As of February 2012, young Tumblr hosts 46.2 million blogs and more than 18 billion total posts. Wow, that’s a lot of Tumbling, but we do alright. How does one navigate this endless digital sea to seek out interest-specific content? Is there an “f-yeah so-and-so” just for you? We don’t know what you’re into, but there’s probably a dot Tumblr dot com for that.
Tumblr is perfect for art browsing. The immediacy of publishing art finds, the amount of content that can be viewed at once, the inter-connected visual-based communities it spawns — it’s like one group, lightning-fast field trip to a vast, endless museum. In case you’re into contemporary art, criticism, aesthetic entities born off and in the Internet culture, and really, really weird random stuff — we’ve rustled up some curious Tumblrs to follow that best utilize Tumblr, with very short introductions. Browse away. Frolic around. Oh, and follow them. It’s what they’re there for.
Like this blog post, each particular art Tumblr aggregates to a specific preference, and this one is varied, with quirks, perfect for helping you spark that creative moment. Contemporary Art Daily’s site is very nifty, providing current gallery listings galore. Consider their Tumblr a most glorious run-off of extra bits, ends, and… dishwashers full of dildos.
Self-explanatory: “Phone Arts is an International collaborative project experimenting using only the mobile phone as the medium to create unique compositions. They explore the boundaries of the phone to create graphic illustrations and designs.” If it’s to your taste, it’s endless eye candy. Phone Arts Dot Tumblr is the new abstract art museum.
James Bridle’s New Aesthetic Tumblr aggregates art and artistic technological entities that “present a new aesthetic of the future,” from mind-bending map visualizations to face-morphing video art to pixel-based street art sculpture. It’s here to comfort you if that jet-pack you were promised isn’t here yet.
Philip Stearns’ Year of the Glitch is addictive as hell. Culling image after image day after day with an intentionally broken lofi digital camera, Year of the Glitch demonstrates how perfect the Tumblr medium is for sequential art projects. It’s like a vibrant, pleasant punch in your eyes — a guaranteed favorite on your Tumblr Dashboard.
Like its Twitter counterpart, Museum Nerd’s Tumblr offers diligent linkage and culture fodder of all things museums. It’s nerdy and educational, but it’s also entertaining, pithy, and clever.
“Links, pics, synchs & kinks.” Hyperallergic’s Tumblr is exactly the kind of quality, timely, intriguing short-serving news and art content you’d expect from one of the web’s best art blogs. Also, this is where the blog plays out some of its interactive art projects, like that time they made their art show visitors take pictures of themselves in James Gilbert’s plastic underwear. Meta.
It’s hard to summarize exactly the kind of weirdness you’ll find on this blog by the so-called Jeff Kooons, but somewhere between the knife-equipped roomba, nightmare-instilling film still glitches, and psychedelic digital remixes of traditional art-influenced orgy renderings… you kind of get it.
Don’t judge art critic Paddy Johnson because she’s only now discovered the Datamosh music video, just embrace her hungry randomness. She looks at an impossible amount of art everyday, so her Tumblr is the precious run-off of announcements, finds, and things so appropriate it’s kind of scary sometimes.
This Tumblr is complete chaos — but in a good way. It’s where pop culture meets art happenings, gets mangled in a meat grinder, and then regurgitated in spurts of attacks on your psyche.
Hyde or Die is art, criticism, bits, a good dose of street art and graffiti, and just an all around nice place to hang out. So, guys, when are we making our Damien Hirst sculptural tableaux again?
Thanks to Kyle Chayka for nifty tips. (Also, on Tumblr.)