Corporations are training AI models to replace artists by stealing the work of ours they deem worthy and censoring the work that jeopardizes their power. These prudish, reactionary tech executives that have been ratcheting the restrictions and eliminating entire communities or even directly endangering them by exposing them to extremists and actively providing support to law enforcement. Opaque algorithms change the game daily, leaving us fighting or paying to get our work in front of the casino-like array of features & shops vacuuming up our audience's attention and funds they'd otherwise use to support artists.
Artists of all mediums are in desperate need of a place to rebuild the connections we've made over the years on corporate social media and are intimidated by the daunting & lonesome effort of beginning again elsewhere.
Eliminating to the pitfalls and very tangible harms of corporate-owned social media platforms by leveraging the power of our established personal & professional networks and amplifying them with open-source software and community-managed platforms. I call it Exposur.es.
Exposur.es is first & foremost a network of artists' communities. Paired with a stylized, custom-built PixelFed instance, artists like analog photographers can share their artwork unimpeded by censorship and protected from exploitative corporations. A platform entirely owned, managed, and supported by the community of artists that uses it and their audiences.
Since this is going to be a project local to New York City, building the pillars with the artist hubs in the city helps build trust and propel the project forward. With this much needed momentum, we'll bring in artists from across the five boroughs, rapidly creating the safe haven so many of us have been looking for.