Many people are familiar with Reddit as one of the most popular social media platforms, with a large number of forums dedicated to almost any topic.
Since the beginning of April, Reddit has been home to r/place, a massive collaborative art project that showcases both the best and worst aspects of cybercultures.
r/place was first launched in 2017 and lasted 72 hours. The new r/place had a short lifespan as well, lasting only five days in total. Starting with a blank canvas, r/place allows users to add one colored pixel every five minutes in order to create a collective art piece.
Traveling through r/place will take you through time, memes, and cultures.
A Nine Inch Nails logo, various country flags, a QR code linking to a YouTube video titled The Most Logical Arguments AGAINST Veganism (In 10 Minutes), and a tribute to Zyzz – a popular bodybuilding figure who passed away in 2011 – could all be seen at any given time.
On r/place, some artworks don’t appear to represent anything at all. The Blue Corner’s sole mission is to have a blue corner depicted on the final art piece (you guessed it).
Over the course of its brief existence, the artwork evolves. Even if some communities’ drawings don’t make it, the time lapse videos depicting the canvas’s ongoing mutation have become a key part of this art piece, ensuring that all contributions play a vital role in the r/lifecycle. place’s
The collaborative nature of humans in online spaces is demonstrated by r/place. It was hailed as the best experiment on the internet and praised for capturing the internet’s all wonderful glory after its debut in 2017.
People can express their individuality as well as collective identities formed through interactions with online spaces through this collaborative online art project.
In contrast to the previous version, this year’s r/place highlights the interconnectedness of communities in digital spaces. r/place is no longer exclusive to Reddit users. Drawing on communities spread across Twitch, Discord, and Twitter now has clear power.
This influx of communities from across the internet has not gone over well with everyone.
Twitch streamers are thought to be sabotaging the project by destroying the work of smaller communities.
Twitch streamers, rather than being a democratic representation of online communities and their art, the argument goes, are encouraging their tens of thousands of fans to capture hotly contested territory.
Factions have emerged as the primary means of securing power and influence over the art project, such as those formed between Spanish streamers and BTS fans.
In this pixel warfare, smaller communities are driven out at the expense of larger influencers with more bargaining power.
This art project involves more than just individuals. Many people believe that “bots” are rampant, performing automated tasks in ways that contradict the idea of this artwork being a representation of human achievement rather than technical prowess.
These are just a few examples of the recent internet chaos: 4chan orchestrated coordinated attacks on the Trans flag and LGBTQ+ panels, and streamers have been receiving death threats.
r/place is a powerful illustration of strangers coming together online to talk about their passions and the collaborative nature of the internet at its best.
At its worst, it encapsulates everything we despise about the internet: the exclusion of smaller voices in favor of influencer cultures, community factions, and the toxicity of some cybercultures.
Whatever the case may be, this project has done wonders for Reddit’s public image as the company prepares to go public.
Users could only place white tiles in the final moments of the project earlier today, watching a once vibrantly colored collaborative art piece that caused so much chaos among online communities simply transform back into a blank canvas.
