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It has finally happened — TikToks are officially museum-worthy, according to the Museum of the Moving Image.
"Infinite Duets: Co-Creating on TikTok," is the newest exhibit to come to MoMI, opening on October 1. In partnership with TikTok itself, the museum's showcase will explore TikTok content and the process of collaboration that the social media platform is known for.
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Inside the museum’s Video Screening Amphitheater and Gallery and on the Schlosser Media Wall in the lobby, there will be videos showing the evolution of six influential TikTok videos and their remixes and remakes by users around the world.
Essentially, it'll focus on the concept of the "creator economy" and "creative catch," a term coined by TikTok user @Absofacto, that describes sequential creative collaboration: "I make a video and then you edit, add, Duet, Stitch, or otherwise make it your own," he says.
On TikTok, millions of users play creative catch every day by dueting or stitching (adding to or inserting themselves in) videos they see on their "for you pages" that they want to add to creatively.
The exhibit is curated by exhibition producer Sarah Ullman, who worked with Jason Eppink on the museum’s exhibition "The New Genres: Video in the Internet Age" in 2018 that presented a taxonomy of new types of videos posted by YouTubers.
While not limited to Gen Z, TikTok is largely a platform the younger generation uses to connect with others and facilitate healthy discussion on a range of topics not usually shared on other social media. You might know it to be the dance challenge app, but to so many, it's much more than that. And it might be weird to see it in a museum, but we think it's earned a place there that'll inspire more discussion — in TikTok fashion.
"Co-Creating on TikTok" will be on view at the Museum of the Moving Image October 1-November 7, 2021. Tickets are included in general admission for $15 or $11 seniors and students and $9 youth ages 3–17.