artist chat: maya man đ
interviewing internet artist Maya Man on being online, performance, and what's next via Google Docs :)
Artist Maya Man (b. 1996) explores chance, the performance of self online, and femininity within contemporary internet culture. Primarily working with code to construct generative works, immersive websites, and multimedia installations, Mayaâs work interrogates what it means to constantly construct and perform identity in a multiplicity of spacesâbe that the silly (sometimes), girly (always), serious, and amorphous thing that it is and can become.
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Maybe best known for Glance Back (2018), a generative browser extension that randomly captures a daily photo of users on their laptop to create a personal archive, the viral extension nods to a yearning perhaps, for something more âreal,â as we automatically curate our identities on social media, shift behaviors within different groups, and self-correct for who weâd aspire to be. But how might Mayaâs work help us think through these contemporary tensions?
In 1967, French philosopher Guy Debord began his book The Society of the Spectacle with the quote: âIn societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representationâ (Debord 1967). Debordâs assessment feels startlingly accurate todayâperformance and spectacle feel, at times, like the engine of modern life. At the same time, I donât know if we need to adopt such a pessimistic viewpoint of all this spectacle, at least quite yet.
Through acknowledging, questioning, and embracing the endless performance of identity itself with a good deal of internet insouciance, Manâs projects, for me, seem to suggest that an âinauthenticityâ of self isnât too bad. That, maybe, that itâs simply a part of navigating life as a person in-flux today. Other notable works include love/hate (2022), and THE MODEL MINORITY IS A MYTH! (2021).
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Mayaâs most recent exhibition Iâm Feeling Lucky (2023) showcases several browser-based generative pieces auctioned as NFTs. The title of the exhibition âIâm Feeling Luckyâ is a reference to Googleâs button (RIP) of the same name, which upon clicking, would transport users to a random internet search result. The button was nixed in 2010, as it let users bypass ads and cost the company revenue. Some version of Googleâs button still exists today, though you can only access results that correspond to preassigned prompts like âIâm Feeling Curiousâ or âIâm Feeling Adventurous.â
Instead, Manâs horoscopes evoke the language of apps like Co-Star, which speak to cosmologically-curious users with emotional platitudes that hit the perfect blend of vague, specific, and vaguely-specific language for your confirmation bias to fill the rest in. And despite knowing the cognitive underpinnings of astrology, I know I often feel a compulsion to be directed by my star (Sagittarius), sun, and moon signs.
This was the headspace I was in when I saw Mayaâs Iâm Feeling Lucky (2023) works.
Entertainment enhances expertise. Fitness acknowledges wonder. Your energy and idealism may lead to expansive hopes. This is not a period to reveal. You are TEMPORARY.
Many of the phrases are a kooky, unexpected, and a little tongue-in-cheekâbut others resonate poignantly, prophetically even. The scattered black rectangles call to mind avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevichâs Black Square (1915) as if his solitary canvas stretched out and multiplied into all the âblack mirrorsâ of an iPhone. But after viewing Manâs works, I found myself transcribing phrases in my Notes app to manifest them into being, to make my luck true. In the exhibition text, Man concludes, âI donât feel lucky anymore, but I want to Feel Lucky again.â
I think a lot of us do, too.
So, per the theme, Maya and I caught up on a live Google Doc (!!) to chat further. You can read the full transcript of our interview here. See below for a sneak peek, but itâs worth reading in full :)
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I hope you enjoyed reading our interview as much as I enjoyed speaking to Maya. You learn more about Maya Man on her website and at @mayaontheinternet. Iâll see you next week!
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