Just made a comment on Rhizome's post announcing its new feature The Download. Seems they forgot to mention that Ryder Ripps is offering all his Facebook data for download because he's quitting Facebook. This is all too convoluted to make much of a story but there is actually a journalistic nugget here.
Neither this post nor Joanne McNeil's paragraphs describing The Download mention that Ryder Ripps has deleted his Facebook account and this download of all his data is connected to that. That's kind of a big deal, especially since Ripps has been a Facebook love/hate supporter for some time. McNeil mentions that an artist named Kevin Bewersdorf deleted his data from his site once and murkily suggests that Ripps' The Download has something to do with that. This isn't even a case of "burying the lead"--hiding it, more like. But why?
All the best,
Tom Moody
It remains to be seen if this is a real Facebook resignation or one of those "that's it, I quit smoking today" moves. Regardless, in an absence of plausible reasons given for Ripps' Download as a work of art, you'd think it might be mentioned.
Update, a few days later: Am told that Ripps has reactivated his Facebook account. The precise, art historical term for this is "lame."