The Impact Of Using

Social Media As An Artist

by Gabrielle de la Puente
About
This document surveys how and why artists use social media. It considers the ways in
which social media can have an impact on an artist’s career today as a tool for work,
networking, and creativity. The document also offers tips, examples, advice on safety
and mental wellbeing, and guidance for institutions on working with artists through
social media.

This report also examines how the recent Stigma commissions from Unlimited were
shared online. There is an assessment of the delivery of these artworks that considers
what best practice looks like when it comes to social media and online commissions.

This document was commissioned by Unlimited, an arts commissioning programme that

enables new work by disabled artists to reach UK and international audiences. This
report was written by Gabrielle de la Puente, a writer in Liverpool who co-runs The
White Pube. She writes criticism on video games and art, and also runs a Successful
Funding Application Library and a Working Class Writers Grant.

This text is written in Simple English but if you would like any clarification, please
contact the writer or Unlimited.

Illustrations by Rebecca Hinton. Image descriptions are at the bottom of the

document.

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Contents
Section 1: Introduction
Why Do Artists Use Social Media? 3
The Professional 4
The Social 5
The Creative 8

Section 2: Tips For Artists

Setting Up An Account 12
Link In Bio 14
Pinned Posts 14
Content Ideas 15
Making Content Look Good 16
Protecting Work Online 19
Making Social Media Posts Accessible 20
Queueing Posts 21
Finding An Audience 22
Sponsored Posts 24
Deciding Which Social Media To Join 24
Instagram 24
Twitter 27
Facebook 29
Tiktok 31
Discord 32

Section 3: Staying Offline

Why Some Artists Don’t Use Social Media 35
Mental Health: Attention, Pressure And Competition 38

Section 4: Profiling v buckenham 41

Section 5: Profiling Monique Jackson 53

Section 6: Stigma Project

Unlimited 61
David Tovey 65
Babeworld 71
Kirkwood Brothers 76
Vince Laws 80
Assessments 84

Section 7: Institutional Support

How Institutions Can Support Artists Work Online 105

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Section 1:
Introduction
Why Do Artists Use Social Media?

Many artists use social media channels for professional, creative and social reasons.

Before the Internet, artists would have studio visits from curators, gallerists, collectors,
buyers, writers, and other artists who were interested in their work. This is how artists
were able to get their artwork and their name out into the professional world. They used
to also rely on visiting exhibition openings where lots of creative people gathered.
Through these social connections, the artist would receive opportunities. Their artwork
would go on to be shown in galleries. Through exhibitions and reviews of those shows,
their artwork would be given cultural and financial value. They would then go on to show
in other places around the country and even the world. This is how they would have a
career — it always began in face to face social connections.

Now, because artists have access to the Internet, they can use social media as a
substitute for the face to face connections of the past — connections made in settings
such as studio visits and exhibition openings. For many artists, social media channels
have become the first point of contact through which they share their work, their ideas,
and who they are. Using social media, artists can meet and speak to curators, gallerists,
collectors, buyers, writers and other artists, as well as their own audience and their fans.
The more followers and engagement an artist has online, the more visible they will
become within the art sector. The more visible they become, the more social
connections will be made. Exhibitions, reviews, sales and other opportunities often
follow. This is how many artists begin and maintain their careers today.

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Professional

Some artists have a website of their own. They use their website to present an online
portfolio, a CV of exhibitions and events, an ‘about me’ section, and contact details for
further enquiries. However, more and more, artists are using social media channels to
share this kind of content instead. This is for a number of reasons. A social media
account is free whereas websites can be expensive due to the cost of domains, hosting,
and web design. Plus, Internet users in general spend so much more time on social
media compared to singular websites. Therefore it is more efficient to share work on
social media where there is so much more traffic. It is where everybody else already is,
and after all, social connections are very important for artists.

Many artists see their social media channels as an ongoing online portfolio of artwork.
They share art that is new, old, and sometimes works in progress. By sharing their own
artwork, artists are able to publicise themselves, build a following, and try to get their
portfolios in front of people who might be able to support their career further. For
example, a curator could see the work and include them in an exhibition. Plus, the
curators that first find someone through social media will often reach out for in-person
meetings such as a studio visit in order to carry on the conversation and build a
connection. Further opportunities could come from other artists, and also writers,
academics, collectors and fans.

Artists are also able to sell artworks directly to buyers via direct messaging. Sometimes,
this is using in-built features that make transactions easier. Buying art through social
media is a quick and casual alternative to what can otherwise involve very formal
contracts, commission that goes to middlemen, or auctions reserved for only the most
famous artists.

For a long time, social media has been seen as a very informal space and not
somewhere to seek or offer work, but things have changed. Jobs are listed, open calls
and competitions are shared. Artists are noticing a rise in how often curators and other
professionals will reach out to them directly via social media as opposed to getting in
touch with them via emails. Museums will even use social media to share artefacts from
their collections, and art critics will share reviews directly on social media too. For the
arts, it has become an important place for business and discussion — for some, it is
where ‘the art world’ now exists.

Some artists receive invitations to work with galleries in a way that utilises social media
itself. A popular way of doing this is for artists to do ‘takeovers.’ This involves the artist
posting content on the gallery’s social media account, which will usually have a larger

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following than the artist’s profile. This is a way for the artist to not only get to know the
gallery, but for the gallery’s audience to get to know them in return, and that can be a
useful way of growing a following as well as an artist’s prestige.

The nature of the Internet means connections can be made with other arts professionals
in an instant. Contact can be made from anybody, anywhere in the world, 24/7. Online,
the door is always open. This means, artists can build up a local and international
audience from the comfort of their home by sharing their work online. The networking
that leads to exhibition opportunities is no longer restricted simply by where an artist
lives. This means people who live outside of big cities with busy art scenes can use the
Internet to help them find success they might not have achieved otherwise. It also
means sick and disabled artists, and those who might find themselves spending large
amounts of time at home because of caring responsibilities, can be active members in
the art world. It is an exciting time for creatives to connect.

Connections can lead to collaboration. For some, a career as an individual artist can
feel lonely or a bit limiting because it is just one person on their own making work. When
two or more people work together, they can achieve great things that they would not
have been able to manage or even imagine on their own. When your social media
accounts are full of creatives, it is possible to find others to team up with. A dancer
might need some help documenting their work, and a videographer might be looking to
build their portfolio, and those two can help one another out. An artist might start
speaking to a whole group of people and find themselves coming up with totally new
ideas on a bigger scale than they are used to, inspired by the others around them. Plus,
conversations between users on opposite sides of the world can lead to long-lasting
professional relationships and great success — and this is between people who might
never have found one another without the Internet.

Social

Social media means artists can make and keep up relationships with people from all
over the world. Social connections can happen between artists and their audiences,
including fans and patrons, and it can also happen between artists themselves. People
can find accounts they want to follow by using search bars, looking through suggested
accounts to follow, or even checking through the likes, followers and following sections
of accounts they enjoy.

Artists might come to be mutuals with one another online based on location, identity,
politics, art style, art medium, certain subjects of interest, or they might just enjoy each
other’s commentary. When creatives come together on social media over shared

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interests, whole communities can form. These communities can become an important
place to socialise, learn, and create. Online communities sometimes run online events
and in-person meet-ups. Meeting online can simply be a starting point for creative
collaborations, long-lasting friendships, and working relationships.

Social media means you can follow along with what artists are making, doing and
thinking. It also means others can follow along as you do the same. The mechanisms of
social media can also be a very active way to support the artists you want to do well.
Followers can do this by liking, commenting, sharing, and posting their thoughts about
the art that has been shared. Others might do the same in return. All of this engagement
can help support an artist's work to become more visible and more discussed. This is
because the more engagement a social media account receives, the higher it will
appear on a feed, timeline or an explore page. This means that when someone picks up
their phone or logs in on a desktop, it will be the popular accounts and the accounts the
user engages with most that will show up at the top of their feed. All the support
accumulates and the accounts with most engagement will become recommended to
people who are not already following them, because the social media platform will see
them as something others might like too.

In the past, face to face, support for artists might have been shown in a kind word, a
handshake, or a recommendation you pass on to others. Now, social media captures all
of this engagement and makes support visible. In the current art world, that visible
engagement can count for a lot. For example, it can make a gallery want to work with an
artist because the curators can be assured the artist has a strong audience who will
come with them. Big audiences can help galleries sell tickets or secure more funding in
the future, so it is understandable why they might programme popular artists. It is the
case now that they find those artists through social media, so many artists are putting a
lot of time and effort into making their accounts successful.

Another important aspect of social media’s social value is in its search functions. In a
city or a town, it can be quite difficult to find people interested in the same things as you
are. It might also be impossible for some artists to go out there and find like-minded
people due to their sickness or disability getting in the way of them socialising in person.
The search bars that come with social media platforms mean it is possible to find,
follow, support and contact artists whose work you like. As long as your account is not
set to private, this also means other people can find and support you too. New followers
might find your account through the kinds of images you post, the words you share,
your content being re-posted by others, or the items you tag and hashtag. All of these
methods can be a way of putting people in touch with one another through their online
content and their taste.

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A lot of these interactions between artists through social media can make it sound like a
very professional or competitive place. But online communities, new friendships, and
good conversations through direct messages and comments can open up an artist’s
social media account from simply an online portfolio and a workspace to a more lively,
friendly, and creative place — just like the studio visits or exhibition openings of the
past. Those things still happen, of course. But social media has made it feel like they
are always happening in the virtual space and anybody from anywhere has an open
invitation to attend.

Creative

Artists use social media platforms for professional opportunities, as a way to socialise
with others, and also as a creative space for inspiration, display and conversation.

If you follow lots of people who work in the arts, your feed can become a mood board.
You will see images of new art, studio shots, art in progress, exhibitions, and even the
reference material that inspires creatives to make things such as books, articles,
artefacts and important people and their ideas. This can in turn inspire others to think,
create, and even riff on each other’s work. There is also a calendar of challenges to
participate in through hashtags. For example, ‘Inktober’ in October or ‘Drawcember’ in
December that both encourage people to post a new drawing once a day for a whole
month.

Following many artists online is a shortcut to knowing what contemporary art looks like
at the moment. This is useful for an audience but it is also helpful for other artists,
especially for those at the start of their career. This is because getting a sense of what it
is artists are making can be a beginning point to making artwork of your own. Trends in
art mean different styles, subjects and mediums go in and out of style. And as politics
and contemporary art discourse evolve, artwork does too. Artists often use their practice
to think through complex ideas about the world, civilisation, and identity. In the past, to
see the result of all this thinking, you would have had to visit lots of galleries all over the
world, and to keep up you would have had to keep on visiting those galleries all of the
time. Now, social media means everybody can discover contemporary art through the
accounts of both artists and galleries. Plus, because artists often include some writing
about their work, people can have help in understanding the meaning behind it too.

Artists can inspire each other and not just through their new artwork but through old
artwork too. Artists post images and videos of lots of things they make, and also images
from the exhibitions and events they take part in. This can build up into years of content.
An artist’s account is like an open archive that anybody can access. Before social

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media, you would have had to visit an artist’s studio or even their storage to see
everything they had ever made. You might have had to piece together their work like a
detective, going through books, visiting galleries and museums, speaking to collectors,
or going through files at a physical archive that sometimes require special permission.
Now, we have social media as a way to lay everything out in one go. It is a privilege to
see an artist’s practice as it happens, and it is inspiring to look back over everything that
has happened so far.

Because this is social media, creativity can happen between people getting in touch
with one another. Social media allows for comments, replies, quoting, video responses,
voice notes, and direct messages. When an artist shares work online, they can also
invite creative conversations around themselves. This might be feedback about the
work itself, references for the artist to look into, suggestions on where this person’s
practice might go next, or discussions about the subjects they touch on. Creativity might
simply come from encouragement too.

As well as this, many artists find themselves making art with nowhere to show it. This is
because exhibition opportunities can be difficult to secure. And so, people online will
come together to share details about open calls, commissions, art fairs, markets, and
other suggestions for display such as cafes who are looking for some art to hang up.
While this is certainly a professional reason for artists to join social media, and a social
reason to be a part of an online community, it is creative too because this kind of
conversation often leads to new work. This might be from artists responding to briefs,
but it can also happen when groups come together to put on exhibitions of their own.

Another way social media plays an important part in an artist’s creativity is in the
process of display. Many artists feel that they need to display a piece of work in order to
consider it complete. They feel that once it has been shown to others, they can box it off
and move on to the next thing they are planning on making — or by showing it to others
and having conversations with them, they might start to have ideas of what to do next.
However, not everyone has a physical studio they can hang or install work in, or a timely
exhibition opportunity to fulfil that need either. Instead, what many artists do now is
photograph an artwork and post it online. This has become a part of the creative
process. A bonus of posting online is that the artist can consider how the new work
looks, feels or sounds alongside the rest of the work they have shared. Again, because
many don’t have studios, it can be difficult to see all of their work in one place in order to
consider how it all fits in, or how a body of work could look if it were to be exhibited
together. Social media is a way for artists to see their own work through another lens.

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Finally, an artist might make a painting, hang it on a wall, photograph it, and then post
an image online. This uses social media as a display space. But there is a growing
number of creators who make art that is specifically meant to exist on social media and
not in a typical, physical exhibition. Social media has inspired artists to make work that
responds to or intervenes with the platforms themselves — platforms that are so much a
part of everyday life for the general population. Artists that make this kind of work often
want their audience to experience the art on social media rather than in a gallery. Some
even turn down physical exhibition invitations because they consider the platform to be
a part of the work’s delivery. Examples of artistic responses to social media are included
in the following chapters to demonstrate how this can play out on different websites and
apps.

You may have noticed over the past decade a subtle change in the art people make as
artists create things that will translate well as content for their social media posts.
Paintings are square more often than they used to be because of Instagram. It’s
happening in music too, where pop songs are getting shorter and shorter so that they
have a better chance of going viral within Tik Tok’s video time limits.

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To recap, artists use social media to:

Share artwork
Share their biography
Share contact details
Share jobs and opportunities

Make themselves visible to the rest of the art world

Make themselves easy to contact by people in the arts

Find art from all over the world

Find inspiration
Find jobs and opportunities
Find an audience
Find a community
Find people to collaborate with
Find friends
Allow other people to find them

Sell art
Buy art

Participate in challenges

Decide what type of art they want to make

Support other artists

Allow other people to support them

Keep up with exhibitions and events

Keep up with an artist’s practice over time
Keep up with the art world at large
Keep track of their own artwork
Allow other people to keep up with them

Talk about art

Talk to other people about art

Respond creatively to social media itself

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Section 2:
Tips For Artists Using Social Media
Because of the impact social media can have on an artist’s career, it is helpful to know
how best to use the platforms available. Each platform allows the user to do different
things, and each is seen in a different way by the art world. Before we get to the
specifics of each social media platform, there are a few tips up top that are generally
applicable to all of them. It is important that an artist’s own personality shines through
and that might mean breaking or changing some of these ‘rules.’ These tips are only
there to guide you while you make those decisions.

Setting Up An Account

First, it is best to use a screen name that is also your real name. This makes your
account easiest to find. For example, a curator who wants to see what work you are
currently making can simply search your name to arrive at your account. Or if somebody
sees your work in an exhibition, they might want to keep up with your art practice online,
but if you have a screen name that isn’t your own name, they might never find you. Of
course, many screen names are already taken so underscores and numbers can be
helpful so you can get your own name. In the past, artists have added ‘FA’ at the end of
their screen name to signify ‘Fine Artist.’ This is not recommended because professional
artists would not really introduce themselves as a ‘fine artist’ (just as an ‘artist’) and so it
can sound a little bit dated.

Social media allows users to upload a profile picture alongside their name. Again, as
with the advice of the screen name, it is best to upload an image of yourself. A headshot
with a plain background is ideal so you are recognisable even through a picture which
might appear very small on somebody’s else’s screen.

A key piece of advice that applies to both the profile picture and the chosen screen
name is to stick with them for as long as you can. When other people scroll through
social media feeds, they often go very fast, reading through lots of text and looking at
lots of images. If you stick with the same profile picture and screen name for a long
period of time, followers will remember and recognise both. If you change either or both
of them regularly, people might miss your content because they do not realise it is you
posting. If you do want or need to change something, it is best to avoid changing both at
the same time because then people will not have anything to go off and might not know

12
who this account is anymore — and some might never bother to check. It sounds
dramatic but with the speed people scroll through social media, it really helps make sure
you don’t disappear in the crowd.

If you sign up for accounts on different apps, it is a good idea to make your screen
name and profile picture the same across all apps where possible. This helps in your
discoverability, which is a key reason artists are on social media in the first place.

