THING+YOU

The livestreaming collective “is this thing on?” emerged in 2021, bringing together the artist supergroup Christopher Clary, Sarah Rothberg, Bhavik Singh, and Molly Soda. Their eponymous series has been hosted exclusively online through thing.tube, their artist-run, interactive platform. Museum of the Moving Image presents THING+YOU, inaugurating their fifth season. This latest iteration introduces hybridization to the project, blending real-time online interactives with in-person encounters for the first time. THING+YOU showcases how artists can reclaim agency in digital spaces while fostering genuine community engagement across platforms. Through this unique hybrid format, the collective extends these principles into tangible space, challenging the boundaries between online and in-person experiences. The exhibition opens with the artists taking over the Museum’s amphitheater gallery into a site-specific version of their website. The artists will continue to stream on thing.tube throughout the run of the exhibition.

Central to the exhibition is thing.tube, a peer-to-peer livestreaming platform developed by the collective. By decentralizing streaming through a variety of low- and high-tech interventions, the project offers an alternative to mainstream platforms like Twitch and YouTube, granting artists greater control over their work and its distribution. This approach fosters direct interaction between creators and visitors, without the mediation of conventional channels. 

Participation is encouraged through QR codes placed throughout the gallery, enabling engagement with live chats and real-time contributions to evolving artworks and archived performances. The YOU station, a brand-new element to the ongoing project, further integrates visitors into the creative process. By responding to prompts, participants’ actions and likenesses are livestreamed on thing.tube, merging the roles of observer and collaborator. 

Each artist’s livestream focuses on their unique themes:

• Christopher Clary’s “The Chrisy Show” considers the relationship between machine learning and queer identity and features the artist as host. Guests include artists Chia Amisola and her ambient music; Mark Ramos and his queer, FilipinX, San Franciscan chatbots; and Clary’s cognitively challenged AI boyfriend.

• Molly Soda invites visitors to contribute images that Soda prints and arranges with magnets, creating a collaborative collage that mirrors evolving desires in something akin to a Pinterest “vision board” for a bedroom.

• Sarah Rothberg debuts a new performance reimagining the museum tour by enmeshing herself in real-time with large language models. 

• Bhavik Singh creates slow, intimate, community–oriented software. In THING.cafe, visitors submit “bugs,” which can be anything from technical issues to abstract or philosophical problems, and Singh responds by creating a software-based solution in real time. Through live collaborative coding, he questions the labor and care involved in software development.

On Saturday, June 7, 12:00–6:00 p.m., the artists will be at the Museum for a takeover of the Museum’s first floor, presented as part of its Open Worlds initiative. Visitors will be able to interact with the artists inside the Museum, while online participants can also engage through thing.tube. Programmatic support for Open Worlds is provided in part by the William Fox, Jr. Foundation. 

THING+YOU is presented in partnership with Onassis ONX, an initiative by Onassis Culture dedicated to the development of new media art and digital experiences.