Twitter as Artistic Space

I am interested in ways that Twitter and other similar technologies can be used as a vehicle for "artistic expression." I use quotes around this phrase because it sounds so pretentious. Well, it's not intended to be. I am simply interested in how this community can be used as a space to work in. In the traditional art world we have a gallery (or a place of performance), we have openings and people come and look at the work and comment on it. What can we do in the "twitterverse?"

I am not interested in creating a virtual gallery. I know I could post pictures of artwork on twitpic and share it. But I'm curious about what Twitter can become as a medium unto itself. How can I use the dynamics of Twitter to pose different questions and find different solutions to how the artist can express themselves.

So I will use this alternate identity of Bryon Burroughs to begin my exploration. I am going to begin with a simple text experiment. In TweeDeck I have the ability to sort all of my tweets into columns based on who the poster is. Every day when I open TweetDeck I will note the first line of each tweet in each column and then combine them to create it's own new idea. I will do this several times within the day and post the best of what occurs.

I have some rules: If a post is first in more than one column, I will only use it once and defer to the post below it to avoid redundancy. I reserve the right to fabricate some words to allow the sentence to make sense, but this act must be kept to a minimum. All @ notations will be eliminated to allow the username to become a word in the sentence. I will post twice a week with room for bonus posts when warranted. I will take these posts from my normal account, but post the constructions under my alternate identity Brion Burroughs. I will break these rules whenever it suits me.

Nothing I'm doing here is particularly revolutionary. I am stealing from literature of the past to consider what it can look like in a new context. My alternate identity is giving credit where credit is due. William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin used the cut-up method with newspaper articles and other texts to generate ideas and create new contexts. Burroughs used this method within his own texts in works such as The Soft Machine and Naked Lunch. This is simply a starting point. Who knows where it will lead, but thanks for helping me to start the journey.

If you are interested in following the cut-ups, follow Brion. If you found this blog via Brion, and want your posts to be a part of the dialogue, then follow me here at my original identity.