Most social media apps usually also allow space for a short bio alongside the screen
name and profile picture. Artists usually share what they do and their location.
Sometimes an artist will also share something important about their identity, or name
projects they are a part of. The bio can be quick and informative but it can also be an
opportunity to show some personality. For example, @bella.milroy’s bio on Instagram
says ‘Artist, writer, gardener, patient advocate. Sometimes sits, sometimes stands, lies
down lots, often smelly, always disabled. She/her’ and then there is a link to her website
bellamilroy.com where she shares art, writing and audio recordings. Another example
would be @RubennaArt on Twitter whose bio says, ‘Deaf Artist, Art Psychotherapist,
Trainer - create art as a visual language and breaking down barriers to equality. Artist
Interviews BBC, Channel 4 & BSLZone.’ This bio tells us what the artist cares about and
it is useful to establish where else we might be able to see the artist at work.

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Link in Bio

Some apps like Instagram do not allow users to post links in captions and comments, so
when an artist wants to redirect their followers to a webpage, they will put the link in
their bio and tell people to head there.

At the top of somebody’s profile, most social media platforms allow for a single link to be
shared. Some artists will link to their own website where a full portfolio is on show. If an
artist doesn’t have a website to share, on Twitter they might link to their Instagram
account and vice versa. More recently, people have started to use link trees which are a
landing page on which you can share multiple links. This is useful because most social
media platforms only allow space for one link. So, an artist who has a link tree on
Instagram might use it to share links to their website, their Twitter, an exhibition they
have coming up soon, and maybe an online shop where they are selling work. If you
have your own website, you can make one by adding a page for /links and putting
everything on there. Alternatively, you can use a third-party app to build a landing page
such as LinkTree, Hootsuite, Shorby, Pallyy, Tab.Bio, Lnk.Bio, ShortStack, Leadpages,
Milkshake, Linkin.Bio.By.Later or Campsite. Most of these have free versions, some
come with other tools packaged in, and some have paid versions that allow users more
customisation.

Pinned Posts

Sometimes a bio on a social media account does not feel like enough room to give a
proper introduction to who you are, what you care about, and what you do. Most social
media platforms allow users to pin posts. This means the post, even if it was shared a
long time ago, always stays at the top of your page. It will be one of the first things
people visiting your social media page will see. On Twitter, this is a pinned tweet. On
Instagram, it can be done using Highlights. It can be done in addition to the link in bio,
or instead and in place of a link tree.

Pinned posts are also a good opportunity for sick and disabled artists to state some
information. This might include guidance on how best to communicate with them. It
could also include a note that they might not always be online to reply straight away, or
they might reply at strange hours and the other person should feel free to reply in their
own time. If a carer or personal assistant helps with the account, a pinned post can be a
useful way to make that clear if the user wants that information to be known. These are
just a few examples but it is a great way of expanding the information beyond the bio.

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Content Ideas

Once you have an account set up, what exactly should you post? Artists might want to
post on social media every day but they might not produce a new piece of art every day
to share. There could be weeks, months or even years between finished artworks.
Luckily, there are plenty of things artists can post that their followers might enjoy. This
list is not exhaustive by any means, and artists come up with new ideas all the time.
Plus, different platforms allow for different types of media such as images, videos or
text. These are some jumping off points for content ideas:

Artwork by you:
Documentation of art on its own, cropped
Art hanging on a wall or on a plinth
Art in an exhibition (sometimes with the artist or a visitor in the image to liven it up)
Shots while an exhibition is getting installed
Clips or stills of moving image, sound or performance
Close-ups or details of one artwork
Artwork from different angles
Digital artwork made directly for social media
Commissions — art made for other people or projects
Artwork made as part of a timed artistic challenges such as Inktober or Sketchtember
Work in progress
Process shots (for example: pouring resin over a sculpture)
Studio shots (sometimes with the artist in them)
Exhibition posters of shows you are in
Accidents and mistakes
Random sketches
Pages from sketchbooks
Piles of sketchbooks
Throwback posts looking at the artist’s own work from the past
Artwork for sale
Other related merchandise you are selling such as stickers
Tools the artist uses: paintbrushes, palettes, cameras, kilns
Books, videos and other media the artist is featured in

References:
Whatever the artist is thinking about at the moment — what they are reading, watching,
listening to, playing, learning, doing, and so on
Other artist’s exhibitions (which also supports the other artists)
Phrases from art theory

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Sections from reviews
Residencies the artist is on
Research trips

Random:
Blogs
Vlogs
Artists at work doing artist talks, running workshops etc.
Interesting pictures from the artist’s life
Bits and bobs from the artist’s studio (even if that studio is a bedroom, a shed)
Artist campaigns and protests
Artist union information
Fundraisers
Artists socialising at events
Pictures of the artist (selfies, headshots)

Making Content Look Good

Most artists prioritise sharing art. That might be documentation of physical art or digital
art made specifically for social media. Documenting work and sharing it can be difficult if
the art has not been designed to exist on social media so there are a few tips to
consider to make artwork look its best online.

Images

Make sure the lighting is good enough to make clear exactly what the artwork is. This
sounds obvious but a harsh shadow can make it difficult to see what is going on, and
people don’t tend to stick around to figure things out — they will just scroll by instead. If
the image is too dark, consider editing the exposure or brightness to make it easier to
read.

Clarity can also come from taking a good quality image. Most phone cameras can
achieve this. There are a fair amount of artists who now also use digital cameras to
photograph their work at a higher quality. They might also shoot in RAW in order to edit
images afterwards without losing any detail. Also, artists who work in 2D such as
drawing and collage might consider scanning their work rather than photographing it.
Some scanners allow for higher resolution copies of artworks than handheld cameras,
and clarity and brightness is guaranteed with a scanner.

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It helps if an image has a central focus point. It might be tempting to post an image with
lots of artwork in it in a busy setting, but a single image of a single artwork can allow
followers to focus and appreciate each object. Or, if there is a busy background, making
sure the scene is set up to focus on one particular thing can be helpful. If an artwork is
multi-dimensional such as a sculpture, installation or performance, it can be good to
share multiple posts over the course of a week or so to show the artwork from different
angles. This way, people get a good sense of the work even if they cannot see it in
person for themselves. Plus, it means the artist has more content to share overall.

Make sure that if there are any straight lines within an artwork or its framing that the
image is taken straight on and it does not accidentally appear wonky. Even if a painting
is hung correctly on a wall, it can be difficult to take an image of the painting that is also
perfectly straight. But with editing software, artists can straighten the image before it is
shared. This looks more professional and pleasing. Some apps, such as Instagram,
have in-app editors that allow artists to change the angle of an image before it is posted.
This is very handy for people who don’t have other editing software available, and it is
also useful for busy artists who are posting on the go.

It is noticeable that images with people in them tend to get more engagement than
images without. Of course, some artists will want to make their art front and centre and
not themselves. Ways to work with this might be: holding an object such as a small
sculpture or a book instead of just taking a picture of it flat on a table, or being
photographed from behind looking at your work or sitting in the studio.

Videos

If you want to show videos on social media, it is important to check the time limits of
each platform first. It is also useful to know the aspect ratios available to show in and
the file types and maximum file sizes allowed. Each app is different and one in particular
might best suit your needs.

Instagram currently prefers videos that are MP4, H.264 Codec. Their aspect ratio limits
range from 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9, with 4GB as the maximum file size. Videos on Instagram
can be up to one minute long in main posts. But the app’s IGTV allows users to upload
videos up to 15 minutes via the app, and if you use the desktop upload option, you can
share films that are up to one hour long. IGTV can be useful for sharing portrait and
landscape videos, and Instagram main posts for showing videos that are square.

Twitter’s rules are different again, but they also recommend MP4, H.264 Codec video
uploads. They allow videos up to 2 minutes 20 seconds long and the maximum file size

17
is 512MB. They also recommend aspect ratios of 16:9 and 1:1. Twitter users can also
link to videos uploaded on other sites such as YouTube or Vimeo and content will play
directly on the Twitter feed, which is a handy way to get around any of these limits.

Some artists prefer to not show full films on social media because they don’t feel like it
is the right environment to experience their art work. Some explain that they prefer their
audience to be in a setting where their film is the focus, and not in competition with lots
of other content on a social media feed. In that case, check the Link in Bio section for
help redirecting audiences to other places on the Internet, as well as to live events that
might better suit the delivery of the work. An alternative to this is also to show stills from
the film instead. The benefit for artists working in moving image is that a video can be
broken down into lots of images, and therefore lots of content. Followers are much more
likely to engage with a still image than a video. So, stills can both be a useful way to
share imagery and ideas from the work, and also advertise the main piece to followers
who will hopefully want to watch the full piece once they see what it is like.

Soundwork

If you make sound and want to share work on social media, the best option is generally
to attach the audio to a video format. Even if a visual element is not a key part of the
work, it would be worth thinking about a visual stand-in. That might mean a flat colour or
one still image but it’s better than nothing, because people are not very likely to stick
around for a plain black video. Sound work in general should not need visuals to
accompany it, but in the setting of social media, it can help keep attention if there is
something to look at too.

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If the sound work remixes other existing tracks, such as songs, artists sharing sound on
social media can run into some problems. Social media has in-built software to protect
the copyright of musicians so some song usage will result in a copyright claim and with
the audio/video being taken down.

Text

There are plenty of artists who write alongside their art practice. They might write a
blog, essays, or text itself might be a part of their art work. If creating text is a significant
part of an artist’s practice, they might want to look at the word limits allowed on different
social media platforms. Instagram allows for captions of 2200 characters, spaces
included. Twitter is only 280 characters but this might work well for some creators (see
game developer @HTHRFLWRS for example). It is also an option to photograph or
scan text and share it as an image instead, being careful to make sure the quality of the
image is good enough that the text is readable and that alt text is also provided. It is
also a good idea to split text up into multiple images if the text looks too compact in a
single image to be clear and easy to read.

Protecting Work Online

It might seem harmless to upload images of your art to social media but unfortunately
some people use social media to find other people’s work and ideas and take them for
themselves. There are actually social media accounts dedicated to tracking this kind of
behaviour, and it seems to particularly affect illustrators and graphic designers. For
example, a big fashion brand might look to social media for new designs, copy
something, and sell it on their clothing without ever crediting the original artist. It also
seems to happen between artists themselves.

The very best way to avoid this is to avoid sharing work online at all. Social media
platforms usually have a line in their Terms & Conditions that means in posting content
to their site, you agree they can use your content in any way they see fit. They usually
don’t take ownership away from the user, but this is still enough of a liability to make
some people avoid sharing art online altogether.

Staying offline is often impossible for artists when sharing their art is often how people
get work in the first place. So, there are a few things you can do if this is a concern to try
to put people off copying you. Add a watermark on top of the image with your name or
handle (you can do this for free through apps), only show sections or clips rather than
the full work, upload low-resolution images. If your social media is being used to
re-direct people to your portfolio on your website, you can also disable right-click so

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people cannot save an image or download a video. It is also useful to make your
contact info very visible as a way to invite people to get in touch with you for a
commission or project, rather than just save your work without asking. But none of this
is fool-proof, and the risk of having work stolen is just another reason some artists avoid
social media completely.

Making Social Media Posts Accessible

When artists share their work through social media, it is important to make sure content
is accessible. If artists do not bother to do this, they can exclude potential audience
members from enjoying their work, and they can also exclude potential curators, writers,
buyers and so on who could offer them further opportunities to progress in their career.
Ways to make your social media posts accessible include:

1. Adding alt text to images that describes what the image is for people who use
screen readers. Some screen readers have trouble with social media feeds and
for that reason, many Instagram users double-up and put alt text in their captions
too. Many artists also use this as a way to be creative and descriptive with their
language, and to reflect on why they are sharing the image at all.
2. For video work, make sure there are subtitles. It is also helpful to put a
description of the visuals in the caption too. This is useful because videos are
usually set to autoplay without sound.
3. For videos, if there is flashing imagery, put a warning up front if possible or at the
very beginning of the caption.
4. Descriptions are not just for images. Video descriptions help make content
accessible too.
5. Make use of live-subtitling in apps where possible for live-streamed content.
6. When writing hashtags, capitalise the first letter of each word. This makes it
easier for screen readers to read what is being said when words are put together
without spaces.
7. Make sure that font size is big enough for people to read things clearly. This also
goes for artists sharing documentation of text art or writing.
8. Consider how many @ or # are used in a text-post or caption because screen
readers also read out punctuation. The same goes for emojis too!
9. Use plain text writing and avoid using special characters copied and pasted from
font generators that show writing in a very stylised font. They are both difficult for
some people to read and screen readers also can have a lot of trouble with them.
10. There is further guidance on presenting text in an accessible way here:
https://accessibility.huit.harvard.edu/design-readability

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 11. Difficult content can trigger emotional upset in some people, so it is worthwhile
adding content warnings or trigger warnings to posts that can help users decide if
they want to see something or not. Apps like Twitter allow users to filter out key
words so written warnings can help people avoid triggers altogether.

Queueing Posts

Posting content online can amount to a lot of work but there are schedulers that can
help get that work done. A scheduler is a website and/or an app through which users
can queue future posts. This means you can upload images, text, videos and captions,
select a date and time you want it published, and then the scheduler will post it
automatically on your behalf. This is a useful tool for artists for many reasons, and it can
be an aid for sick and disabled artists in particular. It means days or weeks of content
can be queued in moments when an artist is available to create the post, and also when
they have the headspace, health and energy to put everything together. Then, content
can continue to go out even in busy times, or when an artist is held back by brain fog,
fatigue, and other illnesses. Most schedulers come with a desktop component which is
great because not all social media platforms do, and it can be much easier for some
people to organise their online content on a desktop instead of a phone.

Plus, scheduling allows artists to be strategic about when exactly they post, right down
to the minute. Maybe an exhibition opens at 7pm so you also want to share the work
online at 7pm so nobody misses out. You can’t be in two places at once but a scheduler
can help you out by publishing the online component while you are busy at the
exhibition opening. Or an artist might want to post content for people to look at on their
way to work in the morning, but they are unavailable at that time to post it themselves.
So, they queue content to go out Monday to Friday at 8.30am. Their audience
recognises the schedule and begins to look forward to checking their account every
morning to see what is new. Peak times on the Internet change day to day and place to
place, so it is worth googling what might be the peak time for your audience so you can
capitalise on it. In-app insights can reveal this information.

If you want to use a scheduler, here are some to look at: Buffer, Hootsuite, Later, Sked
Social, Combin Scheduler, Semrush, Tailwind, Onlypult. They have free versions and
paid versions too that mostly allow for a higher number of posts to be queued across a
higher number of accounts. It is worth checking which schedulers allow alt-text to be
added to make sure you are sharing posts in an accessible and inclusive way.

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Finding An Audience

Once you have your account set up and your content ready to go, how do you find
followers to share your art with? This generally happens organically over time for
people. They start by following a few friends or family members who follow them back.
As they meet more people, they exchange social media details and their followers list
becomes a list of who they know offline. A way to be more proactive about finding
followers is to follow other artists in your community (that might be a community based
on place, identity, or just art itself). Those people might see they have a new follower,
check your profile to see who you are, enjoy the art they see and then choose to follow
you back. This is why it is helpful to have details in your bio that quickly introduce you to
new people. A step beyond this is to follow people who you guess might enjoy your
work based on the things they post. Of course, it is only advisable to follow people
whose content you also enjoy looking at because then your feed can become an
enjoyable and inspiring place for you in the process.

Artists often note that they gain more followers after being involved with other projects,
collaborations, residencies, and takeovers. For example, an artist who is invited to talk
about their practice at a university will likely notice an uptick in followers from the
students who listened to their lecture. If a gallery posts an image and tags an artist they
are working with, some of the gallery’s followers will probably follow the artist too. Some
arts organisations and companies will invite an artist to do a social media takeover of
their account and this can also bring new followers to the artist’s page.

Some artists also try to gain followers by doing giveaways and competitions. Say an
artist has some prints of their work, they might post that they are giving prints away but
to be included in the competition you must follow their page, like their picture and tag a
friend. Then, based on everyone who likes, comments and follows, they will use a
randomiser to pick a winner who gets a print for free. The interesting part of this tactic is
that by tagging a friend, the friend might also enjoy your work and do the same — not
just to be a part of the competition, but to follow and keep up with your future work.

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23
Sponsored Posts

Sponsoring posts means paying social media platforms to make your account more
visible to more people in a given area. Users can be very specific with who they want to
see their account — for example, 25-30 year olds within a 10 mile radius who enjoy
artistic content. Users can specify the number of people they want to share their
account with, and pay per that amount and per day. While this sounds like a useful
aspect of social media, artists generally do not sponsor their own social media posts.
This is for a number of reasons.

First, it can be expensive. Second, some artists prefer to organically build an audience
of people within a specific community so that their experience of being in the arts feels
more personal. On top of this, artists do not generally report finding sponsored posts to
be worth it. A survey ran via The White Pube Instagram stories learnt that of 105 artists
who had tried sponsoring their posts,only 14 believed it to be worth it. 91 artists reported
they did not notice any change in their follower number or engagement. Of those 14
artists who believed it to be worth it, 10 of them were sponsoring specific projects
attached to larger organisations, and not just their own general artistic practice. This
might indicate that people being shown the sponsored post paid more attention to it
when there was a bigger name involved, and this is also maybe because it was
marketing a specific project that they believed they could participate in.

