Publisher's Synopsis
As platforms constantly expect us to update and post, our status as 'artists' is often overlooked. The internet has become a world of appearances where aesthetics trumps ethics - it is more important to gain likes than to be right. Power and punishment are enacted via aesthetic judgements. With a light touch, On Screens asks serious questions about-and posits creative strategies in response to-this capitalised internet. Walsh, in particular, pays attention to the 'minor', often 'feminised', online affects-the like/heart/star of social media, the rage in outrage, celebrity envy, insta-influencing- that have such fundamental effects on our identities, our politics, our desires offline. Through a series of scintillating essays that ask - what is a mother online? how has the contract between the author and their work changed? The dangers of the 'cute' personality, how people prepare for their death online - Walsh shows that the aesthetics that keep us tethered to the internet are also the means by which we can subvert or even take it over.
