The Research
With social media controlling more and more of our lives, how is arts practice and finished artwork being changed by the artists' constant pressure to maintain an active social media profile? How does mass behavioural control used in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram impact the artist? Psychological tools like Operant Conditioning, widely used in social media platform design, are used to keep us coming back and to control our behaviour online. How do those behaviours keep us trapped in a cycle of courting a social media currency of likes and followers that lead us as arts practitioners to impact the artwork itself? Therefore, how is social media changing physical artwork by impacting artists' behaviour?
Using arts-based research Johnson is exploring the place social media has within her own practice and that of others. Through a series of her own sculptural works, influenced by Foucault's writing on Las Meninas and his reference to control, Johnson is continuing a series of mirror pieces to be exhibited at the end of 2021 and again in 2022. Johnson's material process draws heavily from the methodologies of Nam June Paik, and inspired by Paiks work exploring TV as new media, Johnson's work will be exhibited with a video piece as part of new work titled Control Models. The work aims to be published in 2022.