Deciding Which Social Media To Join

If you are an artist who wants to sign up to social media, which platform should you
choose? Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Facebook, TikTok, Discord, or something else
entirely? Maybe two, three or all of them at once? Below, each app is described in terms
of what artists can use it for, and there is also mention of its usual relation to the art
industry.

Instagram

What you can do on the app:

You can post images, videos, and you can also live stream through the app. There is an
editor built into Instagram so users can edit the look of the content they post, as well as
the length and aspect ratio of videos. This is useful, for example, for artists to quickly

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straighten a wonky image or up the brightness of a painting they have just taken so that
it looks professional online.

It has generous space for captions at 2200 characters including spaces, which is useful
for artists who enjoy writing. Alt-text can be added to images. There is also an
auto-captioning feature for videos as well as the possibility to add text on top of media
yourself.

Anything posted on the main feed also comes with an optional comment section below
which can be handy for conversation, questions, tagging other people to bring posts to
their attention, and receiving feedback. Plus, stories have a Q&A function, polls, and
sliding votes.

What you can’t do on the app:

There is no in-app re-sharing feature for main posts, unlike other apps such as Twitter.
For a long time, users were unable to share links on stories unless they had a business
account with over 10K followers. This has recently changed but it is a feature a lot of
people don’t yet realise they have access to. It is still true though that links cannot be
shared in comments or captions, or directly from main posts unless linked as adverts or
products for purchase.

The app and the art world:

It appears to be the social media app of choice amongst the contemporary art world,
with artists and galleries alike running active accounts. Galleries use it to market what’s
on, and many smaller galleries use only Instagram to publicise details of their events
and exhibitions. Curators often use it to contact artists in direct messages, especially as
many artists don’t have their own websites where their email and other contact details
would typically be.

Tips:
Instagram’s algorithm can make it a challenge to get your work seen. Users who make
the most of all the apps features on a regular basis are rewarded with higher
engagement. But this can be a lot of work as it means using main posts, stories, reels,
IGTV and posts of things to buy using Instagram’s shop feature. By checking the in-app
insights, users can view the peak times for their followers and post at that time to
increase the likelihood their posts are seen. The algorithm changes over time as more
features are added to the app.

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Examples:
@jerronherman
@midgittebardot
@ablezine
@ramenate
@itsyosquared
@thesteveway
@mohammad.barrangi
@jessedarling
@artbyfunmi
@invalid__art
@akissi_nzambi
@heartnsoulart
@crip_fantasy
@bedroom_activist

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Twitter

What you can do on the app:

Twitter is text-first, allowing text posts that fit within 280 characters. Twitter users can
also post images, gifs, videos, and live stream through the app. Video length is limited
to 2 minutes 20 seconds, unless a user has been granted special permission to post
videos up to 10 minutes long — otherwise, linked videos play in-app fine too. Alt-text
can be added to images. Unlike Instagram, anybody can post links. This can be useful
for individual creatives and galleries that have a fuller website they want to direct others
to. Twitter is also great for sharing other people’s posts in retweets, which is a smoother
way of sharing content than many other apps offer. It can do polls of up to 4 items too.
Twitter has also recently relaunched Spaces, an in-app feature for live audio
conversations.

What you can’t do on the app:

Images are cropped on the timeline until a user clicks on them to see the full image.
Twitter chooses where to focus the crop which can sometimes result in the least
interesting part of an image being shown, and for artists this can be an issue for both
presentation and engagement. There are also limits on how many images you can
include in one tweet (it is currently 4, whereas Instagram allows carousels of 10
images). Twitter Spaces does offer live captioning, however, ‘Captions only appear
on-screen when a person is looking at a live Space. We do not show captions to a
person if they have docked the Space to the bottom of their Twitter app or are off the
app (although the audio will continue to play)’ (via Twitter).

The app and the art world:

Twitter is very popular with artists but not necessarily for sharing art. There appear to be
three general approaches to Twitter by artists:

1. The majority of artists keep their Twitter for casual, creative and social
conversations more than sharing artwork. They might also discuss the art
industry and share links for jobs.
2. Some artists do share artwork on Twitter directly but it is mostly digital artwork,
and particularly illustrations, pixel art and anime. These artists also receive
commissions directly from their followers, negotiated in direct messages, for
casual illustrations such as personalised profile pictures.

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 3. A very small number share text-based art projects that use the tweet format itself
to deliver their work. This is both a creative response to Twitter and an
opportunity to share text art on a busy social media feed in a way that cannot be
achieved in the same way on other apps.

Tips:
It is great if artists pin a tweet to the top of their profile that includes any key information
that won’t already fit in their bio, such as places to find their work, other social media
accounts, or projects on twitter they are attached to that can be directly @d.

People use hashtags as a way to label content and make it discoverable for others.
Twitter’s search function is very thorough, however, so it is not advisable to hashtag too
much when the search bar can find it anyway. It is noticeable that some people overuse
hashtags, particularly those who are not digital natives. Some arts professionals are in
the habit of hash-tagging multiple words within a single sentence, thinking others will be
able to find their thoughts on the subject — but people will be able to find them anyway,
even without the hashtags so it just makes a tweet look clunky.

Examples:
@RubbenaArt
@jamierhale
@CHRIS_SAMUEL_
@kaisyngtan
@disabilityarts
@messijessijumps
@mikscarlet
@CRIPticArts
@funmicreates
@radicalbodyarts

Twitter accounts using the platform in a performative way:

@InhalingMy
@magicrealismbot
@choochoobot
@paulkneale
@hydrothemerald
@sosadtoday
@empathydeck

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Facebook

What you can do on the app:

Facebook has a lot more features than most social media platforms. Users can post
text, images, videos, and livestreams. The video limit is huge at 240 minutes and 4GB.

Facebook users can create public or private groups. These are very helpful for artists
who want a space online where they can hang out with a group of people or discuss
things behind closed doors or in public. It is like creating a forum, and people can be
elected moderators to help out which is useful if groups get very big. Facebook also
allows users to create public or private events as well. For artists, this is an efficient way
to invite lots of people to an upcoming exhibition or workshop, etc.

Facebook allows a user to have friends and followers for their content. This means
when posting something, the user can decide who exactly can see the post. Most social
media platforms are all or nothing with their privacy settings, and because of that artists

29
often have a public art account and a private account for friends and family. Facebook
means everything can happen in the same place.

The platform also has a very active Marketplace where users can sell things, which
some artists use to sell artwork. It has an in-built fundraising feature too.

What you can’t do on the app:

The tricky thing about trying to operate efficiently as an artist online is that the best
approach is to put all key art and information up front so that people can see your
overall practice in an instant. Facebook has a tonne of features, such as photo albums
that mean you can organise images by projects for example, but they are not there on
the surface. Visitors to your page have to click through to ‘photos’ and then to a specific
album to find what they are looking for. While this might not sound like too much of a
hurdle, it can increase the drop off rate from your page. The drop off rate refers to how
many people abandon what they are doing on a website, and it generally doesn’t take
long for people to give up and do something else instead. Compare this to an artist’s
portfolio on Instagram where everything is right there on the surface, and it can come off
as a bit of a hassle.

The app and the art world:

Facebook used to be very popular with the contemporary art crowd but people have
mostly moved over to Instagram and Twitter now. Facebook is seen as a little
old-fashioned compared to the others, even though it offers so many features that are
useful for an artist’s practice. It is also seen as a little bit more of a personal place
compared to the others. Because of that, curators are less likely to reach out to artists
via their Facebook pages, because they might feel inappropriate sending a friend
request to access what is a personal and private space online. If Facebook had
introduced the friends and followers options for privacy sooner, this might have turned
out differently.

Tips:
Make use of the privacy settings so other Facebook users can follow your page, rather
than sending a friend request. If you use photo albums to share artworks and projects,
make sure they are labelled clearly and remember to post the albums on your news
feed so that people who follow you know the work is there to look through whenever
they want.

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Tiktok

What you can do on the app:

TikTok is an app for short-form video content. It began with clips up to 15 seconds, but it
has a new limit of 3 minutes. Where Instagram is useful for its photo editing capabilities,
TikTok is known for its video editor. There is a library full of sounds, effects and filters to
use for free. The music capabilities set it apart from other apps, as social media sites
usually delete posts that use known music for copyright infringement whereas TikTok
encourages it. Some artists use other people’s songs in their work and this means
TikTok can be a good option for presenting that.

A popular TikTok feature is the duet, which means a user can take somebody else’s
video and make one of their own to be played alongside it at the same time. This can be
a really creative way to react to the work of other content creators.

Users with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days are eligible to
join TikTok’s Creator Fund which earns the user money based on views, engagement,
and type of content (ie. it must fall within Community Guidelines and TikTok’s Terms of
Service).

What you can’t do on the app:

You can’t post still images or text posts, and the caption length has a tight limit of 100
characters. You cannot add alt-text on TikTok at all, although it has introduced
text-to-speech. Because of this, some users will post a video description in a comment
instead but it is very rare unfortunately.

The app and the art world:

The art world currently seems to have two main opinions on TikTok. First, that it is for
young people, and so most people don’t bother to take it seriously. And second, that it is
for major art museums who want to bring some lightness to their online presence by
using their art collections to participate in memes and trends. The app is not exactly
new but it still feels like the art world is making its mind up about it, or learning how to
embrace what it can offer. Some hobbyists have quit their jobs to pursue their full time
TikTok art-related accounts, earning income from the app itself and its Creator Fund.
Because of the difficulty artists can have finding work and making money, it is an option

31
some people should consider if their work can translate well to this particular social
media platform.

Tips:
The nature of TikTok, its sound library, and the duet format means it is totally normal to
react to other people’s content and try it out for yourself. This isn’t really the case for
other social media platforms. Trying out a trend or a meme for yourself is a great way to
make content if you are struggling to come up with your own ideas. If you use a popular
sound, it also means your video will show up when other people are looking at what has
been made with the sound, which can increase your visibility and engagement.

The art-related content on TikTok that seems to stay popular consistently is process
videos. This means an artist has filmed themselves making an artwork — for example,
close-ups of a paintbrush moving along a canvas, screen printing, or stitching. These
videos are often filmed with relaxing music and people enjoy them because they are
satisfying and calming. If you are thinking of starting a TikTok as an artist, a process
video would probably be a good place to start.

Examples:
@tabithawhitley_art
@vamuseum
@egor_or_not
@drive45music
@dfreske
@memorylikealight
@museumofneonart

Discord

What you can do on the app:

Discord is made up of different servers created by its users. In those servers, people
can chat using text messaging, voice and video calls. They can send media and files to
one another too. Custom emojis can be added, moderators elected, and roles assigned
to different people on the server. You can organise chats within a server by category
and channels, and those channels can be text channels or voice channels depending
on what they’re used for. The structure of channels means information can be really well
organised, so lots of different conversations can happen at once in the same place.

32
Plus, a single user can join 100 different servers, and private messaging is possible.
The voice chat function filters out background noise and can be a very useful way to
hop in and out of conversations with other people online. Other social media platforms
decide all the privacy and security settings, but with Discord you can decide your own if
you are the moderator.

What you can’t do on the app:

The file size is only 8MB which can sometimes mean a single image is too big to send.
However, there is a paid option that allows for higher size files to be sent (up to 50MB).
This can make it tricky for artist communities who might be sharing their own images of
artwork with each other. There are image hosting websites such as imgur that get
around this problem, however.

While there is a server directory on Discord’s site, it currently only shows 2040 public
servers in the Art category that you can request to join. There are thousands more but
they won’t show up in the directory because most servers are private communities. It
can be difficult to even find out they exist.

The app and the art world:

Discord is a less public approach to social media than other platforms. Because of that
it might not seem like an obvious one to mention in terms of the impact of social media
on artists. Plus, it is known for being used by gamers. But there are both huge and small
artistic communities across Discord that are used by artists for socialising, network, and
creativity too. Some servers are set up by specific groups, such as character design
artists, to help critique one another’s work and to also share tips and tools, and connect
internationally.

Tips:
If you are interested in joining a Discord server, it is worth asking people in your local
arts community if there is one already set up. This might mean asking followers on other
social media platforms to find out if there is a relevant one for you to join. But if you can’t
quite find one, it is a simple process to set one up for yourself. Plus, that way you get to
decide who joins it, what it is for, and how the channels are organised. You might want a
server for a really specific reason and making your own is a way of fulfilling that. For
example, you might want to speak to sculptors, collage artists, find work in your city, or
connect with local artists.

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Examples:
Corn on the Khobs
Arts & Commission Community
Easel Alley

34
SECTION 3:
STAYING OFFLINE
“In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better
determine how we feel about ourselves and to in turn feel the need to be constantly
visible – for visibility, these days, seems to somehow equate to success – do not be
afraid to disappear. From it, from us, for a while, and see what comes to you in the
silence." Michaela Cole, 2021

It is worth considering why plenty of artists do not sign up to social media.

In Section 1, we looked at the professional, social, and creative reasons artists have
accounts online. The main benefit for artists is that by sharing their work on the Internet,
they can show it to people who might be able to give them further support and
opportunities throughout their career. Most curators now look to platforms such as
Instagram to find the artworks they want to put in exhibitions. In the past, artists could
just focus on making art, and the curators would do the work of finding them in their
studios, art schools, or at exhibition openings and so on.

Nowadays, artists are expected to make themselves visible through an online presence.
Because of this, artists can struggle. They can be critical of the fact they do not want to
spend so much time having to publicise themselves when their job should be to focus
on creating new artworks. Artists feel pulled in many directions by social media. A
successful artist account often requires them to document their work well, share it, find
an audience, keep in contact with people, and post regular content in order for an
account to stay up to date. This is all in the hope that an interested curator will see it. It
can be overwhelming to expect artists to keep on top of all of these tasks, often tasks
they were never trained to do. It would be helpful if curators, who often have the stability
of a full-time job, found ways to take this responsibility back from the artists so they
could get on with their creative work.

It is especially important for curators and other arts professionals who are in positions of
power to do a lot of research to find new artists because not everyone is active online.
Artists might not use social media because they do not have a phone, computer,
internet access or maybe a camera to document their work with. They might not be able
to afford these things or they might simply choose not to have them. Other artists are
not able to have a public presence online because of safety. They might be completely

35
offline or have only private profiles in order to keep them safe from known people who
may do them harm or online trolls.

Other artists believe their artwork is not suitable for social media. This could be due to
the form of the artwork. For example, large multi-media installations that are very
spatial, interactive works, sculptures that should be viewed from all angles, or long
performances that do not fit within video upload limits. It can be difficult to see the point
in signing up to social media accounts if the style or form of your work does not
translate well to digital space. And of course, some artists believe their artwork simply
does not suit the atmosphere of social media and think it should be best viewed
one-on-one in person and not through a screen.

These are practical reasons why artists might not have any social media presence but
there are also some issues related to the platforms themselves. You might hear people
discuss ‘the algorithm.’ They are referring to the way social media platforms decide
whose account is seen at the top of the feed most often and for whom. It is a way of
ranking users and also a way of matching users to an audience they think will like the
content posted. The way the platforms make these decisions changes all the time
based on different factors but they are factors never made clear to users. People try to
figure these things out for themselves so they can try to keep their account relevant. But
again, when artists have so many other responsibilities, figuring out the secrets of the
Internet can feel a step too far. For an artist, it can feel unfair knowing they are posting
art but not many people might see it because they might not be posting in the right way
according to the current rules of ‘the algorithm.’ Because of that, some might not even
bother and prefer to keep their art offline instead.

Internet users have also noticed that social media can unfairly discriminate against
people based on their identities, bodies, politics or jobs. For example, a disabled person
who posts images or videos of themselves and tags content with disability-related words
might find they have low engagement compared to non-disabled users. This might also
happen to users who are LGBTQI+, fat, activists, or users who do sex work.

This is relevant to a discussion on artists and social media because many people in
these communities are also artists, and social media can hold them back. Issues might
include: curbed reach of their content, censorship, deleted posts, and shadow banning.
In the past, social media platforms have justified these actions as safety measures for
accounts they believe face risks of bullying and harassment. Therefore, they limit the
reach of the account to avoid this from happening. However, this is highly contentious
as it means many people from marginalised identities are treated differently online from
others. It can show the political standing of the platform too. Therefore, many artists

36
avoid social media because they feel they cannot truly express themselves in the way
they want to. They also do not want to risk building up a profile only and social
connections only to lose all of their content because the social media platform decided
their account ‘violated’ its rules — rules that are often kept vague and are hard to
contest.

