[A note upfront: Even though topic may be inspired by recent political happenings, I don’t want this to devolve into a political slugfest.]
I’ve recently been motivated to reconsider my Twitter/X account which I’ve had going for basically forever. I don’t actively use it to send out signals, so I felt no harm done cutting that tie. Thing is, the way I’ve curated my network over the years, it has become a FANTASTIC source for current generative art (the non-AI kind) and creative coding. With a great mix of gallery presentation, in-depth tutorials, and comment threads that actually remain civil and expand a post with great insights. No matter if golden old-schoolers or dynamic new-comers, every time I check my feed, I find a new entry to an intriguing rabbit hole. To me it remains an unmatched source of inspiration, managing to uncover projects and new artists not found on other platforms. So I remain hesitant in pulling that cord.
As of today I don’t feel any of the post-X alternatives comes close to being able to compensate that content, neither in breadth nor quality. Though I have as of yet limited interactions on those, so maybe they are growing on that front?
Pinterest is excellent at triggering visual ideas, if the stream is tweaked to your taste. With the big downside of being somewhat superficial, with no attached discussion and prone to omitting sources.
CAN is wonderfully curated, but misses a more tangible and lightweight overview of smaller current work.
r/generative has its moments, though overall a very uniform and repetitive aesthetic, with a “prototypes over fully realised projects” vibe.
Lastly, I’m one of those weirdos that has no Insta account. I know that’s where all the cool kids hang out, but I wanted to be considerate of how far I’m opening the social firehose. Not sure if switching out Insta for X is worth it.
Question to the community: Where do you get your hits of online inspiration? What obvious sources am I missing?