Can blogging be artistic? Can a blog be art?
For Dina Kelberman, it certainly can be.
Dina Kelberman is a Baltimore based artist who works in a wide variety of media. One of these mediums is the web, or more specifically, Tumblr. Kelberman periodically uploads batches of images or videos, which are displayed in a orderly manner on her blog. Together, they form a rather strange collection of images, ranging from photographs of egg yolks to those of knitted fruits. At first glance, Kelberman’s process or blog space is not unlike other Tumblrs. She seems to be doing exactly what other Tumblr users do. Upload pictures they have some sort of connection with onto their blogs, but both her process and blog deviate from the other Tumblr tendencies in significant ways.
While most Tumblr blogs are archives of some sort, Kelberman’s is a collection of very specific images. They are united through visual similarities. Images and videos posted on her blog share similarities in form, colour or composition with at least one other post on her blog. Furthermore, these images are found on the same platform - Google Image Search. ‘I’m Google’ was born out of the artists tendency to spend long hours exploring google image searches and collecting the photos she found beautiful. The presents this experience in a visual form. Kelberman’s Tumblr clearly highlights the manner in which the internet allows for us to drift from one topic or object to another, just based on a simple (possibly visual) connection.
Interestingly, ‘I’m Google’ is coded differently from other Tumblr blogs as well. Upon clicking a post, visitors would be taken to a page hosted by Google. Kelberman guides her audiences to the the very search facility that helped her find the images in the first place, encouraging her audiences to partake in the process themselves. The linked page also clarifies the possible original source and context for the visitor, allowing them to understand the images on their own terms as well.
Kelberman’s carefully constructed space and self-conscious reflection on the act of exploring and collecting images on the internet is key in separating this blog from others on Tumblr. Art or not, it is certainly an interesting online space and we can’t wait to see what the artist uploads onto it next.