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Mental Health:
Attention, Pressure And Competition

There is a very high number of artists currently using social media. Artists share work,
connect with others, and try to find success in the art world by building a strong online
presence. Because of the scale of the Internet, and the rate at which people post, the
whole place can feel like a competition for attention. This can be very overwhelming and
it’s easy to get sucked in, spending many hours looking at other people’s accounts and
worrying about how your own compares. While it can be very inspiring and enjoyable to
look at other artists online, it can take a toll on mental health and self-worth. Artists
should be careful to not compare themselves to others. If you find yourself doing this, try
to focus on your own artwork instead. Many artists prefer to focus on making work,
finding this significantly more rewarding than engaging with social media.

If looking at other people’s success is troubling, don’t forget you can always unfollow the
accounts that bring up these feelings. You can also follow them again when you are
ready. Alternatively, you can mute or hide posts by somebody you do follow and then
un-mute them if following and unfollowing could cause issues with relationships or
difficult conversations. Artists and users in general should feel empowered to make their
feed exactly how they want it to be. Do not feel pressure to follow people especially if
following certain accounts makes you feel bad in some way. It is your online experience
to decide, and it is great when you can make that a pleasant, friendly and inspiring time.

It can be upsetting to post artwork and then not receive many (or any) likes or
comments. Most people have public social media accounts which means anybody can
see their content and therefore people can see low engagement too. This can leave
some people feeling embarrassed. Some will take that to mean nobody likes their art or
even them as a person, even if that is not true. There are a number of reasons low
engagement can happen but whatever the reason, it is important to remember the
following: you should never value yourself based on how many likes you get online. You
should value yourself for you. If you believe in your artwork then that should be enough
to want to share it with the world.

Maybe most of the people who follow you didn’t see it because of algorithms, or
because they follow lots of accounts and your post got lost in the mix. Maybe the people
who follow you didn’t quite like this particular post, but you shouldn’t let that discourage
you if you are proud of what you have made. Plus, by sharing content online, you might
attract new followers who like whatever it was you posted. Be optimistic and be kind to
yourself. However, if these are factors you do not feel you can handle, some social
media platforms allow you to hide the number of likes from showing publicly. You could

38
also get into the habit of posting without checking how many likes a post receives, so it
is something you don’t have to think about. This can be made easier if you post through
third-party apps such as Hootsuite, Later, Buffer, Tweetdeck, because you are less likely
to hang around on a social media account to see any engagement roll in.

These third-party apps that allow users to queue posts can also be a useful tool if you
want to post things regularly, or at certain times of the day, but find that stressful. Social
media seems to favour and recommend accounts that post lots of content frequently but
it is worth mentioning that there are plenty of popular artist accounts online by people
who post whenever they feel like it. That might be once every other month or even
longer. Also, lots of creatives take long breaks away from the Internet when they are
feeling burnt out. They sometimes also take breaks when social media does not feel like
it is adding anything to their lives right now, but maybe acting as more of a distraction. It
is fine to take yourself away for as long as you need to, and it is good to remember that
you can do this at any point in time.

If there are certain words or conversations you do not want to see or think about while
you're online — some that may be triggering — apps like Twitter allow users to mute
specific words in order to filter them from your view.

There are some things all users should bear in mind to make sure they protect their
mental health online. This is advice for anybody, not just artists. For example,
sometimes people online can be hateful, especially when they are speaking from
anonymous accounts. If you receive any hate, it is effective to not engage in any way
and to quickly block the account in question. It is effective to not reply at all because
even just one reply can encourage trolls to send more and more abuse. Some social
media accounts now offer an option to not only block the account but any new accounts
that might be made by that user, which can bring peace of mind.

It is also an option to turn an account private, or change security and privacy settings so
that you get to decide who sees what, who can get in touch, and who can engage with
your content. Going private does not have to be a permanent thing, and it can be useful
if you want a break away from total visibility which can feel draining.

There can also be dangerous people online so if you feel like you could be a target, be
careful not to reveal information that means people can find you offline without your
permission. For artists, it might be exciting to post in real time about an exhibition you
are visiting, and tag your location too. But it would be safer to post about the art you
have seen once you have left the gallery.

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Many artistic communities are now setting up servers on Discord instead of the more
mainstream social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter. It is an instant messaging
platform that allows for text messages, voice and video calls, plus media and file
sharing. Each server is a private chat with channels for different conversations and
topics. Artistic communities are finding homes there because it is better set up for group
conversations, and it is invite-only so artists can share thoughts and artwork without
judgement from the public. Plus, Discord allows users to do their own moderation so
many find it a safer and smaller online experience. It is like a custom social media
platform for different groups of people, and for some it is the best fit for their mental
wellbeing.

Social media can be a great place for artists that can bring with it new people, ideas and
opportunities. However, for many, the Internet can be a challenging place full of
comparisons, competition, hateful comments, and safety concerns. It is only one tool at
an artist’s disposal, and it is not essential. If it does not feel right for you, safe, healthy,
or fun, then you should prioritise your wellbeing and stay away. The important thing is
that artists do not let social media take up too much headspace and they continue to
focus on their art, which should be at the heart of everything they do.

40
Section 4:
Profiling v buckenham

Section 4 and 5 of this report include interviews with 2 artists who use social media in
creative ways. The first interview with v buckenham demonstrates how artists can think
about social media platforms themselves as tools to work with and to challenge.

v buckenham is a generative artist and creative technologist. They make creative tools
to enable anyone to do new and interesting things with technology - such as Cheap
Bots, Done Quick!, a platform for making Twitterbots that hosts over 20,000 bots. They
have a background in videogames, and have worked on the award-winning games

41
Beasts of Balance, Mutazione and Panoramical. They also work as a curator, and were
one of the founders of the Somerset House hosted festival of play Now Play This.

You can find v buckenham on Twitter @v21, and on Instagram @vtwentyone.

1. Can you tell me about the art you make and the concerns of your practice in
general?

I'm going to copy & paste the artist's statement I wrote a while back, because I spent a
bunch of time on it and it obviously expresses this better than I would do without
spending quite so much time. Here it is:

I'm still motivated by the same joy that I felt as a child when I would write
10 PRINT FARTS
20 GOTO 10
and the screen would fill with FARTS. It's a short command leading to much larger
results. It's a kind of joke, taking a simple premise and extrapolating from it to the
absurd. Like custard that goes beep when you punch it.

I multiply these simple elements together to form intricate possibility spaces. Shaping
not a particular plotter drawing, concrete poem, tweet or visual, but the shape of all
possible outputs. I love making that shape wider and wilder, layering in more details to
be discovered. It's a process of discovery as much as it is creation. I make the work to
learn if it can be made, and discover what it'll feel like when it does exist. Sometimes
this means I have to work quickly: I have to accumulate complexity faster than I can get
tired of it.

But I'm not just interested in creating a complex system in the abstract - I care just as
much how it is experienced. So sometimes the work takes the form of a tool or a toy,
handing the controls over to a player so that they can discover things for themself. And
sometimes the work is the samples I select from the system, pulling out a stretch of text
or an image to be plotted that can illuminate the system.

As I guide the player or viewer through understanding the system, they construct a
shadow version of it in their head. It's that internal model that I ultimately care about. I
want to put off easy understanding of the system, to prolong the experience of putting
together how it works - dripping out details and complications slowly, taking advantage
of happy coincidences, allowing the ugly if it allows a wilder beauty.

42
43
2. How do you use social media as a part of your practice as an artist? And can
you tell me about the Twitter bots.

So I became very interested in Twitterbots a few years ago, when there was a real
surge of activity in them, and a real creative community forming around them. I would
call out Everest Pipkin, Allison Parrish & Darius Kazemi as doing especially interesting
things in this space. I had always been interested in generative art (see Panoramical)
and working with possibility spaces, and I had always been interested in finding new
and strange ways to express stuff - new ways to make work within a new social context.
So Twitterbots were immediately exciting to me.

The bots I am best known for are Soft Landscapes and Many Gradients, both of which
post abstract images exploring the aesthetic space that can be achieved with gradients
on a fixed schedule. Soft Landscapes evolved out of Many Gradients - folding the
gradients back on themselves and layering them, cutting shapes out to create the sense
of mountain ranges fading away into the fog. They both deliberately generate "ugly"
images - I am interested in shaping the possibility space as a whole, leaving space for
surprising and unlikely things in there, rather than making every single output as pretty
as it can be - I think this also comes from my background in games, trying to play with
expectations as much as create a single aesthetically pleasing image. Both of these
also have other iterations outside of Twitter (Calming Sphere in the case of Many
Gradients, which extends it out into 3 dimensions and animates it, trying to create, as
the title says, a calming presence). There are also other bots, which can be viewed as a
whole here: https://twitter.com/i/lists/838442982940504064/members

I'm also just reasonably popular on Twitter generally, and feel like a lot of my exposure
as an artist (and as a technologist & game designer) comes from that. And outside of
that, I post other work on Instagram, although I have not built up much of a following
there.

3. Can you tell me about Cheap Bots, Done Quick! too, and why have you made a
tool for others to make bots?

Cheap Bots, Done Quick! is an accessible tool for making Twitterbots. It's free to use,
and attempts to be accessible to people without much technical expertise. It hosts over
20,000 bots, with new ones being added daily. It's built around Kate Compton's
procedural generation language Tracery.

So the slightly mythical version of this story goes like this: at the time I was involved in a
community of creative coders who were doing really interesting things on Twitter with

44
45
automated accounts. And one of the leaders of that community, Darius Kazemi gave an
interview where he said that it was a necessary thing that to make interesting twitterbots
you had to be a coder - that there was something to the procedural and systemic nature
of the form that was only accessible to coders. And I saw that and thought - no, you're
wrong, it's more about poetry than it is about code, it's just that actually getting
something set up, dealing with authentication on Twitter and setting up a server and all
the other bullshit things you need to do to make a Twitterbot work on a practical level -
all those things eliminate anyone who isn't a coder. And then I thought... and I could
automate those things away. So then I did. And I think the outcome has shown I won
the argument, hah. (I should stress that Darius is generally very encouraging of
broadening access to creative spaces, and when I mentioned this story more recently,
didn't remember making that comment)

And there's also other versions of the story - I kept seeing Kate Compton's Tracery
system for generating procedural text, and I thought it was very exciting in how
accessible it was, and how powerful - but also no one else seemed very excited by it.
The argument I think I heard was: anyone interested in procedural generation is also a
coder and is capable of making their own ad-hoc version of it whenever they want to do
it, so why bother including it in your code? But that obviously meant it was an excellent
match in terms of being the way to actually author bots within CBDQ.

4. What is your approach for your main Twitter account @v21?

I have a large follower count, which I put down to being active and engaging on Twitter
for many years, rather than a brilliant execution of any systematic approach. I generally
find writing long form text to be a painful process, but I like having ideas and thoughts
about the world, so I find the short fragmentary nature of Twitter suits me well. But
mainly I just post things I think are interesting or seems funny or I want to talk about. I
have recently decided to be more proactive in terms of posting.

Two features of Twitter I do like are threads & polls. Threads are nice because you can
return repeatedly to a subject - collecting a little compendium of interesting things (such
as my thread of repurposed tools:
https://twitter.com/v21/status/1066734014227189762?s=20). Every time you add a new
thing to the thread, it also gets new views on the older posts.

And polls just tickle the game designer in me. It's funny to make people choose between
binary choices, and it's interesting to see what they choose. For example, recently I
asked my followers to choose between "content" and "IP". Terrible choice, very funny for
me.

46
5. Have you received any jobs, opportunities or financial remuneration as a result
of your online presence? If so, can you give examples and maybe explain how
those came about?

I don't think I have, directly - but I have received opportunities due to my general
reputation, and I feel that the main place I cultivate this is on Twitter. For me, it is kind of
equivalent to "existing publicly".

Oh, actually, one direct thing is that most of the promotion for the Patreon I run for
CBDQ I do via Twitter. Today I saw someone posting about it & got a few new
subscribers as a result - but also CBDQ is inherently connected to Twitter, so that isn't
surprising.

47
6. One thing I am interested in understanding (if you know the answer or even
have an inkling) is how artists find online audiences for themselves. Do you know
how @v21 reached so many thousands of followers, or @manygradients and
@softlandscapes as well?

I am not entirely sure why people choose to follow me, but I do understand why people
follow the bots. Many Gradients & Soft Landscapes post nice pictures, their followers
see them and retweet them to share them with their timeline. And people see them, see
the offer that they're making (see a nice picture on a regular basis) and follow.

Many Gradients also has the additional thing of replies - kids (mainly kids, from what I
could see) would enjoy messaging it, asking to be assigned a gradient (that would then,
ritualistically, reflect upon them, kind of like tarot). They'd then share the gradient,
performing delight or horror at what they'd been assigned. There's something satisfying
about that degree of unknown outcomes, and performing in public in that way. But this

wasn't intentional on my part - I thought it would be a fun thing, and then the kids really
ran with it.

7. As someone who experiences fatigue, do you find bots that auto-generate

content an accessible way for you to create art?

Yes, but maybe in a different way than you'd think. Even before my illness, I would be
trying to fit in work on my art around paying work. It can be hard to persist on a project
when it becomes longer and more involved. So I definitely worked on trying to find ways
to create where I could work on a project in a small scale way, starting and completing it

48
in a few days, or ideally an evening. Bots are ideal for this - the scope is naturally
limited, and the means for sharing them is built into the scope. I definitely am a big
believer in working, if you can, on a series of small pieces that build on each other,
rather than one big piece that has multiple stages of refinement. It means if you stop
halfway, you've achieved a few things, rather than got halfway to achieving something.
For example: I made Many Gradients first, and when that was quite satisfying, I
expanded it into Soft Landscapes. I know people who have made bots and then
returned to them repeatedly to refine or expand them as they live with the outputs.

But also making things that can have a life of their own is good. The kids building a
culture around Many Gradients is an example of that. And the bots post by themselves,
so they do promote themselves and find their own audience. (but on the flipside - I'm not
sure how many of those people then engage with me as an artist, versus just engaging
with the bot). CBDQ itself is an example of that - I keep the server going & people make
wild and interesting things with it without me having to be actively involved.

8. Could the bots be displayed in traditional exhibition settings? How would that
feel?

I have shown outputs from Soft Landscapes at a show! Sadly I didn't get to see it (it was
in San Francisco), but CODAME showed it. I felt good about it, as you generally do

49
when people want to put your work in a show :) And calming sphere was included in the
Zium Museum virtual exhibit.

It does feel different - I generally believe that the art with bots is the total range of
possibilities that the bots can produce, as well as the social context they exist within.
And a lot of those are absent in the translation to paper. The larger possibility space
could be recreated with some creative showing - for example an interactive exhibit
where new landscapes are generated when visitors push a button (although Soft
Landscapes deliberately does not generate landscapes on command, giving a vibe of
these being pre-existing landscapes that are being selected, rather than responding to
your actions). But work always shifts as it is shown in new ways and new contexts -
some elements are lost, but other ones can be brought to the fore.

9. Do you find social media to be a creative space? Or do you have more of your
ideas when you are afk?

Both? Probably the process is that I see interesting things on social media, but I'll
actually reflect on them away from it.

But also one of the great struggles in my life is with procrastination - with avoiding work
and problems that I find uncomfortable to face by distracting myself with other things, so
I don't have the opportunity to think about them. Social media obviously fills this role
quite well, but in the absence of social media I will find other things to fill this space (I
spent a lot of time as a teenager reading for this reason). This is obviously a problem

50
with being creative & producing work! The flipside to this is that I have spent a lot of
time reading about various subjects quite deeply - from social media and other sources
- and that definitely informs a lot of my work & thoughts.

10. Finally, are there any other creatives on Twitter using the platform in ways
you find interesting?

I love the way @pangmeli tweets. She brings these very considered, interesting
perspectives, and curates a lot of beautiful ceramics and other art. And she uses
threads in a very considered way - building up these webs of interconnected thoughts,
appending onto old threads when she has something to say that relates to it. I'm a huge
fan.

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52
Section 5:
Profiling Monique Jackson
Section 4 and 5 of this report include interviews with 2 artists who use social media in
creative ways. The second interview with Monique Jackson demonstrates a strong
example of a single issue social media account where personal experience, news and
the science around Covid and Long Covid are brought together through continuous
illustrations by the artist. This is also a helpful example of ways in which art and social
media can result in online community building.

You can find Monique on Instagram @_coronadiary, and on Twitter @stillillcorona1

1. Can you tell me about the @_coronadiary account on Instagram?

I started the ‘Still Ill Corona Diary’ in the summer of 2020 after having had a suspected
infection of COVID 19 in March. I couldn't get access to PCR testing, feedback from
most medical clinicians was that I was one of many presenting with ‘weird and
wonderful’ symptoms caused by coronavirus. I hoped after a couple of weeks I would
bounce back to feeling my normal self as I was previously fit and healthy, however after
a few months there were new issues and I had relapsed in my condition.

Eventually I decided to draw what had happened, to try and make sense out of what
had been a confusing time. I hadn't heard of many people who were going through the
long term effects of the illness so uploading the images to social media was an
experiment to see if anyone else could relate.

