Since our founding in 2009, Hyperallergic has always been at the forefront of social media, from finding our first home on Tumblr to becoming one of the first 10,000 adopters of Bluesky. As Hyperallergic’s Media Producer, it’s my distinct pleasure to animate the rich material provided by our writers through videos on our social media platforms, where we can show footage from the ground during developing events, hear directly from experts, and sometimes reach new audiences across the web who wouldn’t have discovered our publication otherwise.
Now, as more and more social media websites copy TikTok’s magnetically infinite scroll of vertical videos, we’ve found an audience of millions of netizens. Even though I’ve been at it for years now, the responses of new viewers never cease to surprise me. I mean, who knew that so many people would be as excited as I was about the highly nerdy study of brain activity in the frontal cortex of viewers gazing upon an original Vermeer? Or how the fading bromide pigment in Van Gogh’s “Irises” (1889) changed his flowers from purple to blue?
In no strict order, here are 10 of our top social media video highlights from 2024, which include a mixture of our most popular posts with those that sparked the most electrifying conversations.
AI finishes Keith Haring’s intentional “Unfinished Painting”
At the beginning of 2024, a likely troll posted a version of Keith Haring’s haunting “Unfinished Painting” (1989) that had been “completed” by AI. It spurred an understandable outcry from those who were quick to remind netizens that Haring intended to show the painting as “unfinished” to represent the unbearable number of lives cut short by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Were we victims of a classic piece of Twitter rage-bait? Perhaps. Even so, it still led to a fascinating discussion on yet another unexpected ethical conundrum posed by AI art.
Rembrandt Making Gold
But while AI art lurks on the sidelines, the science of human-made art was the hottest topic of our videos this year. 1.5 million viewers tuned in to our YouTube short to learn how Rembrandt concocted glowing gold paint. (Don’t try it at home; it turns out to be a fairly toxic combination of arsenic sulfide mineral variants, lead-tin yellow, and vermillion).
Van Gogh’s Irises
And another 1.5 million learned how the bromide-red pigment in Van Gogh’s “Irises” faded in the sun over a century, making the titular flowers fade from purple to blue.
The Rush for Leopard Highlighters
In the fast-moving world of Stationary Arts news, many were as astounded as we were that French TikTok tweens were pranking millions of their followers into believing there was a “leopard print highlighter.” Some were rightly indignant when I asked what you even do with one of those, since it would obscure any words you tried to highlight. “For crafts! Duh!” I have to hand my maximalist ID card back in. I should have guessed!
Hurricane Helene
Social media videos aren’t all about fun facts. Days after Hurricane Helene claimed the lives of over 160 people in the Southeastern United States, I wrote to my friend Saro Lynch Thomason, a folk singer in Asheville, North Carolina, to ask if she had footage from the destruction near her home. She sent back videos of murky brown water flowing through the beloved River Arts district, two-thirds of which was destroyed in the storm. Based on Rhea Nayyar’s reporting of the catastrophe, we published a video stitching together Lynch Thomason‘s first-hand experiences with photos of Hyperallergic contributor Hannah Cole’s recently submerged studio. Jeffrey Burroughs, president of the River Arts District Artists association, used a rare moment of internet connection to send me his footage as well. In an interview for Hyperallergic, he said that the scene was “completely apocalyptic,” and that watching art supplies float down the river was like “watching the spirit of Asheville being washed away.”
Protest at the Met Gala
When it came to political activism, this year showed that there’s nothing like videotaping what’s happening from the scene. When a large pro-Palestine protest at which multiple people were arrested erupted outside of the Met Gala, News Editor Valentina Di Liscia was on the scene reporting live. As she expertly narrated the unfolding events, she shot a video showing hundreds of protesters — some dressed in finery that paralleled the decadence of the event.
On the Ground at Columbia University
In early May, student protesters were arrested en masse at Columbia University. As the police swept the encampment and charged into Hamilton Hall, recently occupied by protesters who renamed it “Hind’s Hall,” student journalists were live on radio reporting on how they were blocked from leaving the building. Amidst the chaos, police also disallowed news crews within a four-block radius of the campus, raising concerns for many about what was unfolding that they didn’t want the press to record. Hyperallergic staff writer Maya Pontone was at the chaotic scene, and in a video we posted days later, shared her experiences about what she saw.
Palestine Roundup
There were so many stories about Palestine in 2024, warranting a round-up of eight art world reactions to the suffering in Gaza.
The Demise of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts
Many in the art world were shocked when the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, a 148-year-old institution, shut down without notice due to deep financial troubles. The students did not find out until after the information had already surfaced in a Philadelphia Inquirer article, and erupted in anger. We published a video from the scene featuring students who had just recently been left without a school to attend. While shooting the video, a planned town hall was suddenly canceled, to which the students responded with the chant “Cowards! Cowards!”
Richard Serra’s Lost Paris Sculpture
When Minimalism legend Richard Serra passed away in March, author Michelle Young reported on how she stumbled upon his gigantic and much-maligned 1983 sculpture “Clara-Clara” in the back of a water plant-turned-storage facility in Paris. The piece had been installed and uninstalled three times in the city, following a loud outcry from its many critics, who disliked how it cut across their view of the Tuileries Gardens. Young joined us for a video interview on how she made the discovery, and spoke about how Paris might be looking for a future home for the piece.
