"G-Net", "Selfie" and "Museum"

BACKGROUND Tabularium was a survey of international Post-Internet artists. I responded to critiques of online dating apps for gay men like Grindr. Kane Race has discussed gay dating apps as "sex delivery systems" while Ben Light (2009) has claimed that "because of the desire to commodify 'the difference' that is gay, predominantly white men... such inscriptions become monolithic caricatures that... enrol even those who do not participate in such arrangements at all or only by proxy". CONTRIBUTION Given that digital dating systems compound such caricatures rather than diversify them, I made critical interactive artwork to reflect this. Museum was the web component of the exhibition and linked to online versions of my works so they could be viewed internationally. G-Net was an interactive app displayed in a stand. In G-Net players could chat with one-eyed phallic monsters. They responded with sexual and explicit phrases reminiscent of the Grindr and inflated or deflated based on their interest. These representations extended the notion of caricature as it pertains to Light's critique; highlighting an issue that holds political significance for gay men by pushing the sexualisation and consumption of the body to reduced and comical limits. "Selfie" was produced by taking 3D scans of 'gay' video game characters in and reconstituting them into a digital image print under Perspex. This referenced the material qualities of an online dating app viewed under a smartphone screen. The show was written up internationally in Rhizome and Mnemoscape and referenced other written research outputs of mine. SIGNIFICANCE These works illustrated international trends in Post-Internet art. "G-Net" in particular precedes the work of famous Alt-Games designer Robert Yang and his games such as Cobra Club or Stick Shift. These interrogate codes of affective online engagement between gay men on online dating apps through 3D digital aesthetics and are critical and subversive in quality.