I am still drawing what happened since last year. The project has grown to include live
stream ‘lockdown lock-ins’ where I chat to other content creators that have responded to
the pandemic in their work including; health advocates, researchers, medics and
creatives. I also reshare articles that I think are of public interest surrounding
developments of the pandemic.

2. How did you find your audience, or how did your audience find you?

When I started the page I followed friends, creatives, writers, journalists and charities
whose pages I thought might be relevant to raising the issue of Long Covid.

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54
Eventually I came across patient groups and community sites like Rising Arts Agency /
Sick sad girls / Body Politic / Long covid Support and Long covid sos who were focused
on raising awareness of Long Covid and other social or chronic health issues.

After the BBC featured some drawings from @_coronadiary in an article in August
2020, I was contacted by a lot more international people.

3. Do you have another Instagram account, website, or other social media profile
for your artwork or does it all exist on @_coronadiary? And can you explain the
reason for your answer.

I have a website www.stillillcoronadiary.com which contains links to activities I've been

involved with relating to Long Covid advocacy and have a twitter account
@stillillcorona1.

I created a separate instagram account for @_coronadiary because I initially wanted to

post anonymously so I could feel free to express myself and have it as a single issue
page. I did decide to waiver my anonymity after realising that it would help journalists
cover the story of Long Covid.

I am now setting up a seperate website for my other creative work

www.monjackson.com.

4. On the second post on @_coronadiary, you write in the caption ‘lucky to have
technology to keep me plugged in to the network of humanity.’ Have you found a
sense of community through running this account? And has that helped you
through the pandemic and Long Covid?

To explain what I meant by the caption is that I could see although having access to
digital technology is a privilege, it has been so necessary for me in order to stay
connected with others from arranging transport to hospital, PCR testing, access to
medical apps and connecting with family over video calls. It's been strange accepting
how much more I depend on technology and seemed natural to create and share
artwork digitally for this project.

Also yes I have found a sense of community in a way I havent come across before.
Through connecting to meetings held by online groups like Body Politic, Long Covid Sos
and Long Covid Support it's been comforting to speak with other people who have had
similar experiences to me and also been easier to access updated information with links

55
to research papers and scientific webinars. These communities have done some
fantastic work getting further medical recognition of Long Covid.

5. How do you decide what to post artwork of? And have you noticed which types
of images get the most engagement - the most likes and comments and shares?

I am sharing my story in a roughly chronological order. I have wanted to document

notable news articles, resources and ephemera I have come across during the
pandemic alongside noting my own emotions and situations personal to me.

I have also wanted to highlight my weird body issues because in the last year it has
taken some time for the broad array of Long Covid symptoms to be recognised and
communicated in public health messaging. I felt it was important to say what was
happening to me and have noticed comments beneath these posts where followers
would discuss variations in what they had experienced. I have been surprised at the
level of engagement, considering how stigmatising it can be to talk about illness.

56
6. Especially over the past year, Instagram has seen a rise in people sharing
infographics. Do you think presenting information through illustrations and
comics has helped offer a more personal alternative to these graphic design
templates that other people post?

It's an interesting comparison, I hope that my artwork contains both accurate information
and also communicates on an emotional level of what it's like to experience a pandemic
from a specific perspective at a specific place and time.

I think graphic design templates can serve a purpose when credible information is
referenced correctly.

I enjoy storytelling and drawing from my memories of sensual experiences.

7. You have lots of followers. How do you protect your own health, mental
wellbeing, and safety online?

At the beginning I didn't have any foresight into protecting myself other than creating a
separate Instagram page.

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Now I try to limit the amount of time I use social media and redirect followers asking me
for advice to use linktree with signposted resources.

8. Have you received any jobs, opportunities or financial remuneration as a

result of sharing your art online on this account? If so, can you give examples
and maybe explain how that came about?

Since last year the Wellcome Collection has featured a selection of drawings from the
Still Ill Corona Diary on the stories page website.

I then went on to join a Long Covid webinar with the National Institute Health Research
(NIHR) in November 2020, later twice this year worked as a public member for the
funding of Long Covid research with the NIHR. It's been good to feel I can make a
difference beyond making artwork and learn about patient advocacy on a larger
organisational level.

I have also been involved in other collaborative creative projects such as co-designing
‘The Radical Histories of Railton Road..’ mural with artist Jacob V Joyce & RAD
Cooperative at 198 Gallery, speaking with a pandemic comics online group tour led by
artist Rachael House and co-designed a long covid creative programme with social
enterprise group 64 million artists.

9. Do you aim to post a certain number of images, do you have any kind of
schedule you try to stick to, or even post strategically at a certain time of day?
Or do you just share things as and when?

When I started I was trying to draw quickly and produce as many images as possible in
order to raise maximum visibility, whereas now I am taking my time a bit more.

I am lucky that since receiving the vaccine some of my symptoms have improved and
now I have energy to go outside for long walks as well as take part in multiple projects.

10. Finally, have you found any other accounts where creatives are using their
own work in order to discuss a particular issue?

Sick Sad Girlz Club @sicksadgirlz (Insta)

An inclusive page where ‘the sick, the sad, girlz, enby palz and others’ are encouraged
to share their stories both on the instagram and via weekly community meetings.

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Rachael House @rachaelhouse
Rachael House UK artist who makes events, objects, performance, drawings and zines
work focuses on feminist and queer politics and resistant histories/herstories

RAD mural Co-operative @radmural (Insta)

Radical & Black led, Neurodiverse & Queer Mural painting cooperative. Social action
and healing through public art.

Fawziyyah Rahman @faw3iyah

Artist and ED nurse whose work explores issues surrounding Health, neurodivergence
and identity.

Ailsa Munro @ailsamunrodesign Print Designer & Digital Artist inspired by

environmental issues.

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Section 6:
Stigma Project
Unlimited is an arts commissioning programme that enables new work by disabled
artists to reach UK and international audiences. In autumn 2021, Unlimited
commissioned 4 individual artists/collaborations to respond to the theme of Stigma. The
artists were David Tovey, the Kirkwood Brothers, Vince Laws, and BABEWORLD. This
section of the report begins with an interview on the social media strategy of Unlimited.
It is then followed with interviews with each of the artists to discuss both their approach
and their relationship with social media as creators. The Stigma commissions were
disseminated online only using the social media channels of Unlimited and Shape Arts.
After the interviews, an assessment follows examining how the work was shared over
September 2021 and how its delivery might have been improved. Recommendations
are offered on how Unlimited and Shape might work online and with artists going
forward.

This assessment has been written by Gabrielle de la Puente who co-runs The White
Pube. The White Pube is an art and games criticism website established by de la
Puente and her collaborator Zarina Muhammed. The website also has an
accompanying Instagram account and Twitter account with an engaged, international
audience of tens of thousands of readers.

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Unlimited’s Social Media Strategy

Handle: @weareunltd

1. What is Unlimited’s approach to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook? Are there

any differences in how you use each app? Why does Unlimited have a social
media presence?

Unlimited's overall social media approach is looked after by Artsadmin's marketing team
(Artsadmin co-delivers Unlimited). We aim to share content/opportunities that aligns with
the programme's mission: to embed work by disabled artists within the UK and
international cultural sectors, reach new audiences and shift perceptions of disabled
people.

We post across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook platforms in order to reach the
maximum demographic. We don't do paid for posts that often (in line with Artsadmin's
ethical approach) and because we achieve reach organically. We adjust how we share
content on each platform.

We pass the power and offer paid Instagram takeovers to artists wherever possible
(Artsadmin has been doing this for 3+ years; Unlimited's Instagram is newer but has
been doing this since Aug 2019 when it was set up).

2. Is it one person deciding what images are posted and what words are used? Or
is there a team of people conferring, and having meetings to plan what is going
out?

Team work! Artsadmin's marketing team is two people - working 3 days/wk total on
Unlimited. We train our Unlimited trainees to deliver a lot of social posts, which they do
amazingly. We run campaigns around key moments (ie commissions announcements),
but mostly work responsively.

3. Are there ever discussions with commissioned artists about how their work
will be shared across Unlimited’s social media accounts or is that just up to the
comms team? (If conversations do happen, what kind of questions does Unlimited
ask the artist? And do you have any examples that you can point to in terms of
what an artist wanted and what was published in turn?)

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When artists are commissioned they provide us with the copy in different formats which
is what we use to talk about projects, there is back and forth and they sign this off.

We also hold a ‘Welcome Day’ which includes an introduction from the comms team
where we explain what we can and can’t do and how to let us know things to share:
artists are mainly in contact with the team who work full time on Unlimited (not the
comms team), within which they have a key contact and then through this we have a
slack channel where key contacts flag things to post for trainees.

4. It appears Unlimited uses Hootsuite to schedule posts. Is there an aim for how
many posts are published, and how often?

We post on Twitter every day as we have a really responsive audience on there, we aim
to post on Instagram 3 times a week to keep up with sharing news and opportunities but
in line with trainees’ capacity and the same with Facebook

5. Is Unlimited happy with the level of engagement on posts? Does it aim for a
higher number of likes, comments and shares? Is a high engagement on social
media important to the project of Unlimited?

We want to put out good quality content so it is important to us to that extent and I do
report on engagement quarterly but we are not driven by this/ it doesn’t govern our
content. I think it will be more important in the future as at the moment we have very
limited capacity, it’s just about sharing our blog content

6. How and why does an image/post/comment make the cut? Are there any aims
with the content itself?

Mainly governed by blog content which shares news, resources – but also see Q2

7. How do you decide who to follow from the Unlimited accounts?

We follow all of the commissioned artists, partner organisations, funders, and try to
follow key commentators in the sector and cultural organisations, artists, people we
have had loose involvement with

8. Does Unlimited communicate with artists directly in private messages when

you are interested in working with artists who might not have an email address
readily available?

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We don’t use private messages for this end but our Senior Producer Jo Verrent does
communicate with artists through her personal account

9. Has Unlimited founds any artists etc. through social media and approached
them for commissioning opportunities or other work? If so, are there any
examples?

Jo said: yes - to some extent although not only via social media ie we'd look for other
contacts too - we might for example, ask someone to write a blog if we'd seen them
online being active re a topic and liked their approach or style

10. Has Unlimited had to block any accounts? And if so, why?

We have never blocked any accounts.

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Stigma Artists Interviews
I interviewed all the artists involved in the Stigma commissions to gather information
about their specific approaches to social media. We discuss how they feel about having
an online presence as a part of their career, and how they protect themselves online.

David Tovey Interview

Handle(s): @david.tovey on Instagram, @davidtovey1975 and @OnefestivalofHA on

Twitter

Website: https://davidtoveyart.co.uk

Artist bio: David Tovey is a member of the Unlimited board along with being a formerly
homeless artist. He’s an educator and activist who works in a range of media. When it
comes to his practise, he is a photographer, painter as well as an installation artist and
performance-maker. At the heart off this practice is a very special quality – the ability to
bring you to the subject in ways both beautiful and hard-hitting in equal measure in
order to raise awareness about the social issues he tackles.

Approach to social media:

1. How do you decide what to post on Instagram?

So thats pretty easy, i guess i like to just put my life up there, so when there is
something i’m proud off, or achieved then i pretty much put that up. I used to really over
think what to put up but now i’ve really relaxed around the space. I like to share i guess
little wins in life, and stuff I love. Snapshots into my head, work and life.

2. Your Instagram is a mix of images of you, your art, your cat, and places you
visit. Some artists only ever share pictures of their art. Why do you share lots of
different things?

Great question. My whole art practice has been about picking myself back up and into
some sort of human being i’m proud off, sharing all the social problems within my work.
so i guess every little thing about who i am becomes my art. I want people to know that
just because you’ve had a life time of shit thrown at you, from illnesses and social

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barriers, homelessness, alcoholism etc etc that the shouldn’t hold you back. I’m proud
of my flat, my life, my cat because i nearly didn’t have any of that, up until 2015 i was
still trying to kill myself. so i share my life experiences now as part of my art journey.
Plus all of it inspires me, it keeps me going, especially my Cat ‘Boris Not Johnson.’ I’m
not sure if that makes any sense or answer the question.

3. Is there any of your artwork you wouldn’t post on Instagram? If so, why not?

There is so much I haven’t put up on Instagram. Hundreds of paintings and drawings.

not that i don’t like them, i just feel that i’d prefer them to be seen at an exhibit, rather
than just seeing them online.

I also haven’t put up all my digital film works or Audio pieces and thats for the same
reason. I want people to come see the work, chat with me and go from there.

4. Have you ever gotten work or opportunities because of your Instagram page?
If so, can you give me an example?

Not sure, I did sell some work due to instagram, and i never sell work as its not why i
went into art. So that was quite nice. I’ve also pick up some portrait commissions but i

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don’t like doing commissions, actually i hate them. i feel really trapped when doing
commission work. So i stopped taking them unless i feel i have freedom with in the
commission.

I’ve also picked up a lot of jobs for public speaking and podcasts, some paid and some
not.

5. You have posted 2 videos on IGTV: a train ride and an exhibition invitation for
your audience. How did it feel to use IGTV?

Yeah not sure how to use IGTV to be honest, the Ripples of hope one I had to ask
someone how the feck to get it up online, i’m suchn idiot lol

6. As an artist who is interested in examining issues around mental heath,

amongst other things, has social media helped or challenged your mental
wellness more?

Thats a question close to my heart. I used to be on Facebook but i found it to be a very

negative space, it really started to get me down when i started to receive a lot of abuse
online for my work with those who are homeless and the Festival i run. It got so bad that

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i started to suffer really bad with my mental health and he’d to come off it. so i melted
the app.

Instagram i find different, i use it more as a scrap book, so i save posts i like, i share
stuff that i want to make an impact with, or what i love etc. I haven’t struggled with my
mental space on instagram.

7. Some artists see their social media account as a way to get people to their
website. Do you feel this way or do you see Instagram as a valuable thing in and
of itself?

I think a bit of both, i prefer if people go to my website as its more detailed and shows a
lot more of my work, plus its better to navigate. I think also because of the type of work i
do a website is better for people to engage with the work. I can see if i was more of a
commercial artist, which i’m so not, i could really see the benefits of `instagram hitting
so many more people than a website.

8. Has your relationship with social media or your idea of it changed over time?

Yes most deffo, for me it was just a space to chat with friends and family, especially
when i lived abroad, but when Facebook became this evil negative space that just
bombarded you with poxy adverts to buy shit you don’t want, i was like i have to leave. I
fear Instagram will become the same. hopefully not though.

9. How do you find Twitter in terms of your practice as an artist? Is it a pleasant

experience, is it useful at all?

I'm not sure if it makes a difference in my art practice but i know i get alot of ideas with
how to promote my work via Twitter, plus when I'm doing a performance its a great way
of getting the promotion out compared to other platforms. I tend to get a lot of coverage
for the productions via Twitter. But it never guarantees people visiting my work or shows
but that's because I make depressing work lol. I also use Twitter more for my protesting
and activist work within the homeless community, Its a great space to rant about what's
failing within that sector because of my followers tend to work in the housing, homeless
or arts sectors, so it tends to hit all three at once. This platform though can also have
abuse, when I talk openly about my sexuality or homelessness experience i have
received alot of abuse. But the good side of twitter for me outweighs the shit side. I get
alot of speaker work from Twitter, its also opened up doors with in the cultural sector for
Venues, My Man on Bench Fairytale got its performance venue due to a call out on

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Twitter, ended up getting the Mayfield Depot in Manchester. Also my Unknown Soldier
got three venues due to a call out on Twitter. Sold work on Twitter.

My Twitter is my Personal thoughts and actions that i'm close to. but it has gained me
alot of work, Probably the best social for work. Also the One festival has gained alot
from twitter, form venues, to volunteers and being able to find artists across the world to
showcase there work. Its a great space also to promote homeless arts. especially as we
gain followers, were still a very small festival which relies on volunteers and donations, I
have brain damage so can't fill out a funding form so we have never had official funding
to do the festival. Hence why Twitter has been so good for us to get people knowing
about the shows. That's how we have been able to have the festival in 4 cities across
the UK and once in Zanzibar, just by people knowing about us.

My experience of social media isn't great, i've struggled because of the abuse but also
thrived because of how its helped our festival and my arts practice personally.

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Babeworld Interview

Handle(s): @babeworld3000

Artist bio: Babeworld is an art collective led by Ashleigh Williams (she/her) and Ingrid
Banerjee Marvin (she/her), that seeks to make a more representative art world through
the creation of art, fundraising and creating grants, and facilitation of events - for those
who are marginalised in the arts. Their work is as diverse as the themes and topics they
cover working collaboratively over themes of political and societal identity, specifically
disability/access, neurodivergence, sex work and race.

Approach to social media:

1. How do you decide what to post on Instagram? And is there anything you have
decided not to post, and why?

Babeworld uses Instagram as a tool to connect with other individuals with similar lived
experiences as us. We tend to post what we’re up to, alongside our fundraising projects,
and our experiences of navigating the art world. Being a sex worker means Babeworld’s
account has been threatened with deletion many times, so I rarely post about sex work,
or when I do, I have to do it cryptically.

