An Xiao is an American artist, designer, writer and technologist (expert in the field of technology) involved in a range of artistic, academic and journalistic enterprises.

She leads the product team Meedan where they are building Check – a platform for verifying news in real time – and Bridge – a platform for translating social media and messaging app content (not entirely sure what this means but should definitely look into these projects). She was also a 2017 fellow at the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard Uni and a recent 2016 Knight Visiting Fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Co-founder of The Civic Beat – a research collective focused on the creative side of civic technology and produced a world map of animal memes in collab with internet culture researchers. She also recently published a book titled From Memes to Movements – a book about internet memes and social justice.

Her work demonstrates a passion for global justice, technology and creative expression.

Found an article where she suggests creative use of street view – all that’s required is some familiarity with Java Script – “If you have a camera and some time, you can turn anything into a street view project.” Would like to do this at some point.

The Artist Is Kinda Present (2010)

A performance made in response to Marina Abramovic’s MoMA retrospective and quite closely related to my project in that it highlights how we now socialise through technology – much of our world has become virtual/indirect.

She reimagined the piece as a zen meditation exercise and provided visitors with instructions:

Be present with the artist.

Find a comfortable position.

Be present with the artist in any of the following ways:

A text message to: (phone number)

A tweet to @anxiaostudio

The artist will respond in kind

When you have reached a satisfactory connection, or you simply grow bored you may leave.

Our intentions are the same: to examine the nature of contemporary relationships which are increasingly mediated by technology and social media. Her approach is more directly performative than mine has been and creates a dialogue with art history (Abramovic) – she produced this artwork 10 years ago which may suggest I could think further ahead since hers definitely speaks to the present. I suppose the difference between now and 2010 is the proliferation of images and interpretations of experience on the internet, especially Instagram which had not yet been developed.

Though she seems to explore the positive social capabilities of technology and our increasing use of it, she also forewarns the potential barriers of what is an indirect mode of communication. At once social media brings the world closer together and pushes further apart (Society of the Spectacle – unification as separation and separation as unification). Closer in the virtual sense but perhaps more detached in the physical – this is important to communicate.

hyperallergic article: street view art

https://creativemornings.com/talks/an-xiao-mina

Online article: ARTnews.com – The Social Revolution (Published by Barbara Pollack 2001)