The Medium Forgot the Message

He is suspicious of numbers, but not of audiences. Critical of platforms, while continuing to use them. For Noah Becker, what gets seen and what matters are not the same thing. The old gatekeepers may be disappearing, but he is not convinced that popularity can take their place.

Noah Becker founded Whitehot Magazine in 2005, when the art world was still adjusting to publishing on the internet. A painter, writer, editor and jazz saxophonist, he is now looking at an online environment that no longer simply carries culture but increasingly filters how it reaches us.

In a recent exchange on Whitehot’s Instagram, media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message” came up. Becker had his own version: “The medium forgot the message.”

It could sound like a complaint about social media. But Becker still uses the platforms he questions, and Whitehot reaches a large audience through them. We started there and let the conversation move outward.

When you wrote “the medium forgot the message” in response to a comment on Instagram, what did you mean?

Well, the original quote is Marshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message.” Coincidentally, I publish his son. But to answer your question, it was really just an expansion on McLuhan’s original idea.

What do you think the medium has actually forgotten?

There’s a separation between corporate algorithms and artistic production. In that way, I feel like the corporate tech world has forgotten the artists.

Whitehot began more than twenty years ago as an early online art magazine. Today, you’re questioning the role algorithms play in how culture reaches us. When did that environment begin to feel different to you?

It’s been a mess for a while, but recently it feels like people have lost their souls. That really troubles me, so I’ve started to speak out. There are certainly challenges in the gallery world, but for the most part, the art world itself is thriving.

What becomes of the distinction between art and entertainment when both reach us through the same channels?

There is no distinction anymore because popularity and views and likes on social media have become the only currency.

You’ve suggested that we can’t know what will matter in the future and that forgotten art can be rediscovered later. How might the systems deciding what reaches us now affect what can be found again later?

Art dealers, curators, artists, and collectors—the way the art system has traditionally functioned is changing. In some ways, we’ve gone so far that there’s no turning back. The 20th-century model is being challenged more and more. But interesting people with real taste are needed now more than ever. So I’m involved in an art revolution.

What do you mean by "real taste” when traditional systems for validating taste are themselves changing?

Because the 20th century model of gatekeepers doesn't exist anymore, there has to be some way of measuring quality besides just a wild west of the smart phones.

Both an editor and an algorithm decide what gets seen. What makes those two kinds of selection different?

One is a numerical ghost—the other is a human ghost.

You don’t measure Whitehot through web statistics but through conversations, collaborations and what happens around it. What do those things tell you that numbers don’t?

If you think in nihilistic terms, everything is temporary. I’m just talking about the Internet and how temporary that is—a very unstable medium. If something is happening in real life, it doesn’t matter what numbers are attached to it. It’s just how I like to measure things, because numbers are abstract.

Whitehot was born online and now reaches a large audience through platforms you’ve also questioned. How do you tell when you’re using a platform and when it starts shaping how you work?

I like to direct people who might be trapped in various online or social media dimensions towards something that I’m doing in a slower form like a book or a website. So that way I can bring more people into the project.

If the medium has forgotten the message, where should we look for it now?

There’s a new community that’s building around thoughts that I’m trying to develop. It’s a shared experience and many people are contributing and moving the discussion forward instead of just using the medium for attention—a medium that has forgotten what the point was to begin with.

You said, “Artists are told to be authentic, but only within a narrow emotional bandwidth.” What happens when artists start thinking about where and how their work will be seen while they’re making it?

It’s impossible to predict the future, but I find that consistency is very important intellectually and creatively. David Bowie said, “personality plus product equals brand.” If you can form a consistent identity as an artist, it’s a very difficult accomplishment.