Week 11: Love Machine (Net Art Project Description)

Here is the link to Love Machine by Julien Deswaef:  http://w.xuv.be/projects/love_machine

Love Machine is a program or, as Deswaef dubs, “a bot” that logs onto your facebook account and likes every possible recent post from your friends. He speaks of his project in a utilitarian sense, in that the software allows you to “please” as many friends as possible in “so little time.” His project serves more as a commentary on the pointlessness behind social media, especially our pursuance of likes as a means of satisfaction. His software allows you to like posts that you’ve never even seen, creating a game out of how many likes you can possibly hand out to your friends. 

He also says that running this program will give you “attention from your friends,” and they will “notice you.” Thus, his ironic solution to breaking free from social media expectations is simply greater involvement on the platform.  With just a bit of further analysis, it’s obvious that his software is meant for you to realize that greater involvement in social media will not grant you real-life desires. For instance, liking all of your friend’s posts will not bring you two any closer together. That’s what stood out to me most about Deswaef’s work, his ability to make you see the greater meaning without ever implicitly stating it. Even though his work isn’t the traditional view of ‘art,’ his ability to use resources from the internet (that are already familiar to us) in an innovative way is characteristic of 21st century net art. I’m interested to see if there are more traditional versions of net art out there and if those other artists are able to use the internet as effectively as Deswaef.

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