I spoke about my social platform Minus with Renata Simões of TV Cultura (Brazil Public Television). The player should queue up at the start of our chat, but just in case it doesn’t, it’s 3 minutes in.
Blog
Not For You in Wired
Wired Magazine, November 2021
I recently spoke with Louise Matsakis at Wired Magazine about some recent changes at TikTok, looking at how the app is getting increasingly pushy about building out your friend network and submitting your contact info. My TikTok work Not For You also gets a mention.
Interview with Franceinfo about Minus
Franceinfo (French Public Radio)
I did an interview with Marion Lagardere at Franceinfo (French Public Radio) about my work Minus. Listen to the segment.
Social Media Works Featured at Fast Company
Minus in Fast Company
Several of my social media-related works, including Minus, Facebook Demetricator, Go Rando, and ORDER OF MAGNITUDE were the subject of a feature article at Fast Company:
… Grosser focuses on the cultural effects of social media, particularly the way it preys on users’ insecurities, taps into our desire for instant gratification, and is designed to be addictive. Over the past few weeks, his work has become increasingly relevant, as leaked internal documents and the recent testimony from whistleblower Frances Haugen reveal exactly how much Facebook knows about the damage its platform does.
… Facebook says it is exploring ways to reduce its negative effects on people’s well-being, through features like giving users the option to remove “likes” from posts. This is something Grosser began exploring a decade ago.
… Ultimately, the Minus platform is geared toward spurring conversation, since users could respond to posts freely. “The only way to gauge the success of your post was if there was a conversation in response to it,” Grosser says. “That’s how human interaction worked until social media. We didn’t go to parties and walk away with lists of numbers about how we were being seen. We had to listen to someone, think about what they had said, and respond if we felt compelled to.”
… Minus is a fascinating exploration into how social media might work if constant engagement were not at the center of the experience.
Read the article, which was written by Elizabeth Segran.
Safebook Part of Algorithmic Bias in Brussels
Algorithmic Bias at [Senne] in Brussels
My work Safebook will be part of Algorithmic Bias at [Senne] in Brussels. Curated by Bob Bicknell-Knight, Algorithmic Bias “is an exhibition concerned with the systems and structures embedded within the internet of things, many of which were and continue to be created with an in-built bias. Algorithms have become a common tool used in the framework of social media platforms, created by unknown coders, reinforcing social biases of race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. The works in the exhibition explore and critique the procedurally generated invisible rules that control our online and offline lives.”
Artists include Zach Blas, Joy Buolamwini, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Jacob Ciocci, Ami Clarke, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Stephanie Dinkins, Ben Grosser, Joel Holmberg, Esther Hovers, Claire Jervert, JODI and Lynn Hershman Leeson.
30 September 2021 to 10 October 2021
Interview with Karine Galland about Minus
I had a great conversation with Karine Galland about my social network Minus. Karine is an early user of the platform and a digital well being coach in Paris. She also wrote an article about her experience of Minus.
Interview with RTÉ (Ireland Public Radio)
I spoke with Luke Clancy of RTÉ (Ireland Public Radio) about making computer music in the 20th century, (resisting) Silicon Valley, my new social network Minus, NFTs and Tokenize This, and other topics that intersect with my arebyte show. The segment also features some of my own computer music and trumpet playing.
The interview aired over 3 nights (Part I, II, III), but the easiest way to listen is on this weekly edition that compiles them all into one:
Deep Truth at Rijksmuseum Twenthe Netherlands
Deep Truth at Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, Netherlands
My works Textbook, Safebook, and Not For You are part of Deep Truth at Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, Netherlands. Curated by Marie Janin and Kees De Groot, “[the] fifteen (inter)national artists [in Deep Truth] explore the idea of truth in all its complexity. They unravel how truths are constructed or manipulated, play a sophisticated game with them or show us a glimpse of a future in which deep fakes and artificial intelligence determine our view of the world. But they also speculate about new ways of looking at the world, about frames of mind that are better suited to the times we live in and the future we face.” Artists include Marjolijn Boterenbrood, Oana Clitan, Current, Ben Grosser, Seán Hannan, Joey Holder, Jenny Holzer, Carlijn Kingma, Jan Robert Leegte, Daito Manabe, Warren Neidich, Floris Schönfeld, Jonas Staal, Tamiko Thiel and /P, and Frederik de Wilde.
Deep Truth opens 9 Sep 2021 and closes in January 2022.
Interview with Ocula Magazine
Ocula Magazine (UK)
I spoke with Sam Gaskin at Ocula about my new social network Minus, hiding metrics on Instagram, obfuscating social media with Not For You and Go Rando, and NFTs / Tokenize This.
Read the piece, titled Ben Grosser Wants to Mess with Your Socials.
Solo Exhibition Reviewed in The Guardian
The Guardian / Observer
My solo exhibition, Software for Less at arebyte Gallery in London, was reviewed in The Guardian / Observer. The article, titled How artist Ben Grosser is cutting Mark Zuckerberg down to size, walks through a number of my works, talking about ORDER OF MAGNITUDE, Facebook and Twitter Demetricator, Go Rando, and ScareMail, as well as new commissioned works premiered at arebyte such as DEFICIT OF LESS and Minus.
It’s a great text with a number of rather stunning quotes from author Tim Adams:
“When the history of the first decades of this century comes to be written, there will be few more telling artworks than Ben Grosser’s film Order of Magnitude … a mesmerising monologue, the story of our times.”
“The Zuckerberg films are exhibit A in a series of projects that have made Grosser perhaps the most usefully hands-on of all critics of social media.”
“[Grosser is] a one-man corrective to the data-driven world in which we all now find ourselves; his art highlights its limitations.“
Read the full piece.