Video | ClayScope Rebrands Pottery with a Hip Feel for the Digital Age

SANTA FE, New Mexico — The exhibition ClayScope Santa Fe explores physical communities fostered by digital social networks. It brings together seven nationally recognized potters and a representative from the social network Periscope (owned by Twitter) who have all developed their careers and friendships using social media. Ceramic artists Virgil Ortiz, Justin Crowe, Rachel Donner, HP Bloomer, Neil Celani, Adam Field, and Ben Carter were joined at the exhibition reception by Periscope representative Joe Taylor.

This video produced by the group is a clear example of the way ceramic promotion in the digital age is changing. The 1-minute video is inspired by the personal brand of ClayScope member and Native art star Virgil Ortiz. It takes the typical quiet, meditative ideas of a studio practice and infuses them with a jittery techno vibe, giving pottery a dose of hip, modern branding. The combined promotion of the ClayScope group members garnered more than 15,000 views in just a few days.

Social media platforms such as Instagram and Periscope offer new frontiers for developing a passionate audience and selling pottery in an age when the craft is struggling to advance. The Internet has offered a new format to the centuries-old comradery of ceramics — transforming physical communities to digital ones and vice versa.

Many of the artists in the exhibition have garnered micro-fame on the app Periscope, a tool that allows average people to broadcast their lives (or pottery practices) in real time — like a personal TV show. Field, Celani, and Ortiz have a combined audience of nearly 30,000 followers and they have attracted the attention of the emerging social network’s core development team. Periscope sent a representative from San Francisco to Santa Fe to attend the reception of Clay Scope Santa Fe to show their support for the artists’ passion and craft, and to celebrate their online success using the emerging technology.

You can see the participating artists’ work and shop for their pieces for a limited time at www.ClayScope.com.