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2. Do you plan posts in advance? Do you have a schedule you stick to?

We have mondays which are for posting our patreon, and every 2 months we have a
grant announcement day. We tend to just announce other projects ad-hoc.

3. Have you noticed what type of content on your page gets the most
likes/comments? If so, what is that and why do you think it is?

Our content that is memes, grants, or pictures of us are what tend to get the most likes.
It’s great that our grants get so many likes and shares because then we’re reaching a
wider audience. I think it is people trying to do their bit for marginalised communities, by
sharing and liking opportunities.

4. Do you care about how many likes, comments and messages you receive
online?

I try not to weigh my value based on likes, comments and messages. Being
marginalised on Instagram often means being shadowbanned, threatened with deletion
and low engagement. I try not to be affected by our engagement.

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5. As creators, do you find Instagram fulfilling? How has your experience of IGTV
been?

Instagram has been a really pivotal place for us to form communities with people with
similar experiences to us, so in that respect, it has been fulfilling. On the other hand,
Insta has a history of demonetizing, deleting and shadowbanning marginalised creators
(which we have experienced) - so in that respect, I don’t think it is fulfilling. I don’t mind
IGTV, from an artist perspective it’s been a great tool for us to show our video work in
full.

6. Do you prefer Instagram or your private Patreon feed for posting art,
thoughts and other content?

I post my true thoughts on Patreon, and prefer it that way. It’s a tailored audience that is
here for Babeworld and Babeworld only, so it feels like a safe space to get things off my
chest. But for general sharing of work, I prefer Instagram.

7. Have you come across any problems with Instagram (could be censorship,
deleted posts, or trolls etc.)? If so, how did you deal with that?

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We have been censored, threatened with deletion, many many trolls have attacked us
in our DMs and publicly. When it comes to trolls, If they ain’t paying the bills, I pay them
no mind. When it comes to deletion and censorship, we’ve had to adjust the way we talk
about certain topics such as sex work, ultimately I have had to censor my experience to
exist freely on Instagram.

8. How do you decide what to include in your Linktree?

We try to keep it as sleek as possible for accessibility purposes, and use it for our
website and fundraising. We were advertising onlyfans accounts too, but got threatened
with deletion and had to stop.

9. As a group, do you have one person who oversees Instagram or do you share
responsibility? How do you manage sharing the account as multiple users?

I (Ash) run the Instagram, with others contributing to graphics, captioning, and creating
Alt text. We find it easier to have one point of contact on Instagram, so I can manage
the DMs and comment effectively. We have weekly catch up meetings where we
discuss any messages or comments that require further discussion.

10. Have you received any jobs or other opportunities through social media? Can
you give examples?

A lot of commissions we receive come from our social media presence. We often get
emails being like “we’ve seen on your instagram this film and want to screen it” etc. Our
instagram presence was the reason for commissioning at East Street Arts, ICA for Anne
Duffau etc. We are often given large donations from our grants which run on Instagram
too. We also have been offered to advertise work on our instagram for payment.

11. Do you think Instagram is an accessible platform for users and audiences or
could it be better?

It is not a universally accessible format. Not everyone gets to engage with Instagram in
the same way. Whilst it is making its way to becoming more accessible (using
captioning etc) - these aren't universally used. I think it's accessible to a certain extent.
But we can always do better.

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Kirkwood Brothers Interview

Handle(s): @kirkwoodbrothers on Instagram & @KirkwoodJonny on Twitter

Artist bio: Kirkwood brothers, the Glaswegian duo, are made up of brothers Jonny and
Jordan. Their work examines neurodiversity and mental health to fight the stigma that
surrounds it. The work is colourful and made to start conversations around the topics
they depict. They prefer to let their work speak for itself, avoiding the pitfalls artists often
face when trying to explain their work in written language. They believe this often makes
their work feel more relatable and accessible and affords the audience an intimate and
individual relationship with their art.

Approach to social media:

1. Do you make art for Instagram or do you want it to be in a physical exhibition?

And can you please explain your answer.

I'd love for our work to be in physical exhibitions. I'm honest and open enough to realise
that it just seems to fit the fast paced nature of Instagram. So yeah, sometimes we
make work specifically for Instagram. Especially the little stories or narratives that
spread over a few slides, I quite like that feeling of it being like a comic or zine. I've not
tried any other platform yet.. the idea of making a tiktok gives me the boak.

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2. Do you like the square format for Instagram? Has it influenced your art at all?
Has the square limited you or helped in your creativity?

The square doesn't bother me. It sometimes makes drawings look a little squashed. I
usually edit them so they fit so it's also quite nice playing with the format/ layout.

3. When you share work, the caption is very brief - if there is a caption at all.
Why is that?

I used to try hashtags but tbh it didn't help us get any more traffic and it felt weird. I
usually just prefer people to take what they want from the work. A lot of it is straight to
the point but others could have a few meanings. I actually get really anxious that people
would read the posts and think "awk shut up".

4. Do you have a goal for how often you try to post content online?

During lockdown I started posting daily. We started making work again after a year of
not doing much. It really helped to grow our followers... but again I just worry people get
fed up of us. I get fed up with myself!

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5. Do you find Instagram an accessible social media platform for yourselves?

It's easy to use but I find it just constantly pushes you towards influencer type pages.
Jordan didn't at all. He had his own personal account for a while but he found it toxic.
He says he struggled with how overloading it can be.

6. As artists who make work about mental health (amongst other subjects), do
you think Instagram has helped or challenged your mental wellbeing? Do you do
anything to try to protect yourself and your happiness online?

I hate it. I know that's really silly to say because we have loads of posts but I've went
through some periods of really piss poor mental health and social media never helps.
It's too easy to compare yourself to 'successful' artists. It affected Jordans mental health
negatively too. I usually take breaks. Some for a few weeks or even just a few days. I
also sometimes just delete the app. I always think I'll get to 666 posts and then pack it
in.

7. Have you noticed what type of content on your page gets the most
likes/comments? If so, what is that and why do you think it is?

I used to think I knew. Slides or ones I knew were funny or topical but we made a stupid
meme type post and it blew up a while back. I genuinely don't know what people like,
how the algorithm works or what work is popular anymore.

8. Do you care about the number of likes and comments you receive?

The cool answer is no. But of course I do. It's nice to know people 'like' your work. I've
noticed if I take a break then the likes just plummet. It's like Instagram's way of giving
you into trouble.

9. Have you received any jobs or other opportunities through social media? Can
you give examples?

We have and that's the biggest reason I still do it. Without it I don't think we'd have
gotten many of the opportunities we have. It's ingrained in society now so you have to
use the tools available. We get some small commissions every now and then but we've
also been contacted for bigger projects like murals and workshops through Instagram
too.

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Vince Laws Interview

Handle(s): https://www.facebook.com/vince.laws.3

Artist bio: Vince Laws is a poet, artist and campaigner who has previously worked with
Unlimited through his commission ‘A Very Queer Nazi Faust’. His work seeks to
decrease the stigma associated with HIV and mental health problems; for an end to
war; against homophobia in football; for LGBT equality; against the pope’s visit to the
UK; for disabled rights; and against the government’s treatment of the poor, sick and
disabled. He currently has a blog for Disability Arts Online and can be found on
Facebook.

Approach to social media:

1. Why do you only use Facebook as opposed to other social media platforms
such as Instagram and Twitter?

It's the one I joined first and so it's easy to continue. I did use Twitter for a while, but it
was back when you could only send 140 characters, and that used to do my head in,
often I'd want to share a poem, or joke that just didn't wrk whn u tk out letters! I'm a bit
of a technophobe, so better the Devil you know. I feel I spend enough time on FB and to
then have to go and do Twitter, and do Instagram... I try to keep creating rather than
spend time promoting my work... I mean I do both, of course, but I'm happier doing the
creative stuff. It's a kinda love hate relationship, I'm sure I'm not alone. Every now and
then I have a week off.

2. Have you ever received work or opportunities from sharing your art on
Facebook? If so, can you give me an example?

I've sold artwork. Quite a lot. I'm talking paintings and prints mainly from about £20
-£100. I tried an Etsy shop, but didn't like it, didn't get much response, took it down
within a month. Mainly I sell to FB friends, people who see my work on my page. But
I've had a few people contact me after seeing my work on Disability Arts Online FB
page.

I got a gallery show in Lowestoft recently, thru a FB friend. An artist I'd never met, we
are FB friends cos both artists, like each other's work, but never met. Then he started a
gallery, and cos of FB invited me to exhibit.

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The show I got Unlimited funding for (A Very Queer Nazi Faust) in 2018, started in 2017
when I put a call out on FB for participants, got 13, fundraised on FB. A lot of activist
connections, not necessarily paying, but useful.

3. How has your audience as an artist grown online? Have you done anything to
find people or have they found you? If so, do you know how?

Slowly. Not much! I have a range of project FB pages, so there's A Very Queer Nazi
Faust, I Protest (art show in Norwich), Pimp My Unicorn (art show/collectiove), DWP
Deaths Make Me Sick (series of shrouds, funded by Unlimited, shrouds hung across the
stage, then went on tour separately, currently up in the Attenborough Centre, Leicester),
and Boris Piffle Johnson (a comedy alter ego I'm developing!). So I tend to tell my Vince
Laws FB followers everything I'm up to, but then add to one of these pages depending
on the topic. I have wondered if I should set up a separate Vince Laws Artist FB page,
but kinda can't be bothered. So I've attracted FB friends through some of those projects.
More often it's cos a current FB friend suggests I friend someone for a project etc.

4. Do you feel like your Facebook page has a sense of community?

Yes.

5. Do you find Facebook accessible?

Yes.

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6. How often do you post online, and why?

Daily. I enjoy a bit of banter and topical political nonsense.

7. Has anything you posted ever been censored or deleted by Facebook?

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Yes. I wrote something satirical they thought crossed a line. I try to be provocative within
the rules!

8. You make work that contains political commentary about the current
government (amongst other things). How do you feel about sharing this work on
Facebook, a social media platform that has been criticised for influencing
elections and protecting hate groups?

If there was a more ethical alternative, I'd use it, but it's a bit of a monopoly. I've tried a
few similar sites when they sprang up, but if no one else you know joins it too, you give
up! There are lots of things about FB I don't like, but I get a lot out of using it. I live in
rural isolation, which I love, but I enjoy a bit of banter on FB.

9. Does it matter to you how many likes, comments or messages you receive?

Yes! It's addictive, I know it, little hits of dopamine I think? Depends what I'm sharing. If
I've oil painted me and Van Gogh I want lots of likes. If I'm sharing another article about
the DWP, I expect nothing. Some of the DWP Shrouds got shared hundreds of
thousands of times. Occasionally I'll see images I put out years ago, come back with
different text over them, I really like it when that happens, like they've got a life of their
own.

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Assessments
First, individual assessments are made of the delivery and presentation of each artist’s
contribution. Then, an assessment is offered of the project’s overall delivery over
Unlimited’s social media channels. The following is not a criticism of the artwork, only
how it was shared. Input is given with this in mind, examining how artwork can be
presented well, and how artists can be supported in the process.

Kirkwood Brothers Assessment

Kirkwood Brothers commission presented in an Instagram takeover on

@weareunltd August 23

This is the first of the Stigma takeovers on @weareunltd’s Instagram account. It is

interesting to me that there is no significant lead in to the takeover — no initial posts that
says in detail what is going on, who is involved, that there are more takeovers to come,
or why this is happening.

Consider why people follow Unlimited’s instagram account. The likelihood is that
followers are made up of disabled artists who want to keep on top of commissioning
news and events, arts organisations who want to do the same, and a number of allies
who support the overall project of Unlimited and want to follow what art has been
produced and where. Do people follow the account to experience artwork online? Do
they understand the Unlimited accounts as being a place for display? Ie. not just an
account that posts listings, announcements, re-directions to blog posts? If I had seen
this takeover come up on my feed, I would want to know more and I wouldn’t be able to.

The first post by @kirkwoodbrothers is simply an illustration with the artists’

collaborative name in. It’s not a very full introduction to who they are or what they do.
From the interview with the artists about their approach to social media, I understand
that they stick to short captions because they ‘get really anxious that people would read
the posts and think "awk shut up.”’ I think when an artist is doing a takeover of an arts
organisation’s account that is not known for directly displaying artwork, it is the
responsibility of the organisation to make sure both their followers are going to
understand what is happening and that the artists are comfortable in the process too. I
would have spoken with the artists to decide (at the very least) how the first post was
framed by the caption, because this is in part its curation. It could be that the top of the
caption spoke explicitly in an institutional voice to introduce what is happening, and then

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handed over to the artists’ voice with a colon. It’s important during a takeover to make
the takeover clear — people move so fast on the timeline, it’s easy for them to dismiss
something, especially if it’s by someone they don’t know.

I do not think 6 posts in a single day is a good idea. I think it should have been 1 post
over 6 days. It is just not worthwhile jamming too much content on Instagram — less
people, not more, will see it. A slower presentation means people have more of an
opportunity to see the work on their timeline, and also can spend more time thinking
about the work over the course of 6 days. One day and done is less than ideal.

The #unltdagainststigma hashtag in each of the 6 posts only has work by the Kirkwood
Brothers on it, but it’s all next to each other on the Unlimited Instagram page anyway, so
it is hard to see the point in the hashtag at all. If the 6 posts were broken up across time
(ie. not 6 consecutive days) with other posts in between, or there were other artists
using the hashtag to collectively bring the artwork under the same umbrella, I would
maybe see the point.

But I am not convinced by the # itself either. In a poll of 953 people who make up art
audiences online, only 12% said they click on art-related hashtags to see the content
and discussion of wider projects. 88% do not. There’s an argument to be made that a

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hashtag is not as obtrusive on Instagram as it is on Twitter, but generally the use of
them by arts organisations can come off a little old-fashioned, and also just quite
unnecessary. If there had been a bigger push for audiences to get involved and post
things about their experience of stigma, it would make more sense. But if that was the
case, a different, quicker, easier, clearer # would need to have been used. Or
alternatively, the conversation could happen in the comment if people had been invited
to chat there instead — which is much easier for audiences to do than posting their own
content.

There is a corresponding post on The Kirkwood Brother’s own account - of a pigeon -

that includes a line, ‘post your own experience of stigma using the hashtag…
#unltdagainststigma.’ I am not surprised that nobody else did so because the invitation
was not made enough overall. But more so than that, the # itself is long and confusing
(the unltd at the beginning and the ‘stst’ later on). This hashtag is also niche because
once again, a proper introduction has not been made to the project. Not everyone is
going to understand what unltd stands for in passing either if they see it away from the
central account (tagged on the artist’s own post for example) or on the explore page.

In the following posts by the artists, their @kirkwoodbrothers handle is at the very
bottom of the caption without a re-introduction of who they are or the takeover that is

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currently happening on the page. Plenty of followers will have missed the first post and
might only see the later ones. It is essential to always loop people in, but this might
have been more effective anyway if the posts were spread out.

The fourth post — the ‘I still feel…’ comic — received much more engagement than the
rest of the posts. It was also a popular post on the artists’ own instagram. The artwork
was not only the most extensive of the ones shown here, but the message in the
caption lays bare the premise of the entire commission without needing the viewer to
have seen the other posts to make sense of it. I believe it works well because of the
artwork presented and also because it functions well as a standalone post. It is the type
of work that looks like it invites audience members to share their similar experiences,
and it would have been good to add a question in the caption that prompted people to
share. More comments would have boosted engagement too and it could have
snowballed from there. Instagram is very well suited for these types of comic carousels.
It is just held back by the way @weareunltd posted about it.

The fourth post received the third highest amount of engagement, I believe because it
also works as a standalone post, but it is worth looking at why. Instagram is filled with
generic infographics and inspiration/philosophy squares that are not dissimilar from this
design. It might be more popular with audiences because this is the type of content that

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fills Instagram: a message they can quickly relate to and get behind. But I also think this
reveals a problem when it comes to the delivery of the artwork. If curation had been
taken more seriously, if the captions had been signed off on in some way, and the artists
were more present in the caption itself (which is important in the event of a takeover,
speaking to people who don’t automatically know who they are) it feels as though the
artwork is at danger of being absorbed by that typical Instagram aesthetic and therefore
made anonymous too.

Overall, I think the work is well suited to Instagram as a place for its display, but I think
the captions needed to do better work of curation and explanation in order to hold
everything together. There is also a wasted opportunity when it comes to a back and
forth between artists and audiences.

