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Ai Weiwei Emerges on Google Plus, Breaking Social-Media Silence — But Can It Last?
Topic Started: Aug 2 2011, 08:41 AM (116 Views)
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Since his recent release from Chinese government custody, artist Ai Weiwei has backed away from the biggest, and perhaps most influential, artistic project: his Twitter account, a stream of art, activism, jokes, and conversation that was shared with 92,455 followers in China, the United States and all over the world. Ceasing his Twitter production seemed to be part of Ai's release deal, a bargain that also includes not speaking to reporters about his arrest and detainment. That silence might be over with Ai's new Google Plus account, begun early this morning. The question is, will the Chinese government allow Ai to retake his place as the online godfather of the Chinese art world, or will the Google Plus account end with a rude awakening that no online space is safe?
Ai's Google Plus profile holds only two messages so far: the first, "来了,问候" ("I'm here, greetings"), and "有生命体征" ("Here's proof of life"), a note followed by a Myspace-style self portrait of a shirtless Ai, camera held overhead. Over 5,000 people have already added the artist to their circles, notes Hyperallergic, an action akin to "following" on Twitter or "friending" on Facebook, meaning that those who put the artist in their Google Plus friend circles will receive all of his updates, posts, and photos. The artist's first post already has 376 comments and the second 494, so odds are good that Google Plus will prove as popular a medium as Twitter has for the artist.

Google Plus has become the world's fastest growing social network ever, gaining 10 million users through email invitations in just two weeks. (Facebook took two years to reach the same point). Still, the new social network was blocked by the Chinese government's Great Firewall only 24 hours after it went public, keeping participation outside the reach of most ordinary Chinese citizens, but relatively accessible for the cultural cognoscenti and ex-patriates (Twitter, which remains an influential force in China, is blocked as well).
There's a possibility that Google Plus could prove even more successful than Twitter for Ai. Google's sites and services "are among the few staples of the global Internet with significant traction in China," Phil Tinari, editor of Beijing's LEAP contemporary art magazine, wrote in an email. "As long as [Ai's] presence doesn't lead to Google getting blocked outright... perhaps this platform has the potential to give him the sort of social-networking public inside and outside of China that he had on a smaller level with the original blog." Still, Tinari points out, it's too soon to tell — recently, Chinese celebrity blogger Han Han got half a million followers on China's Twitter-equivalent Weibo just by saying "Hi." He hasn't updated since.

Robin Peckham, director of the Hong Kong-based curatorial office Kunsthalle Kowloon, writes that he thinks the Google Plus account "will stay around," though "his assistants will probably be seen to take it over more directly." The new profile "won't be relevant to the Chinese art scene," Peckham predicts, but its influence might be felt in the online-only blogosphere, a distinct entity from the art world.

Google Plus might provide a more protected sphere for Ai, but as the artist's arrest showed, the Chinese government does not just confine its censorship to the digital realm. As Ai regains his online voice, the political reaction is uncertain.
(by http://www.artinfo.com)
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