I don’t think of Twitter hashtags, and the tweets that use them, as art very often (with the occasional exception such as 2012’s #blackbox). But George Monbiot’s recent #extremecivilisation might just count. The author and activist asked his followers to tweet examples of over the top things we have created because… we’re bored? we have too much time on our hands? we have so much oil we have to invent crazy new uses for it? Who knows.
Mr. Monbiot provides just a few of the many examples he received for #extremecivilisation in his recent article in The Guardian, There may be flowing water on Mars. But is there intelligent life on Earth?:
An egg tray for your fridge that syncs with your phone to let you know how many eggs are left.
A gadget for scrambling them – inside the shell.
Wigs for babies, to allow “baby girls with little or no hair at all the opportunity to have a beautifully realistic hair style”.
The iPotty, which permits toddlers to keep playing on their iPads while toilet training.
A £2,000 spider-proof shed.
A snow sauna, on sale in the United Arab Emirates, in which you can create a winter wonderland with the flick of a switch.
A refrigerated watermelon case on wheels: indispensable for picnics – or perhaps not, as it weighs more than the melon.
Anal bleaching cream, for… to be honest, I don’t want to know.
An “automatic watch rotator” that saves you the bother of winding your luxury wrist-candy.
A smartphone for dogs, with which they can take pictures of themselves.
Pre-peeled bananas, in polystyrene trays covered in clingfilm; Just peel back the packaging.
Hashtag performance art, perhaps? No matter whether or not it is art, it is a terrifying look at what humanity has become at the end of the age of oil.
To follow #extremecivilization: https://twitter.com/search?q=extremecivilisation.
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