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Babeworld Assessment

BABEWORLD commission presented in an Instagram takeover across September

2-3

Following on from @kirkwoodbrothers, the @babeworld3000 takeover feels more

cohesive and comfortable in its tone, but it is cramming in a lot over the 2 days that
could have been better delivered if a full week was allocated to the artists. This does not
necessarily mean a full week in terms of time for the artists to do the work. Instead, this
could have been a good opportunity to queue posts over a longer stretch in order to
give detail where there is not enough, or split up detail into multiple posts where too
much is said in one go. As the interview with Babeworld describes, the artists already
have weekly meetings to decide content so this could have fit well within their practice.

The first post is interesting in terms of the captioning but the image itself does not match
up too well with the words written. It might have been an idea to post a portrait of the
artists, their logo, or a teaser (still) of the film to come. But the post is still useful in that it
explains the takeover is happening, and it explains what it will consist of: a digital
commission around stigma and sports, and a celebration of disabled joy.

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The corresponding first tweet is much better at giving audiences the core reason this is
happening, however. ‘Head over to our Instagram to check out Babeworld's takeover!
Featuring their commission responding to stigma inspired by the #Paralympics and
@WeThe15, 'Shifting the Goalpost' examining intersectionality and football culture.’ The
same message should have been shared across all platforms — a point that is
elaborated on in the overall Stigma assessment below.

The caption indicates a full bio for the collaboration will be posted in the comments and
down there a 200+ word bio is given. It is a lot of text. Because it is in a comment, when
this post is seen from the main feed, users will have to click on the comment to see it in
full. This risks a higher drop-off rate. It would have been a good idea to split the amount
of text up into 2 posts: an introduction to the takeover, and an introduction to
@babeworld3000. It would have helped people digest the information, and it would
have generated more content for the takeover as well as Unlimited’s page.

The bio comment could have potentially done with some editing to be more succinct for
people moving fast online. When it comes to sharing a bio about yourself on an
established arts organisation’s channel, how worthwhile is it listing all the galleries and
institutions you have already worked with? It could have been a good idea to list a
handful, maybe the most relevant, and also tag them. Tagging them might have pushed

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the other organisations to share the takeover too, thus bringing in more engagement
and interest.

The second post almost hands off well from the first with ‘@babeworld3000 Ash again-‘
but it would be more helpful in these takeovers if just a few more words were spent
explaining a takeover is happening for the people who might have missed the other
posts. It is especially important to get the wording on this 2nd post right, given it is an
illustration that will do well on engagement because it follows a meme format and is
applicable to disabled audiences. The first post mentioned the takeover would celebrate
disabled joy. Now would have been a good time to underline that — to help audiences
get on the same page, to help audiences celebrate disabled joy too. It could have also
been an opportunity to ask followers to share their experiences of disabled joy in the
comment section, where they could have been in conversation with @babeworld3000.
There are no comments and I feel there could have been plenty if the invitation had
been made.

The ‘autistic, ADHD, not embarrassed’ post is a good moment to think about the point
takeovers from both angles. For the institution, it means artistic content is shared on
their page which generally livens up the usual content, and means their work is done for

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a while. For the artist, the potential impact is much greater. They can introduce their
work to a new audience, they can gain followers from it, and by gaining followers they
can find more opportunities by growing their name and their reach. Because the impact
is there to try for, it’s important that every single post is fine tuned for online sharing.
Every post needs to make the most of that opportunity.

This post shows an animation and a brief caption tagging which of the @babeworld3000
artists made it. If this is the only post I see, I have no idea what the takeover is, who
@babeworld3000 are, and why one of them has made this — and I want to know. It’s an
interesting lineup when a collaboration has an illustrator within it. What is that like?
What does this illustrator like to do? Was it easy for them to make work about stigma,
was it personal, was it a moment of disabled joy (like they have spoken about in other

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posts)?. The 2 other illustrations were made by this illustrator, @whinegums, by they
are only tagged and not named. If we knew a little bit more about their interests and the
art they make, it could have intrigued more followers to their page. And, as Unlimited is
followed by plenty of organisations, it could have been an incognito job advert for
@whinegums, like artists posts are in general (but especially for illustration, given the
elasticity of the job role).

By the September 3 posts, which consist of a film poster and then the video itself, no
introductions or refreshers are given to either artists or takeover. It assumes people
have read all other posts.

The film poster could have simply been used as the thumbnail instead of a post on its
own, which would have been a better thumbnail than the one chosen because it fits
within the square format better (and therefore shows up more clearly on the IGTV tab).
It also would have meant avoiding 2 posts in one day and splitting engagement and
attention. The caption on the final post is helpful, especially with the credits. A question
for Unlimited to consider is: how often, if at all, has the film been reposted to stories with
a reminder for people to watch if they missed it?

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David Tovey Assessment

David Tovey’s commission presented on Twitter from September 13-17

This commission suits Twitter over the others because Twitter is arguably a better
platform than Instagram or Facebook for looping, short-form video content particularly in
this aspect ratio. Compared to both takeovers on Instagram, the wording on the four
posts is succinct and consistent in framing the artworks as being part of a project about
breaking stigma around disability. However, the use of @ and # feels like a busy mess
that gets in the way of the work. The writing alongside each video could have been
cleaner in a few ways.

First, the principal hashtag itself: #UntdAgainstStigma. ‘Untd’ appears twice and ‘Unltd’
appears twice, thereby splitting up the project. It is a mistake I am not surprised
somebody made. Is Unlimited against stigma, or are we all united against it? The
hashtag is too long, the wording (especially with the vowels taken out) is unclear, and it
is not useful if everything is not even in the same place — half the commissions are on
Instagram after all, and half the David Tovey works are under a different # altogether.

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Plus, I think if you have to use a # at all, only one should be used. In the first tweet for
David Tovey’s work on September 13, there are 4 hashtags and 3 @s in and around
what should be a quick message. ‘Inspired by the #Paralympics and @Wethe15, we
commissioned artists to examine #disability stigma. Our works this week are part of a
repeating series by @DavidTovey1975 of @artshomelessint focusing on
#homelessnessCheck out the first of the works below. #UntdAgainstStigma.' Note the
second mistake in not splitting up ‘homelessness’ and ‘Check.’

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All the #s and @s slow this message down, and make it visually unappealing too. The
vast majority of readers on Twitter appear to just want clean text, so sometimes #s or
@s are grouped. Grouping them is not difficult to achieve when words like ‘Paralympics’
do not need to be made into #Paralympics, and ‘Disability’ does not need to be made
into #Disability. Single, common words are still easily discoverable. There is no point at
all in making them into a # unless the word is modified in some way to make the #
specific to the account’s tweets.

A cleaner alternative to that first tweet might be:

‘Inspired by the Paralympics and WeThe15, we commissioned artists to examine

disability stigma. Our works this week are part of a repeating series by David Tovey.
Check out the first of the works below.

@DavidTovey1975 #UntdAgainstStigma’

This way, the main @ needed and the main # are brought to the bottom of the tweet and
people can get through the important information quickly and jump straight to the work.
They then know that the artist’s @ is in the tweet too if they want to click through and
find out more about them. Personally, I would have left information about
@artshomelessint for a tweet later in the project, or I would have added a thread below
that introduced the artist with a bio and an image in its own space. The artists on the
Instagram commissions introduced themselves and spoken in their own voices in the
takeover, but it seems that when it was up to Unlimited to do that work, an introduction
wasn’t made.

The second and third tweets introduce yet another # with #BreakTheStigma. This might
have been a better # to use all along because it is pre-existing and might then have
networked the output of the artwork with other ongoing campaigns. And then the fourth
and final tweet uses a third # in #StopTheStigma. One should have been chosen and
stuck with, if at all, but both of these are better than #UntdAgainstStigma which feels
personalised to a counter-productive end.

Tovey’s interview shows that he sees Twitter as a place for conversation about all the
issues his practice touches, and he sees Instagram as a scrapbook. There could have
been a reframing of his work’s delivery on Twitter to invite conversation around
homelessness. His work could have been linked with any news stories from that week in
order to present the artwork as an emotional and personal prompt alongside news, for
example. Further, another Instagram takeover could have taken place but this time
using the scrapbook approach — the work alongside thoughts, notes made, images,

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work-in-progress, or behind the scenes images. Both these avenues feel more lively
than the series of tweets that went out.

Vince Laws Assessment

Vince Laws’s commission presented on Twitter from September 13-17

Continuing with the # count, across posts of Vince Law’s artworks we encounter many
more. #BreakingBarriers, #FightTheStigma, #Neurodiversity, #Homelessness,
#HIVAwareness, #Stigma, #BreakTheBarriers, (misspelt) #Tokoyo2020 and #Ableism.
As explained above, excessive use of these continues to get in the way of the artwork
rather than accompany it in a positive or informative way.

I find two main issues in the presentation of Vince Law’s work that I think have held this
back from better engagement.

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The first is in how each of the works is framed. The description of the subject of the
portrait is described up top, and then there is a brief mention at the end that this is ‘part
of Vince Law’s work.’ Seeing any one of these on their own outside of the series and
without explanation, it is easy to think the person in the portrait is the one that made the
work. For example, from October 1: ‘‘I’m more than a patient’ As part of Vince Law's
series for #UnltdAgainstStigma we meet the stylish lesbian Ella, who's interested in
sci-fi geek, favourite colours are lemon and purple and taking her guide dog for walks
on the beach.’ It leaves space for too many questions. If Vince Law is an artist, state
that. Or is Vince Law someone that ran a workshop with other people who created their
own portrait? Did Ella draw this? I am assuming Ella is real but have I got that wrong?
And if Ella is real, what is their relation to Vince? Or is it all imaginary? These questions
sound pedantic but it is vital to make this information clear because people don’t stick
around to find things out for themselves. Not knowing what is going on might make
them hold back on liking, commenting or sharing. Giving them the full artistry of curation
and explanation might invite them to stay.

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The second problem I have here is with Vince Law’s drawings being shared on Twitter
rather than Instagram. The square images are cut off by Twitter’s own framing, and
people don’t often click on things to see them in full, thereby cutting off the text either
side of the illustration. This kind of artwork is well suited to Instagram where many users
follow specific accounts that share illustrations and comics.

It is also a surprise that this work was not shared simultaneously on Facebook, which is
the artist’s preferred social media platform and one Unlimited is established on too.
Vince is tagged in tweets to no end because there is no Twitter account to even tag. On
Facebook, Vince’s audience could have helped drive engagement to the post but that
opportunity is missed here. Plus, we know from his interview that he is active on there
every day.

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Final Stigma Assessment
Interpretation:

As somebody looking over these Instagram takeovers and Twitter posts as a whole, I
only know that they are part of one project because I received an invitation to assess
them. Stigma’s delivery online would have benefited from cohesive branding (visually
and in the language used alongside the posts) to help audiences understand the project
better.

Looking back over the posts, I also only know why the Stigma commissions were
granted because of my familiarity with the project behind the scenes. There is no
consistency with explaining the overall project. There is also no anchor page on
Unlimited’s website with all the work in one place. There is no single Twitter thread, or
Instagram highlight either. An anchor page could have presented a quick explanation as
to why Unlimited are commissioning four responses to Stigma, and why now. The
answers could have been as straightforward as the Stigma prompt itself. But they
should have been there because they are foundational as a way in for the audience.

A webpage could also have acted as an ongoing archive of these online commissions. If
there was one in place, it could even be used for any future Stigma commissions too.
Better branding of the entire project could have helped give the commission a more
established feeling. At the moment, with this lack of interpretation and visual framing,
the entire thing feels overly casual and throwaway.

Unlimited already has a visual brand — it is times such as this when that could have
come into play in places beyond the website. Simple cues to use might have been the
Unlimited pink in a frame around the initial ‘introduction’ posts of each takeover/delivery,
or the same frames around text posts at points when the artist wanted to be in
conversation with Unlimited’s audience (in the bonus posts I have suggested). Avoiding
visual branding is a wasted opportunity not just to be cohesive but to show some
personality and colour, and liven things up when it’s needed. Plus, frames or other
branding (an icon etc.) would make it easier for people to relocate the projects and
enjoy or reference the artworks if they wanted to find them again.

The issue here is that artworks presented in online commissions should still be curated.
But because there is no curation visible here, it makes the posts about the artworks feel
like regular posts. To me, they do not feel like the unveiling of a commission at all. The
way the posts have been shared do not make me feel like Stigma is an event in any

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way. That may not have been the intention, but if it was done to tie in with the
Paralympics, then maybe it should have been.

Curation:

For an Instagram account with 2,170 followers and a Twitter account with almost 10
thousand, the engagement across all of these posts is much lower than I would expect.
But it is not just a lack of interpretation that is at fault, but poor curation in terms of the
selection and timeline of work too.

The interview with the communications team states that there is a process in place to
inform artists what they can and cannot do in the form of an induction, and a copy is
signed off too. However, I doubt that this is rigorous enough on the part of the
organisation when it comes to a takeover of their account by somebody else.

The word ‘takeover’ can seem a bit strong. It can make the artist think they have
complete control over the content delivery, and it can make the arts organisation pass
on curation completely because they do not want to get in the way of how other people
operate online. However, I think a ‘takeover,’ for want of a better word, should be a
series of decisions made between the artist and the organisation making the invitation.
It is not a case of vetting or censoring but a case of guiding — of curating — the
content.

This guiding should happen based on the experience of the social media managers, the
audience they speak to, and their knowledge of engagement on the account. Social
media managers and other marketing staff generally grow to have a good sense of what
their particular audience enjoys most on the account they run. Engagement might be
indicated by likes, a busy comment section, a high amount of shares, or a record of
which posts people come back to. If an artist is doing an online takeover of an account, I
think it is fair to discuss which posts go out and which do not. It is exactly what happens
in physical curation — an artist might bring ten paintings into the gallery but only seven
are hung, because those seven happen to work well together. The marketing staff can
help secure good decisions when it comes to content posted.

Plus, as the curator decides where the seven paintings are hung around a room, so too
should the artist and organisation decide how and when they are going to share content
online. It is possible to have a sense of flow in the order posts go out at — an order that
tells a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. I write this because there are
posts in the Stigma takeovers that might have made better sense if they had gone out in
different ways, and there are posts that felt like they were repeating what had already

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been said. There are posts that felt missing altogether too — posts that could have
been there to pull everything together. These might have alluded to the artistic process,
the artist’s ideas, their references, how their work relates to the Stigma prompt, and
wider invitations for discussions.

But really, when it comes to selecting which content should go out, besides choosing
posts based on their aesthetic, artists could be asked what they want to get out of a
takeover in order to help in the selection. For example, an artist might want to siphon
followers from the main account and to their own. If this is the case, the artist could
kickstart conversations at a specific time and make sure to be active in the comment
section to draw attention to their handle. They could go live. They could make the last
post of their takeover a notice that this work will continue to be posted out on their own
account if followers want to keep in touch. Or, if an artist wants to do research via their
takeover, they could make use of question boxes and polls, or they could invite direct
messages. Artists should be able to answer what it is they want from a takeover, and
curation (as it aims to support the artist) should go from there.

The timeline of each Instagram takeover in particular was incredibly tight. I believe it
was too short to make any impact because of the nature of the platform and how posts
are shown to followers according to the algorithm. Better curation would have seen
posts stretched out over a longer period of time. Approximately one post every day over
the course of a week would have grounded everything better.

Artist fees:

Artists were given £1500 for their commissions and the two artist groups that did
Instagram takeovers were given a further £100. I am in two minds about these figures
so I will write out both sides.

First, I think £1500 is a huge amount for the scale of the work produced. Therefore, it
would be fair to expect artists to also create online content within that initial figure. This
is something that could have been written into a contract. I expect artists would think
that a commission to create an artwork and a few days of online posts with captions is a
fair deal for £1500. The other part of me thinks that if the commissioning fee is so high
for the small amount of work produced, then artists could expect even more money from
the commissioner for the work’s delivery on Instagram. A higher fee for the work of a
takeover could be justified in time writing captions, appropriating work for the
specificities of the online platform, creating bonus content for stories, and time going live
or in conversation with followers, and so on. If there was a more thorough planning time

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between artists and social media managers, this planning could be factored into the fee
as well.

Instagram vs. Twitter:

It feels a little arbitrary that two artist groups had their work sent out on Instagram, and
two artists had their work delivered via Twitter. To maximise the visibility of the artworks,
and to maximise the opportunity to make the reveal of these online commissions into
more of an event, I would have done things differently. I would have had the first artists’
work go out on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for that matter at the same time. Then,
I would have gone for the second, then the third, and finally the fourth. For weeks in
total with each week dedicated to a different artist. Vince Laws work would have worked
perfectly on Instagram, and arguably better there than on Twitter. If Vince Laws’ work
had been put out on Facebook, it would have benefitted from Vince’s following there.

This approach would have been a lot smoother. The Unlimited Twitter account has
substantially more followers than the Instagram account, so plenty of Twitter followers
would have missed the Instagram takeovers completely. I think when any arts
organisation puts a project out online, or just any news or information, it is a challenge
to try to say things clearly without confusing audiences. This is especially true when
people spend so little time reading a tweet or an Instagram post, if at all, before moving
on to the next one. Splitting this project in two and putting them across two social media
platforms that do not have completely mutual followings will only confuse the audience,
and that risks them tuning out.

