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Iconography of Blogging

(Picture: DS/Sid Geisman: Angry Blogger)

A first effort towards a future Art History of the Blogosphere, focussing on its main visible/invisible protagonist, the »style-forming figure of our time« (Boris Groys), the blogger (icon: png-fonts.com)…

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ONE) A Godfather of Blogging: Pietro Aretino

Jacob Burckhardt (in: Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien): »The journalistic vehicle of the German Reformation is, in its essence, the brochure, in relation to certain affairs; Aretino, however (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Aretino), is journalist in that sense, that he has a permanent reason of publishing in himself.«

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TWO) A Sceptical Blogger – Erasmus of Rotterdam

The portrait of Erasmus by Holbein in Basel Kunstmuseum (compare it to the Louvre version) shows Erasmus writing, and with the tip of his pen appearingly resting upon the first letter of a word that he already has written. Thus Holbein shows us a Erasmus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus), who is actually more thinking, more reflecting than actually writing in that very moment that is shown here, since the movement of writing has been interrupted. And one might say: The Erasmus of this portrait is rethinking what he (respectively Holbein) is going to upload into the blogosphere.

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THREE) The Multitasking Blogger – Voltaire

Jean Huber, with his Voltaire’s Morning (see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire), does show us the mental and mechanical activities that can go along in blogging, since the blogosphere itself might be a virtual public sphere, while blogging itself takes place in all kinds of places, lit or dark (the picture does show also an possibly outdated version of a voice command device).

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FOUR) Archetypal Modern Blogging: Mark Zuckerberg/Jesse Eisenberg

(Picture: The Social Network; please keep in mind that the 2010 The Social Network movie does give, although based on a historical/journalistic account, a fictionalized account of Facebook’s history)

(Picture: The Social Network)

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FIVE) Blogging Critique: Erica Albright/Rooney Mara

»You write your snide bullshit from a dark room because that’s what the angry do nowadays.«

(Source: imdb.com/The Social Network; pictures: The Social Network; youtube.com)

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SIX) Seeking Advice From Dr. Google

(Pictures: loshadka.org/Dana Schutz: The Google Painting)

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SEVEN) ›Graffiti With Punctuation‹

›Print is dying‹, freelance journalist and blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) is, enraged, telling the newsroom, in Steven Soderberg’s 2011 movie Contagion. Confronting some print journalists with this verdict, he is himself, if only later on in the movie, confronted with the verdict that blogging was actually ›not writing, but graffiti with punctuation‹.

(Pictures: Contagion)

Blogger Alan Krumwiede, as trying to run away from FBI agents. The crowd that he is speaking to, as a blogger, and which trusts him, is, in the end, going to provide for his bail
(picture: Contagion)

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Some Notes on the History of the Blogosphere

Still Life Without Blogger (picture: DS)

(For general reference see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging)

C. 1997: the terms ›blog‹ and ›blogger‹ are coming into use

1999: the notion of ›blogosphere‹, meat as a joke, is being coined (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere)

C. 2004: mainstream media take notice of the blogosphere, i.e. begin to take it seriously

2005: Ai Weiwei is invited to start blogging (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei)

2006: I find that the notion of ›moblogger‹ is in use; Egyptian blogger, as part of a liberty rights movement, find attention in Western media; in relation to Iranian blogs I find the notion of ›Weblogistan‹ in use

2008: Blogging For Dummies

2009: Blog of Ai Weiwei shut down

2011: Ai Weiwei publishes a book with his blog, including also blog photographs

2014: Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog): »On 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence. On 20 February 2014, there were around 172 million Tumblr and 75.8 million WordPress blogs in existence worldwide.«

(End of) 2014: I am suggesting an essay (blog) competition on the question ›Is there a Piazza San Marco of the blogosphere?‹

Sid Geisman, Angry Blogger (picture: DS)

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Some Notes on the History of the Blogosphere