By far one of my favourite aspects of putting work on the street is being able to get first hand feedback from social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook. This allows me to get brilliant, unbiased feedback on my pieces, yet also feels like a great boost when complete strangers have been motivated to photograph and comment on my piece. Even my teacher from my Foundation course noticed the new artworks.
Initially I was amazed by the level of response for the Save Our Seas work, which recieved the strongest social media feedback of any piece I have ever put on the street, and more immediately too with many of the instagram snaps popping up within just days. I couldn't help but think it was my particular attention to advertising techniques which had made this work so successful. The public must be so conditioned to respond to the language of advertising that even a pseudo advertising graffiti piece was still just as willfully consumed as any other media.
It was also great to see my intended message was getting through, as one user commented; "I keep seeing this around the city and I love it. :) Thanks for making me more aware." (right) Hearing first hand that my artwork has, with atleast one passerby, made them stop and think about the issues I am raising is really gratifying and makes me recognise how worthy the cause I am championing is. It also made me think about just how detatched everyday city life is from environmental issues such as this.
Although my poster was only an unnofficial collaboration with the PangeaSeed Artivisim Foundation, one instagrammer actually tagged both myself and the foundation in one of their snaps. I was really impressed to see PangeaSeed had both liked the image and commented 'Nice work', which I took as an unofficial endorsement of my campaign. It was great to hear positive feedback from the foundation I had based my project around, and made me feel increasingly like I was on the right track.
Another feature I also began to notice was the type of instagram accounts taking pictures of my work. Previously most of the shares came from accounts with a predisposed interest in street art, however now for the first time people who were not already inclined to art of any kind were taking pictures and sharing. I think again this is down to this piece taking on advertising techniques which made the work relatable to people both within and outside of the art spectrum. This coupled with a clear narrative and in conjunction with 2017's Earth Day made the work highly instagram-able, producing a strong positive reception.
I don't broadcast the link between myself and these pieces as I enjoy the anonymity and mystique of a street alias, so it was also really pleasing to see some people from my year at NUA had also photographed and shared the works, unaware of any links to myself. To recieve a compliment from peers is always nice, even more so if it is done without any awareness for who the artists true identity is.It wasn't until at least a week after my pasting hits that I first saw an instagram of one of the bee pieces. Entirely contrasting to the SOS Piece, my bee work was subtle and very non-intrusive, without the advertising influence of my poster. Also the motive of the bees was only implied and did not have explicit text to reach the audience. However when the first few instagram posts began to appear I noticed a distinct pattern.
Whereas SOS had reached people outside of artistic circles, like pieces I had done before, the bees reached the same street art inclined Instagram accounts as always. There was one particular post which was of interest to me. blue_o_clock posted "Norwich graffiti is back!" (right) There haven't been many new art based pasteups in the city recently, so I feel this response was reacting to that. This was not only nice for me to hear, but also suggested the difference of reception between a advertising style piece and a street art style piece. SOS was able to spread my campaign clearly and effectively to people from outside the art community but the bees reached the street art community very effectively, as they were small and in the style of many of the smaller pieces found around London boroughs. To feel that a person interested in street art had had their interest renewed by a piece of my art was also lovely. I feel that by creating both mainstream and specialist pieces of art I was able to reach the widest spectrum of society. It was also interesting as an experiment to impliment both pieces at once and watch how the reception developed.
I was really pleased with the feedback I recieved for my work, and was also impressed with the survivability and many were still mostly present even weeks later. The self-limiting nature of street art means if a piece is disliked it doesn't last very long before being buffed, torn down and painted over by another artist, so for removable works such as this, to last means this long means they must have gained acceptance in the community
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