A more cohesive execution across both social media platforms (and Facebook as well)
would also have benefited from a shared institutional voice. Unlimited sounds very
different between the many profiles. The Twitter tone is precise, succinct, and very
connected to other accounts and news stories. The Instagram is much more casual,
approachable, and colourful in its voice. The Instagram almost feels more focused on
art. The split here might not mean much to people who do not follow both accounts but
from an outsider’s perspective, it probably does not help when it comes to moments like
the Stigma commissions. A planned delivery across multiple platforms at the same time
would have cleared that up.

There could have been even further coordination if artists had signalled something on
their own accounts that the takeovers were happening — and this signalling would have
been clear if the entire Stigma project had been branded in some way.

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The Unlimited accounts:

I suspect that the low engagement of these online commissions is due in part to the
Unlimited accounts themselves not being used for sharing artwork regularly. Across
Instagram and Twitter, the content on @weareuntld consists of posts about art, listings,
news, announcements, but not usually art formatted for social media or creative
interventions. When art is shared, it is in very tight takeovers that last sometimes as little
as 24 hours and even then it is mostly documentation. With many directions on the
account and low engagement across the board, it makes me wonder what people follow
these accounts for. It also makes me wonder what these audiences want Unlimited to
use their accounts for. This would be a useful investigation for Unlimited to carry out if it
wanted to transform its presence online to be more relevant.

Part of this investigation could also take a closer look at how these accounts are being
run versus what audiences would love to see. It could also inspect consistency across
accounts, and use of in-app features (polls, threads, pinned posts, highlights, location
tagging and so on).

I think there are some aspects of Unlimited’s social media accounts that might not be
easily accessible to newcomers. On the bio for example, ‘Commissioning exceptional
work by exceptional disabled artists. Delivered by @shapearts & @artsadm' makes
complete sense to an arts professional such as myself but the second clause might be
useless information for many. How many people know what it means for two separate
organisations to ‘deliver’ something else together? Plus, the @weareunltd handle is
clunky and not screen reader friendly — it does not use a camel case format (ie.
WeAreUnltd) and it is missing vowels.

If somebody was to go onto these social media pages for the first time, would they get a
real snapshot of the personality of the organisation and the artistry it produces, or is it
just random posts that aren’t easy to piece together? Many organisations and
companies approach their social media accounts as a place to tell one long continuous
story through their content. That might be something for Unlimited to aim for.

Good curation and delivery around any project can make people pay attention to work
that might not be immediately appealing or suited to the algorithm. Curation of online
work should be creative and thoughtful, just like it aims to be in person too. But this is
often not the case and it felt invisible with Stigma, and handled very differently project to
project to the point nothing felt aligned. But ultimately, Unlimited’s overall presence
online is not as refined as it could be, and this might go a way to explaining how the
online commissions were not supported enough in their delivery.

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Section 7:
Institutional Support
As social media is now such an important tool for both artists and art organisations, it is
vital the organisations also understand its impact on the art world. The impact of social
media on artists is described in detail at the beginning of this report in Section 1, where
it is explained as a newly necessary part of most artists’ practice. Social media is where
many artists now make a name for themselves, connect with others, and share an
ongoing portfolio of work in the hopes of gaining opportunities for exhibition or other
work.

I believe when artists and organisations work to deliver online commissions through
social media, all parties should expect to put in an equivalent amount of work, care and
thought as they would with a physical outcome. Social media is mostly seen as a casual
space and used in a casual way, but because of the impact we understand it can have
on an artist’s career, it is important work is delivered well in online spaces.

Despite the value of social media in the art world, many artists feel let down by the ways
in which their work is displayed through the online platforms of arts institutions and other
organisations. Complaints are made that artists are either left to create content on their
own without guidance (in takeovers, lives, etc.) or arts organisations post about their art
without the input of the artist. Sometimes they do so in a rushed way that does not feel
representative of the work or the artist’s ideas. It appears that it is not common for
artists and organisations to meet in order to think carefully about how art is shared
online. I believe it is a problem because it is a wasted opportunity to be creative in new
ways, and to make strong, clear, accessible content for an expanded audience.

So, what is going wrong? Is the problem that arts organisations do not understand the
importance of social media, even though it can do so much? It can support the artists
they work with, engage their audience in new ways, build a new audience, and increase
the cultural value and relevance of the organisation itself.

It could also be a problem of roles and responsibilities. Maybe there is something lost in
communication between marketing staff and curatorial teams. But these are things that
need to be ironed out because the artist should feel like their commissioner really cares
about what they have made, and that they want to share it in the best way possible.
Artists already have enough to do — artists are already expected to market themselves
on social media which is a lot of time and work. It is a sore point for many artists that

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when creating online commissions for an organisation, or doing takeovers, or other
collaborations that involve social media, the artist is often operating alone. This is tough
to handle because many arts organisations have salaried staff and sometimes entire
marketing departments, and they should be benefitting from that institutional support.
Not bringing the whole team together, and not putting in the time to make something
creative through social media, is a waste at best — and at worst, it is exploitative when
the artist is expected to do everything for themselves.

First, it would be a good idea for an organisation to have a precise, consistent,

imaginative approach to social media across all of their channels. Then, when working
with artists on their platforms, they should be able to communicate these approaches
whilst understanding the approach of the artist’s practice on and offline. That way both
parties can find a way to balance how they work, or adopt the other’s strategies, in order
to deliver online commissions in ways that feel representative and also comfortable. As
discussed in Section 3, some artists do not use social media at all, whilst for many
others, it still causes anxiety. The exposure of working with an organisational account
that may have a larger following might only add to that stress. Sharing thoughts,
feelings, and ideas well before the planned takeover or delivery of online work can be a
way to mitigate these problems so that the experience is positive and worthwhile.

Learning what it is an artist wants from sharing work on an institution’s social media
account should be a part of this conversation, too. Social media is a huge space that
curators can use for display, activation and archiving and the answers might lie here.
But, as in the name, social media can be incredibly important for its social value too.
Social value can now translate to a successful artistic career, and good institutional
support for an artist during an online commission can see the artist’s online presence
expand, gaining them further work and opportunities.

Is it possible for organisations to incentivise their audience to follow artists? There are
strategies companies use to do this, and many artists are taking their lead. Artists will
do giveaways to gain followers. For example, they will offer a print and ask their
audience to like the image, share it, tag a friend in the comments, and to make sure
they are following the account. They then use randomisers online to pick a ‘winner.’ The
idea is that the friends tagged in the comments will also want to win the print, so they
will follow and do the same, and the engagement will accumulate from there.

Would it be crude or okay for a gallery to do this? Say, to push their audience to follow
the artist they are working with and be in with a chance of winning a print or some other
token from the project. That is up to the art world to decide but artists are certainly doing
it already. But there could be more long term ways for social media accounts to reward

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their most active followers — for example, anybody who comments their thoughts on
every single day over the course of a week’s takeover could receive something. It
doesn’t have to be physical, it could even be a link to a secret online artwork. These are
things for marketing staff to devise, but it should be easy to come up with something fun
given the amount of in-app possibilities across social media nowadays.

Final Word

Social media can have a huge impact on an artist’s career. Artists are already doing
interesting things to translate their practice to online spaces, or use online platforms as
points of inspiration that their practice can react to. However, the same level of interest
is not easily found in the social media accounts of art institutions and organisations. The
attention to detail is not there online in the outputs of these institutions in the same way
it is offline. The creativity in programming isn’t there either.

It is vital that arts organisations catch up on the impact these platforms can have not
only for artists but also for themselves. Exhibitions and other in-person events are still
seeing low audience numbers after the lockdowns have lifted. But the COVID-19
pandemic has also underlined the need for good quality online output for disabled
audiences too. Sick and disabled audience members who might not be readily able to
visit physical spaces deserve to enjoy the outcomes of arts funding and artistic ideas.

Lockdown highlighted the speed with which everyone could suddenly move their work
online, but it was not always done with enough precision, creativity, knowledge, or care.
The Stigma project by Unlimited is a good example of a delivery of online commissions
that could be much improved for the sake of the artists involved and the audience who
the artwork is being delivered to. We must work towards a higher quality in all these
areas in order to build a better art world.

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Image Descriptions

Cover:

The cover illustration shows a blank web browser with different symbols commonly used
on social media in a circle around it. Everything is bold, pink, green, black and grey. The
symbols include hearts for likes, arrows for sharing and retweeting, a speech bubble for
commenting. There is also a hashtag, a paper airplane for mail, a thumbs up, and an @
sign. The illustration is by Rebecca Hinton.

Sections 1-3:

These sections have sporadic illustrations in the same bold style, in pink, green, grey,
white and black. Using a squircle notification bubble, different symbols are presented for
each section. In the 1st on professional, social and creative reasons artists have social
media, there is a tie, speech bubbles with ellipses, and a light bulb. In section 2 on tips
for artists, the symbols are an ‘i’ for information, a light bulb, and a speaker phone. For
the 3rd section on staying offline, there is a wifi symbol with a line through it, an on/off
button with a line through it, and a bell with a line through it too to signify them being
turned off.

Section 4 with v buckenham:

For the profile on v buckenham, different screenshots are provided. It starts with a screenshot of
their Twitter profile. Their handle is @v21, and the bio reads ‘creative tools & generative art
(they/them).’ The display picture shows a white person with long brown hair and clear framed
glasses against a pale background. There is a link to their website: v21.io, and it says they are
following 3009 people and being followed by 7919.

As discussed in the interview, there are screenshots of different Twitter bots starting with
@manygradients which shows tweets an hour apart that are images of different colour gradients
in a circle. This screenshot shows a lilac to blue gradient, another with bright neon rings like a
planet or a gobstobber, and another that is a grey-green-blue.

Another screenshot shows the Twitter profile @softlandscapes, another of v’s Twitter bots. It has
23.5K followers and the bio says ‘every 6 hours - by @v21 - @v21.io/softlandscapes. Each
image posted has a colour in the background with multiple levels of mountain-like shapes in
different shades across them.

There are 2 screenshots of tweets from @unicode_garden which posts out a square of emojis
and other symbols in different patterns, like a makeshift digital garden. Then, 3 tweets are

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shown from @somegoodgirls that read ‘the pleasant girls,’ ‘the lightning girls’ and ‘check out this
reflective girl.’ And finally, another screenshot from the @manygradients account that shows a
pale blue and pink circle with 12 retweets and 48 likes, and a reply from somebody that says
‘good one.’

Section 5 with Monique Jackson:

This section shares screenshots of Monique Jackson’s instagram account @_coronadiary which
is full of colourful illustrations made by the artist. The bio shows 179 posts, 7918 followers, and
1781 following. The bio says ‘Corona Diary, A Covid 19 Graphic Journal, Resources Links in
Bio’ and there’s a linktree.

Illustrations by the artist include:

1. People grouped on the overground not wearing masks
2. A Black body wearing underwear with a womb and ovaries in bright red and yellow with
vibrating, pain lines around them
3. A person looking to their side with their hand to their ear with red lines spiralling out to
indicate tinnitus. There are comments alongside this post with other people describing
their experience of tinnitus.
4. A graph that shows the artist’s step count which is high at the beginning of March and
then it drops to minimal bars on the graph in the follow months from March to April 2020.
The caption says ‘the last day of me feeling well I did 25 thousand steps. When I am
stressed I love to move. It’s been a big change.’
5. There is an illustration of a BBC News article showing Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong in her
graduation outfit below a headline that says ‘Coronavirus: Pregnant nurse died of
pneumonia, Covid-19 and Caesarean.’

Section 6 on the Stigma project:

This section details how the Stigma commissions were shared online so it includes many
screenshots of the social media posts and profiles.

Unlimited’s Twitter profile has the bio ‘Commissioning exceptional work by exceptional disabled
artists. Delivered by @shapearts & Artsadm.’ The Twitter picture is white with three magenta
dots, and the cover photo shows a performance with a giant white baby in the background and
people wearing strange bright yellow suits with big head coverings in the foreground. The
account follows 1888 people and is followed by 9700.

There is an example tweet by Unlimited to show the kind of posts that go out. It reads ‘Just two
days after #UnltdConnects North, we are already rearing to go! Unlimited Connects Scotland is
on 10 November, with pitches, a zine-making workshop, and a focus on communities. Get your
free ticket here [link] #BSL and live captioning available.’ There is an image of a black person
closing their eyes, with a white dove spreading its wings overtop in a collaged image.

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An image of the Unlimited Instagram account shows it is followed by 2180 people, and it has the
same bio as the Twitter. There are images of different artworks, sculptures in dark rooms
including some dildos and glass bottles, green leaves, close-ups of rolled paper, and it is difficult
to tell what exactly the pictures show.

David Tovey:

From David’s Instagram profile, we can see a painting hung up and dripping of a face in dark
reds, browns, blacks and dirty whites. There is a storyboard in sienna watercolours of a woman,
some pills, a half glass full of spheres and other abstract shapes. Another image shows David’s
cat leaning forward at the camera, lying on a stool, and the caption says ‘Yes its been such a
hard day Boris not Johnson.’ Finally, a screenshot of David’s profile shows various images of
the artist in an exhibition, in different places with people. The account has 1602 follows and
follows 2230 people.

Babeworld:

Babeworld’s account has different artworks including a pale orange gradient background with an
illustration of a football shirt, a drink topped with cream, and a pink Nintendo Switch. Another
post is pink with white text on top that says ‘being invisible and hyper visible at the same time is
a super power.’ Another similar post says ‘I don’t know exactly when it happened but apparently
I’ve become a d-list authority on all things class’ with dark text on olive green. A screenshot of
the whole grid shows more text posts like this. One says ‘Joy is having your voice heard,
considered, responded to and looked after.’

Kirkwood Brothers:

Artworks by the Kirkwood Brothers include an orange outline of a person with their head right
back, below handwritten text that says ‘head in the clouds.’ Another shows someone crying
under a beaming spotlight that has ‘social expectations’ written in the centre of where the light is
coming from. A screenshot of the wider profile shows 1717 followers, 1427 following, and
different artworks in bright colours of animals, bikes, cars, and text posts.

Vince Laws:

Vince Laws’ Facebook page shows the artist smiling next to a dog in a profile picture below a
banner of a man and a woman painted in a colourful, abstract style with flowers. A text post
says ‘How are you all doing? Well I hope. I’m an artist and I’ve made a series of banners
protesting due to DWP policies. I make them on recycled bedding, sewn up, then use spray
paint and stencils.’ The artworks in the image are three of these pieces hanging from a washing
line, reading rights not charity, respect not charity, and justice not charity in black, white and red.

Assessments:

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The assessment section looks at the artworks commissioned for the Stigma project and how
they were shared online, starting with the two Instagram takeovers. The Kirkwood Brothers
artworks for stigma include a green alien with the words ‘tuned to the moon’ written out of order.
A text piece says ‘we are not all the same, pull yourself together.’ There are also comics in
multiple parts. One says ‘there is light at the end of the tunnel, a cold breeze, where am I. Who
am I. I don’t recognise the reflection. These are not my lands.’ This shows an outline of a figure
in a black and yellow abstract world, stood in the rain, in a tunnel, looking at a puddle, and on
top of a mountain.

The Babeworld part of the assessment section shows an illustration against lilac of headphones
and stars. Another image is tinted green, showing a photograph of two artists from Babeworld
wearing football kits and crouching next to a dog and a football, with red hearts drawn on top
and the title ‘shifting the goalposts.’ There is an illustration of a handshake and under one hand
it says ‘being neurodivergent’ and on another it says ‘refusing to be embarrassed by it.’ Another
similar style shows a hand pointing at the words ‘autistic, ADHD, not embarrassed.’ And there is
a screenshot of the IGTV post of the film, paused on a dartboard.

For David Tovey’s section of the assessment, it shows two tweets. The first says: ‘Inspired by
the #Paralympics and @Wethe15, we commissioned artists to examine #disability stigma. Our
works this week are part of a repeating series by @DavidTovey1975 of @artshomelessint
focusing on #homelessnessCheck out the first of the works below. #UntdAgainstStigma.' There
is a black and white still of the short video attached to this tweet, which shows someone
recording from the ground as people pass, and on this still purple captions say ‘as you walk on
by.’ The second tweet is similar but the caption reads ‘a mark of disgrace.’

Finally, we see how Vince Laws’ work was shared online starting with an image that has the
words ‘stigma holds every body back’ between glittery cutouts of bodies. The rest of the tweets
show drawings made with pen, coloured in carefully with what looks like watercolour. There is a
black woman in a yellow shirt and blue skirt next to her guide dog, with different images around
the portrait including sunglasses, a rocket, desserts, and LGBTQ flags. The next portrait shows
Finley who is white with black hair and a blunt fringe, next to drawings of other items: a map, a
telescope, pokemon, an xbox controller, the non-binary flag.

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