How does social media affect artists’ working methodology and flow?: an exploration of a hypothetical model of iterative feedback

Abstract

Working on a hypothesis that there is an iterative feedback model of operant conditioning in studio practice, this research undertakes field research to look at the practice of contemporary visual artists’ use of Social Media as a way of self-promotion. Using art based qualitative research methods, I interviewed and examined 4 contemporary visual artists who share work on Social Media platforms to see if their use of Social Media effects a change in behaviour within the studio environment. This research falls within the methodology of my own visual art practice and as such creates a framework for this project. My artworks Control Models, 2021 - 2023, exhibited December 2021, Basement Gallery, Bedford, and Propaganda Models, 2017, exhibited at 292 New Messages, Luton June 2018 form the basis for my critical reflection of my own work. I interrogate my own practice as well as others by looking at how the personal application of an artist’s methodology and the iterative feedback model affected by operant conditioning impact each other. This thesis seeks to identify how much the use of Social Media within the context of a contemporary arts practice impacts the arts practice itself. To define this the thesis examines: the theoretical writing in the area of Social Media; the structure of Social Media in the current social context; artists’ use of Social Media applications as both an artists’ medium and self-promotion through a survey; the thoughts of a small focus group of artists though self-reflexive autoethnography and the use of the researcher and artists’ own arts practice. The research includes theoretical research into ‘Flow’ as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, applied to my own practice and that of other self-defined contemporary artists, to examine how the ‘Flow’ of creative practice can be impacted by the use or awareness of Social Media in the studio space. Using these means, I offer conclusions on the level of impact Social Media has on artists’ practice.