The Oath of Avant-Garde Internet Users

 

Video-performance in chinese video website "youku" : http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjI1MDE1NTYw.html, 1 min, 2011-2022

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"The Oath of Avant-Garde Internet Users" is a 52-second video recorded by Yao Qingmei in 2011 using the front-facing camera of a computer, which she discreetly uploaded to the Chinese video website Youku (akin to YouTube) in 2013. On an internet rampant with exhibitionism, this sourceless, anonymously disseminated declaration by the artist via a proxy IP, was both a tasteless joke and a chilling pixel ghost . Perhaps due to its low view count, the video was able to survive unnoticed for many years, evading the watchful eyes of censors and continuing to resist, haunting the cyberspace. Until in 2022, the artist checked and found that the video had been removed by the platform.