Paper Short Abstract:

This paper presents ethnographic fieldwork with curators and artists involved in the 'jijiji' internet art exhibition, curated by the Bárbara Soberana collective in Barcelona. Blending the roles of artist and anthropologist, I developed a postdigital publishing project as a fieldwork device to engage with the process of a digital folk art exhibition.

Paper Abstract:

"jijiji" was a collective exhibition featuring over 30 artists who specialize in the amateur expression of irony. Tricksters and goblins engaged with meme creation, internet culture, and DIY dynamics. During my fieldwork on meme-making, I was invited to participate as an artist in this exhibition, offering me the opportunity to engage directly with the dynamics of an exhibition centered on digital folk art.

In this paper, I recount how a creative and playful approach allowed me to grasp the creative dispositions of the exhibition’s curators and artists. This ironic and playful lens deepened my understanding of the curatorial and artistic processes, revealing the ambivalent tactics employed by the collective to both navigate and critique contemporary art and digital culture. By participating as both an artist and an ethnographer, I was able to observe and embody the playful experience, underscoring the potential of ludic methodologies to enrich both ethnographic research and artistic practice.

The creative process materialized in an installation that explored uncreative writing and fanfiction, featuring a promotional shelf filled with AI-generated Harry Potter fanzines. Through this creative process, I delved into themes of authorship, amateurism, fakery, and the uncanny aesthetics of digital folklore.