A 2023 Review (Madeleine memories)

Memories Are Made Of This

The year 2023 had a quite gloomy start for the art scene. The coldest Winter for several years, combined with a 'cost of living crisis', and ACE funding slashed for many UK arts organisations, left the arts community feeling quite bruised.

Promotional image for the madeleine zine, with a list of contributors (including myself)

My initial sense of artistic salvation came via Mastodon, the Fediverse micro blogging service that I joined last year (see previous post). On this site, I discovered a lively arts and writing community. The latter led me to re-start reading a book that had been lying idle on my shelves, called The Artists Way. Whilst this book isn't really about contemporary art, it is all about turning on the creativity tap and restarting the flow of creative output. When I found a few writers talking about it online, I decided to give the process another go. This led me to try out the 'morning pages' exercises, to get my creativity restarted. 

My aim was to create more artwork but I soon spotted a writing opportunity that was just up my street. It was to write a short piece for a one-off zine on the topic of memories and comics, which was also fundraising for dementia support. I loved my experience of comics fandom many years ago, when I was actively part of it, and the fundraising aspect tied in with my experience of having become a carer for a parent with dementia.

There's more I could write about that but, to keep my piece simple, I started at the point where two UK fandom subcultures first overlapped in my life. That ended up being about 900 words about the way the science fiction and comics communities were interlinked and how that was important to my memories of the comics boom of the 90's. As a bonus, I found myself listed with several comics creators I admire, including Paul B. Rainey - a Milton Keynes comics artist who took a trajectory to fame in 2023, after his dystopian domestic drama proved a hit with reviewers. 

The zine project, called 'madeleine' (a reference to Proust's madeleine memory), was a project led and designed by Simon Russell, an artist/designer posting on Mastodon and Instagram. As well as rounding up 28 writers*, Simon created a successful funding campaign on Kickstarter, which found 108 backers. With Simon in charge of the editing and design, eventually the zine project turned into a small, smart-looking book. After deducting printing and postage costs, Simon was able to donate £411.19 to Alzheimer's Research UK. 

My personal 2023 domestic drama was an experience of recovering from burnout. More about that in the next post. 

Click here for more about the Kickstarter madeleine zine project.

* Madeleine was made by Brad Brooks: Nick Bryan: Dan Butcher: Dan Charnley: Lee Christien: Ben Clark; Eamonn Clarke; David Cranna; Oliver East; Hannah Eaton; Shari Emerson; Tony Esmond; Martin Feekins; Sam Hardacre; Alan Henderson; Nic Ho Chee; Paul Hudson; ILYA; Guy Lawley; Iestyn Pettigrew; Alan Purdie; Paul B. Rainey; Suzanna Raymond; Simon Russell; Jon Sapsed; Dez Skinn; Giovanni Spinella; Myfanwy Tristram.
* The book has been edited, designed and illustrated by Simon Russell

The Woolly Elephant in the Room

Migration

Mastodon 2022 logo design 
By Eugen Rochko & other Mastodon contributors
 https://blog.joinmastodon.org/, AGPL,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=120470930

November 2022 is turning out to be period of rapid change and a questioning of power structures. Whilst a lot of the US was focused on political campaigns, there was also a test of boundaries on social media as the Twitter platform reacted to the new owner's radical and mercurial attempts to reshape it. What he couldn't control was whether the users approved and continued to use the site. 

Like many, I felt that Twitter was nearing a point where it may collapse, after many important staff were laid off or resigned. That led to many questioning whether it was worth hanging on what started to be dubbed 'the hellsite'. As a result, many looked to other alternatives and one new option started to get a lot of traction - the Mastodon federated server site, or 'fediverse', of networked online communities. 

What Next?

With so much up in the air, what does this mean for artists, museums and galleries, online collaborations and so on, that used Twitter as a key publicity and campaign tool?

Ultimately, I suggest that it means a period of upheaval and uncertainty but I see a new, positive community spirit emerging on Mastodon. Questions remain on how artists and galleries will network on that platform, as it has no clear focal point yet, whilst still keeping their other accounts alive.

Even as and when Twitter burns down, many useful links have been formed on that site and no-one should leave it until too late to note their key contacts, just in case their favourite faces aren't on Instagram or the like. If you're unsure how to make the transition, there are lots of guides about by now and tools like Debirdify, Fedifinder or Twitodon produce a spreadsheet for you, which you upload to Mastodon to follow everyone on it automatically.

We adapted to the rise of Meta (Facebook/Instagram), YouTube and TikTok without too much complaint since 2004/2010, so I think that where there's a will there's a way and I hope for great things.

You can find me with my new woolly friend at ohai.social/@srfirehorseart

The srfirehorseart profile on Mastodon.