no longer active

dear tumblr,

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 09:29:26 -0500

today i realized how repetitive everything i posted was, and how all the pictures i reblogged seemed to pop up on my dashboard with no impact whatsoever on the wellbeing of my soul or my artistic experience; the same photographs circling through the internet, through the pages of the people i followed, are basically passed on repeatedly until the number of notes reaches the thousands, and upon reaching that ultimate “pinnacle of tumblr success” the image is gradually exhausted and washed out of the system. sometimes i just find myself wondering: why do i even bother posting all this vertical stuff? why did i consciously change my blog, so that i would just post nice pictures? why didn’t i post more prose or poetry? why do i even care about my follower count, and why am i pandering towards an audience, which panders towards others in this continuous, never ending process of monotonous scrolling and clicking? honestly, most of the stuff i reblog isn’t even artistic. it’s not beautiful. a lot of the “photography” i post is clichéd and overdone, and it’s so fucking obvious. the same picture of mountains, made black and white, made vertical, uncredited to the original photographer. a piece of art, a baroque painting, rendered black and white and vertical just to suit the taste of “vertical art blogs.” i’ve read so many posts by people who “love to read” but ironically, the great poems are not popular here. among the so-called “cultured” audience, keats is generally abandoned by the “educated and well read” masses. a single “i am depressed” written in kiddish cursive on a relatively lackluster film photograph receives thousands upon thousands of notes because of its “deep insightful message.” coffeshops, books, landscapes; all are run through the system until everyone’s basically seen the same photo one too many times. what’s the purpose of reblogging something, if the same image will merely be circulated tenfold, producing no significant effect whatsoever on the next person who scrolls down and sees it? what impact does “artwork” truly have on she or he who clicks the re-blog button, only to expect its re-appearance two seconds later on a fellow blogger’s page? to feel gratified whenever someone they “follow” reblogs them? what’s the point? the number rises, your follower count is boosted, but do you feel any happier as a result of your narcissistic, shameless pandering? are you any more cultured or smart or educated or influenced by posting that Nietzsche quote? by remixing mozart? i’m not trying to insinuate that i’m a better person or in any way less pathetic by making these assertions. i’ve been caught up in the entire movement. and i’ve been indignant. post-modern feminism, hipsterdom, veganism, vertical photograph communities, horizontal blogs, color oriented blogs…a lot of things circulated here all depend on propaganda and popularity, and fed to a certain extent, internet propaganda can get dangerously influential. i understand the circulation of good poetry and highly respect the communities of fandom bloggers or writers and artists who genuinely dedicate their blogs to artwork, who actually spend time to curate and appreciate and write, but what sort of benefit do we really derive out of the oh-so-popular shameless and pathetic picture-circulation? from the indignant claims that we are politically informed and well educated and insightful? so much of it is fake. out of all the people who reblog Nietzsche, there are only a few who have really read his books, who know the quote in context of his entire philosophy. why, why, why do we feel the need to sell ourselves so shamelessly?

needless to say, this blog will be deleted soon, and i will no longer actively post. unfollow as you wish.

p.s. if you have a counter-argument, feel free to enlighten me.

phantomlimb-s: untitled by Clemens Fantur on Flickr.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 06:00:32 -0500

phantomlimb-s:

untitled by Clemens Fantur on Flickr.

Photo

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 03:00:22 -0500

withherwindblownhair: ☪

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:23:00 -0500

withherwindblownhair:

☪

cervid: EWAN F/W 12 (by igor termenón)

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:00:58 -0500

cervid:

EWAN F/W 12 (by igor termenón)

evolutionists: Gert Kolk. Iceland.

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:56:48 -0500

evolutionists:

Gert Kolk.

Iceland.

Photo

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 15:00:55 -0500

Photo

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 12:01:26 -0500

Photo

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:43:29 -0500

"This time the cat has gone too far; she sidles back across the lazy river with a kingfisher. You..."

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:28:00 -0500

“

This time the cat
has gone too far; she sidles back

across the lazy river
with a kingfisher.

You pin her to the floor, unlock
the trap of her jaw,

release the teeth,
unpick the four barbed feet, each paw

a presentation pad of claws.
The bird can walk;

you let it go, but in the morning
find it cornered, killed, and opened.

Something blue, something bone,
something gold, something broken.

”

- Simon Armitage (from Book of Matches)

vacants: (by rose in midair)

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 10:10:09 -0500

vacants:

(by rose in midair)

openingceremony: Isa Arfen launches exclusively at Opening...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 09:31:28 -0500

openingceremony:

Isa Arfen launches exclusively at Opening Ceremony! Read our Q&A with designer Serafina Sama | Shop all Isa Arfen here. Photo by Baud Postma

Photo

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:01:16 -0500

odditiesoflife: Beauty and Destruction from Above A...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:00:37 -0500

odditiesoflife:

Beauty and Destruction from Above

A Netherlands-based visual artist named Marinus has been running his blog, Head Like an Orange, on Tumblr since October 2011. He takes short excerpts of nature footage and loops them to create mesmerizing moments of life through his gifs like these above.

Tainted Love - Stella Starlight Trio

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:39:48 -0500

Tainted Love - Stella Starlight Trio

Photo

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:05:21 -0500

h0t-headed: untitled by Alexander Duvall on Flickr.

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:04:24 -0500

h0t-headed:

untitled by Alexander Duvall on Flickr.

Photo

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:04:19 -0500

vurtual: 山舞银蛇 (by zhouyousifang)

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:00:26 -0500

vurtual:

山舞银蛇 (by zhouyousifang)

falcade: “Kevin Russ has been traveling throughout the great...

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:00:39 -0500

falcade:

“Kevin Russ has been traveling throughout the great American west shooting landscape and wildlife solely with his iPhone 4s and 5. Over the years, he has become an incredible and focused photographer, ranging from doing portraiture now to landscape photography.”