Hannah Stonehouse Hudson and Ai Weiwei. These are the names of two people who have sparked a reaction in people around the world through their art. Even though they didn’t have the same reason for sharing their art, social media allowed them to become big voices in peoples lives and eventually helped them spread their messages to the world.
Hannah Stonehouse Hudson is a photographer. She didn’t think twice before she helped her friend, John Unger, by taking photos of him and his dying dog, Schoep. Hannah just wanted to be able to capture a special moment between a man and man’s best friend (which she greatly achieved). In Hannah’s eyes, her fame that came over night was an unexpected reaction from the internet world.
Since then, Hannah has tried to use her internet popularity to teach people her belief: people can connect positively and make bonds through social media. Not only does she use her interactions with others on social media as a way to teach people her theory, but she also, personally, goes to talk with companies about how they can positively utilize social media to better their business and she has done a TED Talk sharing how she believes people can connect through social media.
Hannah makes sure that everything she puts on social media is positive and if she makes a comment directed towards someone else, she tries to be as helpful as she can. Having one of her posts go viral has made Hannah very aware of what she puts on social media because she’s been through both the good and bad of it. If you click here, there’s a link that will take you to her blog where you can look at more of her work and what she’s has all done in the past couple of years. There’s a video, here, that I found of an interview with John Unger about how donations received from the people that have seen Hannah’s photo have helped Schoep live longer than what was expected. This video shows how powerful a simple post on the internet can be.
Ai Weiwei’s social media fame came about a little differently than Hannah’s did. Ai Weiwei began as an artist making art with different materials that he posted pictures of to his blog when he was finished with them. He was noticed when he posted to his blog people, that he had recorded, saying the names of all of the children that died during an earthquake due to badly, government built schools.
This was the start to Ai Weiwei’s fight against the Chinese government. Although the government shut down his blog, Ai Weiwei continues to protest against them in other ways. Unlike Hannah who did not try to go viral, Ai Weiwei has purposefully been trying to get his word out to the world about the corrupt Chinese government.
Ai Weiwei’s goal is for everyone in China to have better rights. He believes that the people of China are being treated unfairly. Through social media, Ai Weiwei can express his opinions freely. His theory is that social media can help spread the word about his fight against the Chinese government around the world. Ai Weiwei puts up events that occurred between him and police on twitter to show the corruption of the government. He also posts pictures of his art work on social media. Each piece of work is usually a symbol for what wrong doing the government has done or for a right that is not given to the Chinese people.
One piece of art work of his that has been really noticed is the wall that Ai Weiwei filled with children’s backpacks to represent all of the children who died in the collapse of the schools in the earthquake. The backpacks spell out, “She lived happily on this earth for 7 years”. If you’d like to learn more about Ai Weiwei, you can watch “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”, a film, directed by Alison Klayman, that shows Ai Weiwei in action and helps people understand more about why Ai Weiwei is fighting.
Both Hannah Stonehouse Hudson and Ai Weiwei are now using social media for their benefit. They use it to help them spread their opinions, not only about social media, but also about other things that are going on in their lives. What do you think about the methods Hannah and Ai Weiwei are using to make people aware of their beliefs? Do you think that they’re effective? Why, or why not?
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