On Tuesday, 29 March at 12pm CDT / 19:00 CET I spoke about social media demetrication, Zuckerberg supercuts, and radical platform alternatives with Cornelia Sollfrank and Martin Warnke as part of their Ambiguous Data talk series. Details here
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Works at ADM Gallery Singapore
Information Wants to be Free? at ADM Gallery, Singapore
My works ORDER OF MAGNITUDE, DEFICIT OF LESS, and Minus are part of Information Wants to be Free?: Art and the Internet at ADM Gallery, Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore. Curated by Kristine Tan, the exhibition explores “a range of contentious issues surrounding the role of Big Tech on the use of personal data, algorithmic bias, surveillance, and more.” Artists include Kara Chin, Chong Yan Chuah, Thomson & Craighead, disnovation.org, Bani Haykal, Bill Posters & Daniel Howe, Rachel Maclean, Michael Mandiberg, Tabita Rezaire, and myself.
The exhibition opens on 25 March and runs through 13 May.
Recent Mentions of Minus in Washington Post, Atlantic, Newsweek
Washington Post and The Atlantic
I’ve been meaning to post about a few recent mentions of Minus. The Washington Post article by Will Oremus has me (happily) countering a statement from Facebook VP Nick Clegg, and talking about how Minus shows that social networks without feed algorithms can avoid some of big social’s problems. Ian Bogost’s post in The Atlantic and the Newsweek piece are both focusing on how smaller size networks that, like Minus, eschew scale, may chart a new direction forward.
Exhibition and Talk at SXSW
I have a couple of invited events at SXSW 2022 in Austin. The first is that my film ORDER OF MAGNITUDE is part of the SXSW Art Program. The second is that I’ll give an invited talk, titled Techniques of Resistance in a Platform World, as part of the design track. The film is up from March 7-15 and the talk is on March 12th.
Paper on Doomscrolling Published in Electronic Book Review
Paper published in Electronic Book Review
Last summer I gave a paper at the Electronic Literature Organization conference, where I talked about doomscrolling—using my 2020 project The Endless Doomscroller alongside theories by Wendy Chun, Christian Andersen and Sören Pold, and many others—examining the role that platform interfaces have played in our last two years software-enabled collective descent into despair.
ORDER OF MAGNITUDE at Centre Pompidou in Paris
Centre Pompidou Logo
My film ORDER OF MAGNITUDE will be part of Réseaux-mondes at Centre Pompidou in Paris, running from 23 Feb to 25 Apr, 2022. Specifically, the work is part of an included video installation from The Wrong TV curated by David Quilles Guilló.
Interview with UN Today
February 2022 issue of UN Today
I gave an interview with UN Today, the official magazine of the United Nations in Geneva. We spoke mostly about my new social platform Minus.
Minus and Finite Social Networks Named #4 Tech Trend to Watch
On the list of didn’t expect this, my social network Minus—and its descriptive tagline “finite social network”—was named technology trend #4 of 10 “to watch” by global marketing agency Wunderman Thompson in its annual and highly read trends report.
Read the full report, titled The Future 100: Trends and Change to Watch in 2022.
Reviews and Other Press about Software for Less at arebyte Gallery London
Review of Software for Less in Hyperallergic
My solo exhibition Software for Less at arebyte Gallery, London received a significant amount of press. Here are links to a selection of it. Many are reviews of the show as a whole. Some are discussions about a specific work, such as Minus.
- The Guardian / Observer (UK): How artist Ben Grosser is cutting Mark Zuckerberg down to size.
- Ocula Magazine: Ben Grosser Wants to Mess with Your Socials
- CLOT Magazine (UK): Insight: Ben Grosser’s ‘Software for Less’, a space to reveal what the digital could become
- RTÉ (Ireland Public Radio) — Culture File: Software for Less (Parts 1/2/3)
- Franceinfo (French Public Radio): Ben Grosser a créé Minus, l’anti-Facebook qui limite le nombre de publications à 100 par utilisateur à vie
- la Repubblica (Italy): Minus è il social network che vuole farvi passare meno tempo online
- Fast Company (US): This new social network allows you 100 posts—for life
- Hyperallergic (US): An Exhibition That Helps Us Rethink Our Relationship to Facebook
- Gizmodo (US): Here’s an Idea: Everyone Only Gets 100 Posts
- Mashable (Italy): C’è un social in cui puoi pubblicare solo 100 post in tutta la tua vit
- Forbes (Brazil): Minus: qual a possibilidade de a nova rede de posts limitados dar certo
- Usbek & Rica (France): Les plateformes nous conditionnent à les voir comme des parties prenantes de nos vies
- Input Magazine: Minus is the anti-Twitter that grants you 100 posts for life
- Thai Rath Plus (Thailand): ต่อให้ ‘โซเชียลเน็ตเวิร์ก’ มินิมอลลง ก็ไม่ลดความหดหู่ บทเรียนจาก Minus งานทดลองของศิลปินอเมริกัน.
- FC Bnext (Taiwan): 只讓你發 100 篇貼文！社群媒體 Minus 限制發文次數，為現代社會帶來哪些反?
- [ANTI]MATERIA (Mexico): Semana 295_1 Software for Less
- ok diario (Spain): Minus, la red social que te deja publicar 100 posts y luego se cierra
- ifanr (China): 在这个社交平台，你一生只能发 100 条推文｜大航海家
- B9 (Brazil): Nova rede social se inspira no Facebook, mas permite apenas 100 posts para toda vida
- Tivi (Finland): Houkuttaisiko häipyä Facebookista? Ei mainoksia, ei algoritmeja, mutta…
- Nexo (Brazil): ‘Minus’: o projeto de arte que propõe uma rede social finita
- Kronen Zeitung (Austria): Soziales Netzwerk begrenzt Posting-Anzahl auf 100
- nlc (Hungary): A legújabb közösségi oldalon egész életedben csak százszor posztolhatsz
- Boing Boing: Minus is a finite social network where [you] have a limit of 100 posts—for life
- La Gazzetta del Pubblicitario (Italy): 100 post a vita: ecco Minus, il social media al confine tra esperimento mediatico e opera d’arte
- Cybersalon (UK): Wish you were here — Review of Ben Grosser’s new show ‘Software for Less.’
ORDER OF MAGNITUDE at NeMe Arts Center Cyprus
ORDER OF MAGNITUDE at NeMe Arts Center, Cyprus
My work ORDER OF MAGNITUDE will be part of Through the Mesh at NeMe Arts Center in Limassol, Cyprus. Curated by Patrick Lichty, this exhibition “features the work of artists who initially began to investigate the cultural space of the networks, biopolitical and informatic; who challenge or jam it. The artworks look at electronic networks as scopophilic and performative, the asymmetric regimes of power they project, and the positive uses of “darkside” technologies. These areas of investigation open the media archaeologies of the panoptic network, its modalities, and the spaces of criticism, humour and progressivism. From the era of the Cold War in which the “net” was created to assure communication, Through the Mesh: Media, Borders, and Firewalls seeks to consider the conditions of the contemporary landscape and suggest progressive strategies for the future.”
As part of the exhibition, I spoke with artist/curator Patrick Lichty about Facebook/Meta as unchecked corporate power, FB’s Metaverse as the next wave in workplace hypersurveillance, shifting political ideologies in Silicon Valley, TikTok’s negative effects on sleep, and of course, more.
Through the Mesh opens 9 Dec 2021 and closes 20 Jan 2022.