Since our founding in 2009, Hyperallergic has at all times been on the forefront of social media, from discovering our first residence on Tumblr to turning into one of many first 10,000 adopters of Bluesky. As Hyperallergic’s Media Producer, it’s my distinct pleasure to animate the wealthy materials supplied by our writers by movies on our social media platforms, the place we will present footage from the bottom throughout growing occasions, hear instantly from consultants, and generally attain new audiences throughout the online who wouldn’t have found our publication in any other case.
Now, as an increasing number of social media web sites copy TikTok’s magnetically infinite scroll of vertical movies, we’ve discovered an viewers of tens of millions of netizens. Though I’ve been at it for years now, the responses of recent viewers by no means stop to shock me. I imply, who knew that so many individuals could be as excited as I used to be in regards to the extremely nerdy research of mind exercise within the frontal cortex of viewers gazing upon an authentic Vermeer? Or how the fading bromide pigment in Van Gogh’s “Irises” (1889) modified his flowers from purple to blue?
In no strict order, listed here are 10 of our prime social media video highlights from 2024, which embody a combination of our hottest posts with those who sparked essentially the most electrifying conversations.
AI finishes Keith Haring’s intentional “Unfinished Painting”
Firstly of 2024, a possible troll posted a model of Keith Haring’s haunting “Unfinished Painting” (1989) that had been “completed” by AI. It spurred an comprehensible outcry from those that have been fast to remind netizens that Haring meant to indicate the portray as “unfinished” to characterize the insufferable variety of lives minimize brief by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Had been we victims of a basic piece of Twitter rage-bait? Maybe. Even so, it nonetheless led to an interesting dialogue on one more surprising moral conundrum posed by AI artwork.
Rembrandt Making Gold
However whereas AI artwork lurks on the sidelines, the science of human-made artwork was the most popular subject of our movies this yr. 1.5 million viewers tuned in to our YouTube brief to find out how Rembrandt concocted glowing gold paint. (Don’t strive it at residence; it seems to be a reasonably poisonous mixture of arsenic sulfide mineral variants, lead-tin yellow, and vermillion).
Van Gogh’s Irises
And one other 1.5 million discovered how the bromide-red pigment in Van Gogh’s “Irises” pale within the solar over a century, making the titular flowers fade from purple to blue.
The Rush for Leopard Highlighters
Hurricane Helene
Social media movies aren’t all about enjoyable info. Days after Hurricane Helene claimed the lives of over 160 folks within the Southeastern United States, I wrote to my buddy Saro Lynch Thomason, a folks singer in Asheville, North Carolina, to ask if she had footage from the destruction close to her residence. She despatched again movies of murky brown water flowing by the beloved River Arts district, two-thirds of which was destroyed within the storm. Primarily based on Rhea Nayyar’s reporting of the disaster, we printed a video stitching collectively Lynch Thomason‘s first-hand experiences with photos of Hyperallergic contributor Hannah Cole’s just lately submerged studio. Jeffrey Burroughs, president of the River Arts District Artists affiliation, used a uncommon second of web connection to ship me his footage as nicely. In an interview for Hyperallergic, he stated that the scene was “completely apocalyptic,” and that watching artwork provides float down the river was like “watching the spirit of Asheville being washed away.”
Palestine RoundupThere have been so many tales about Palestine in 2024, warranting a round-up of eight artwork world reactions to the struggling in Gaza.
The Demise of Philadelphia’s College of the Arts
Many within the artwork world have been shocked when the College of the Arts in Philadelphia, a 148-year-old establishment, shut down with out discover as a result of deep monetary troubles. The scholars didn’t discover out till after the knowledge had already surfaced in a Philadelphia Inquirer article, and erupted in anger. We printed a video from the scene that includes college students who had only recently been left with no college to attend. Whereas capturing the video, a deliberate city corridor was immediately canceled, to which the scholars responded with the mantra “Cowards! Cowards!”
Richard Serra’s Misplaced Paris SculptureWhen Minimalism legend Richard Serra handed away in March, creator Michelle Younger reported on how she stumbled upon his gigantic and much-maligned 1983 sculpture “Clara-Clara” behind a water plant-turned-storage facility in Paris. The piece had been put in and uninstalled thrice within the metropolis, following a loud outcry from its many critics, who disliked the way it minimize throughout their view of the Tuileries Gardens. Younger joined us for a video interview on how she made the invention, and spoke about how Paris may be on the lookout for a future residence for the piece.
