Christiane Paul:

January 06 gatepage=20
for artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet art:
Abe & MO Sing the Blogs
by Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson
http://artport.whitney.org

Blogs, like the Blues, have been credited with channeling "the voice of the people," but do blogs adhere to any one set of characteristics that defines them as a genre? And how might blogs be understood as public spaces, in light of the time-based performances that take place there?

Selecting the postings that comprise the greatest "hits" of some of their favorite blogs, Abe Linkoln & Marisa Olson "sing the blogs" in order to address these questions. While Linkoln's posts speak to musical genres at large, Olson's posts seek to find harmony with specific models. Both question the status of the author's voice...

The whole "album" is presented as a form of reblog, in an effort to self-reflexively dive into the meme culture that is its subject. The artists' blog gets situated as the site of a happening, and their intention is to come back and continue depositing performative ephemera.

Linkoln & Olson frequently work in the blog format. Previous examples of their collaborative work include Universal Acid and Blog Art, and separate projects My Boyfriend Came Back from the War (Abe Linkoln's 2004 Blog Mix), Screenfull.net (Linkoln & Jimpunk), and Marisa's American Idol Audition Training Blog.

http://www.universalacid.net/
http://blog-art.blogspot.com/
http://myboyfriendcamebackfromthewar.blogspot.com/
http://screenfull.net/
http://americanidolauditiontraining.blogs.com/marisa