I tend to resist the technological innovations that involve wireless devices.  However, after speaking with the staff at a gallery some months ago, seeing more and more artists using those platforms, and knowing I have to keep the kids interested, I gave in.  I started an Instagram page for Millie.  I am doing it under the guise that I want her to get more "out there" for the public.  But really, it is an experiment for my class and future plans for the class.  If I remain ignorant of these new platforms, I am doing a disservice to my students.  I only follow other cat pages, and that is mainly to see the kinds of images people are posting with their phones and get a better understanding of quality.

First, and most obviously, you have artists like Richard Prince who was in the news recently for his use of Instagram photos.  He appropriated others' images and used them as his own art.  Use of the site as art number one.

Second, in my searches for galleries to enter my shows in, I see more and more calls for cell phone art.  Instagram is cell phone based.  If this is now considered a legitimate image taking tool, I need to know it.  I bought my own digital camera and DSLR to keep up.  I received no assistance from the district.  I will not lay out my own money for a smart phone.  Especially since there are others in the building who get phones, laptops, and many other perks, gratis.  So I am using the school issued tablet.  More on that later.

Third, I am finding more and more artists are using the site to get their own work out to the public.  I have my students complete a submission each marking period.  I cannot be ignorant of a platform and method of getting ones work to the public just because I do not like it.

So what is my experience so far?  It is mixed.  I have learned that the camera on the iPad is garbage.  I have no idea what the file size is, but it is as if I am shooting with the ancient 2MP cameras from ten years ago.  I am learning how to use the site to edit the images.  I am humoured by the filters that mimic various types of film, without using the names of the films, of course.  However, no amount of editing can clean up or improve images taken with a cruddy quality camera.  But I know that is not a concern for those using the cell phone camera.  One student informed me that his cell phone has a 12MP camera, so there goes that concern.

One thing I fine interesting yet cumbersome is that I can e-mail the better quality camera-shot images from my computer to my work e-mail, download the good image to the iPad, then upload to Instagram from there.  (You cannot upload to Instagram from a computer without a downloading a program that gives you a workaround and the reviews on those are iffy.)  It sure is an awful lot of moving images around just to use a popular platform and not end up like a dinosaur.

So is Instagram the new Flickr?  Not quite.  I gave up on Flickr when one of my photos was lifted by someone to offer as a background on her site.  She gave me image credit but never asked for permission.  But isn't that what Prince did?  I never said I agreed with his moves.  But my dislike for the things being done cannot keep me ignorant of something that artists are using.  And you can edit to some degree, which you couldn't do on Flickr, at least while I did use it.

It is also a way for your images to get to a much larger audience.  How many people really look at our fancy art websites?  Gallerists do, and that is so important.  But if you want to get to the general public, it seems Instagram is a tool I need to get the kids to be aware of.  I know that I will not be setting up my own site for my art - I do not forsee myself getting a smartphone - but I am learning something I think I need to know for my students.  (And if the iPad had to ever be turned in, you can bet I would be in no rush to find a way to maintain my Instagram Millie page.  She still has her facebook page for her adoring public.)  Honestly, I think it is not the best way to get one's art out there or the best way to present it, but I won't let my personal ideals get in the way.  Heck, if I can talk about the merits of Picasso and Rothko (two artists whose work I despise) with my students, I can get through this Instagram thing.