This project is inspired by the Yes-men. As they put on a satire designed to mock the current social issues, I was inspired to do this project to expose and criticize the downfall of social media: where there appears to be more meaningless videos and less creative content. After seeing Yoko Uno’s PAINTING TO ENLARGE AND SEE and PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD, I decided to use the Instagram creative mode and put on a minute-long clip of blank grey canvas on my Instagram story. The original intention of this project was to make people realize the time they spend on meaningless social media content is wasted.
After I posted five 15-second blanks, 130 people clicked on the story and 108 people watched all the way till the last clip. To my surprise, when I asked some of my friends their reaction to my social media post, none of them thought they wasted time. “It feels nice to take a break from scrolling,” one of my friends says. This emergent behavior made me realize that similar to Yoko Uno’s piece, the blank grey clips are like empty canvas: people are granted the freedom to have different perspectives on the piece.
