The culture of individual social media platform is a particular interest to me. I am a second wave adopter, coming into twitter early enough to be around when the reply and the hashtag were new features. I should be sitting on a creaky front porch in a rocking chair saying “Back then we had to tweet up hill both ways – and in the snow!”
The hashtag is a personal favorite feature of mine. In longform improv there are “group games” that emerge in performance. Everyone participates, collectively deciding the rules as they go and adding their own two cents. Hashtags on twitter can be very much like that, sometimes live tweeting an event, participating in a joke meme or taking part in an artistic experiment. it brings people together around a single idea, giving everyone an opportunity to participate in their own way.
Next weekend at Emerge there will be one of those artistic experiments called Twitter Verses. And they need your two cents to complete the experiment. The description says it all:
An iterative time-based performative sculpture, Twitter Verses offers a kinetic meditation on the ancient problem of the one and the many. It is an encrypted parable of of our fantasies and anxieties surrounding narrative and truth in the digital age.
Twitter VersesWe hear you. We see you.Tell us your story.On Feb. 28 – March 2, you will be part of a larger story.Emerge 2013Tweet us a fragment of a story.The story must be true.Send as many fragments as you can.Tweet these at #emergeTV