1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist for July 2010: Brian Piana

July’s Twitter Art Feed artist is Brian Piana, who, in his own words, creates works “from the Internet, for the Internet,” several of which used Twitter as their base. While Brian often uses Twitter as a source for his works, one project called Tweeting Colors is particularly unique in that it puts control of the work into the hands of the public rather than his own. To elaborate, Tweeting Colors is a web page that displays vertical bars of varying color and width, but each of these bars is determined by the tweets of various unknown Twitter users.  In order to add a bar, one’s tweet has to include a few specific elements that designate the bar’s size and color. The Web page itself auto-refreshes a few times per minute, so that new bars are added from the left to create an ever-changing online visual.

If some of this is sounding familiar to 1stfans, you may be aware that Tweeting Colors is not only part of the Rhizome ArtBase, but it also played a part in ArtDialogue: conversations in images, January’s Twitter Art Feed project by Nina Meledandri. Nina’s work encouraged online conversations through the use of images, in response to various themes. When Nina introduced the theme of “Home,” some 1stfans deviated from using a straight image, and instead, employed Tweeting Colors to create a group portrait of the colors found in their homes.

Because Tweeting Colors is determined by people’s individual tweets, it wholly relies on the personal involvement and collaboration of a variety of people to maintain and manipulate the work. Much like Nina’s project, it is this collaborative nature that made Brian’s project so appealing to Shelley and me for the Twitter Art Feed. For the first time, Brian is going to customize Tweeting Colors and create a separate Web page for our followers. The private link to 1stfans Tweeting Colors will be announced within the Feed tomorrow, where you can then follow the simple instructions and add color bars of your liking. In the beginning, 1stfans are encouraged to play freely with the work, and as the month goes on, Brian will announce different themes and introduce new color palettes to the mix to encourage your participation. One thing 1stfans may notice when they first access 1stfans Tweeting Colors, is that it includes the Brooklyn Museum’s eight signature colors, all of which happen to be used in our multi-colored 1stfans logo (as vertical color bars, no less!).

See why this is a perfect match?

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.