Platitudes about time passing too fast often disappear in times of strife. Unless you’re Jeff Bezos, you want this disastrous year to end.
But don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security. Believing that the worst is over has proven to be downright dangerous, what with city officials putting beach access and brunch ahead of human lives.
Still, some Miami institutions are responsibly attempting to prevent their own disappearance by leaning into the moment. Dimensions Variable’s launch of its digital gallery with New York-based artists Sam Lavigne and Tega Brain’s Get Well Soon is a good example. Commissioned earlier this year, the piece is more timely than ever.
“The art world is very much about buildings, about bringing people together in person. I feel like there isn’t much of a market or commerce system in place for the ephemeral experience, which is the digital experience,” says Dimensions Variable cofounder Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova. “You usually see the digital space being used in conversations promoting something that’s happening in a real location, like an event. Yet, since the ’90s, artists have been using the digital space as a very serious medium.”
Although art institutions have appeared to have a monopoly on the avant-garde, the reality is that online experiences have become increasingly experimental. Think ten hours of a single person tapping and crinkling various materials is a performative meditation on endurance and the wastefulness of consumerist culture? Nope. It’s an ASMR video on YouTube. And while most of us might write this off as simply weird, these emerging spaces are increasingly our only opportunities for safe exploration.
