:SECOND, founded by Karinna Nobbs, was the first ever physical pop up store in London, selling only digital fashion. Their slogan is #lovenotlandfill. By donating a garment, participants can then try on four different digital outfits—from Christopher Reaburn’s designs, Bowie’s jumpsuit, to historical costumes. Imagine if you could try on any historical garments from archives around the world and post it on social platforms with the newest filter. That is the dream. Is it? We don't need to look real on social media. 

 One thing is certain: there is no more “real” versus “virtual”. We live in hybridity. How will this affect Fashion, design, art, and academia? We are now forced to think. We need radical changes in the fundamental social and economical structures. We can no longer just re-adjust here and there. We need utopian ideas more than ever. We now understand that our realities can shift dramatically and it is up to us to make earth a better place, online and offline. We now have the opportunity to-reinvent everything from scratch[almost everything]. Here is my proposal: study, understand and experiment with the Internet.

*In 2020, 40% of the global population still don't have access to the internet or don’t use it at all. Let that sinks in. I recognize that I am privileged.

#mariegenevievecyr @mariegenevievecyr