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Discover the dynamic connection between art history and social media

Instagrammable. What Art Tells Us about Social Media

Koenraad Jonckheere

How are the Holy Trinity and social media related? Why do we love colour filters so much? What makes hashtags so powerful? And why do we experience digital images so differently from their analogue counterparts?

The unexpected connection between ancient arts and social media. Suddenly, those 2,500 years of visual culture make just a bit more sense. And you’re less easily tricked by the tactics app developers have borrowed from the old arts. Highly recommended.
De Morgen

In ‘Instagrammable – What Art Tells Us About Social Media’, Koenraad Jonckheere delves into the surprising similarities between 2,500 years of European art history and our modern image culture on social media. He reveals how centuries-old ideas about observation, registration and imagination continue to influence how we deal with digital images even today.

Jonckheere, with his keen eye, unravels the paradox of ‘looking without seeing and seeing without looking’ in a world replete with likes, hashtags and filters. This book offers a fascinating insight into the power and pitfalls of visual communication in the digital era.

Influencers and Instagram fans use the same mechanisms as the old masters. Jonckheere demonstrates precisely how strongly contemporary visual culture is connected to the art of the old masters. Images that we call photogenic and that perform well on social media—that are, in other words, 'instagrammable'—are rooted in age-old mechanisms.
De Standaard