Make Elon Tweet Art, Bitch

What "X" looks with Art StrikeX

By MIEKE MARPLE October 30, 2024 

Imagine a world where art grabs back. With Art StrikeX, Matthew Dunnerstick’s algorithm intervention targeting “X” (formerly Twitter), such a place exists. Art StrikeX is a Chrome extension that turns Elon Musk’s logorrhea about alpha males and sperm donations into images of art by Cindy Sherman, Marina Abramovic, Nancy Baker Cahill, and others. With Art StrikeX, instead of being assaulted by black MAGA hat after black MAGA hat, the eye rests on Frank Stella’s calming white Geometries or Anna Lucia’s colorful digital tapestries. Cortisol levels lower, not raise. 

The presidential election is fast approaching, activating more than a few parasympathetic nervous systems. Many are but a tweet or two away from a full flight, fight, or freeze breakdown. It’s reasonable given the state of America. The world’s richest man has bought a social media platform with 611 billion active monthly users and is using it as a personal megaphone for his alt right politics. That same man has poured $118 million of his fortune into Trump's presidential campaign as he attempts to become America's first contemporary oligarch. And that's just the slice of life pertaining to Elon Musk. However, panic and rage, while understandable, are not especially helpful responses. What is needed is a rest from the noise. A pause to replenish and carry on with more spaciousness than before—so that decisions can be responsive rather than reactive. Which is precisely what Art StrikeX offers by replacing Musk's tweets with art: a gulp of oxygen in a room quickly filling with carbon monoxide. WM