Issue 28: On Metalabel (a review of "The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet")
Soft Labor, is an occasional newsletter about visual culture written by Sarah Hromack and published by her consultancy, Soft Labor. Soft Labor is a reader-supported publication and I invite you to share this newsletter and subscribe.
A while back, I asked whether you, comrades, thought I should brand my new consultancy, Soft Labor. It was a serious question — the answer is obvious, and yet the presumption is truly worth challenging — and I received a remarkable amount of insight from many of you. And so, I brand! Soft Labor will be back soon enough in new form.
Meanwhile, I’ve been writing about the Internet, same as ever. My review of writer and entrepreneur (Kickstarter, Metalabel) Yancey Strickler & Co.’s new-ish book, “The Dark Forest Anthology of the Internet” was just published by Hyperallergic. Give it a read.
I’ve been interested in digital media since the late 1990s, primarily in terms of self-publishing, and I felt a sense of natural ease in writing this piece as the observations I make about the book are informed by my own experience working, writing, and teaching around the subject matter. I have remained a participant-observer in the long arc of things. As a new platform in an age of platform skepticism (as well as what I’ll call “platform inevitability”) I know that Metalabel is poised to have an impact on the Internet as a site of cultural production and consumption, darkness be damned.
Finally, a quick note about Hyperallergic:
A lot of writers I know — and I know a lot — have reconsidered their allegiances in recent years. Changing of the editorial guard, shifts in POV, increased focus on corporate and/or art market interests, and political misalignment have forced folks to re-think the question of where to situate their labor and their intellectual capital. I am happy to be writing for Hyper as of late. I believe in independent digital publishing; I believe in supporting a plurality of voices across generations; I believe in candor; and still, weirdly, I (kind of?) believe in the Internet.
Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2024 Sarah Hromack; all rights reserved.