Gabby Bess, Papermag.com, December 2, 2014
Whether you’re heading down to Miami or you’re staying right here in NYC, you probably have some pretty strong ~feels~ about Art Basel. Critic Jerry Saltz, for example, is skewering the art fair on Twitter with disturbing butt-related tweets and non-profit BHQFU made charming tote bags that proclaim, “FU Miami” even though the collective will be in attendance.
Whatever your Miami Feels are, artist Jonas Lund is cataloging them with his new art project of the same name on NewHive. Miami Feels, curated by Lindsay Howard, is Jonas Lund’s way of keeping you connected with what’s happening in Miami if can’t head down to the beach and are experiencing very real FOMO. It also serves as a guide for the best places to be if you are attending the fair, with the green areas indicating the spots with the highest activity, and the general mood on a scientific scale of feels. The real-time map aggregates social media posts from Twitter and Instagram, mining Basel-related hashtags and pulling from the feeds of select curators, artists, and celebrities. Among those are Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, artists Ryan Trecartin and Amanda Ulman, Dev Hynes, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and more.
“Miami Feels will measure the sentiment (happy, sad, relaxed, excited) of these users’ social media posts, within a 5000m radius of Art Basel, in order to determine the most desirable location at any given time throughout fair week, from December 2-7. Users will receive an alert when a VIP person has been located,” the press release explains.
Miami Feels is at once a critique of art festival culture, a helpful guide, and a frenzied feed of non-sequitur social posts. But the truth is that love or hate Basel, you’ll probably be talking about it on Twitter.
