Influencer creep: How artists strategically navigate the platformisation of art worlds

Abstract

This article uses qualitative empirical research to explore the ways that Instagram has shaped both artistic labour and artistic practice. I draw from sociological perspectives on art worlds, critical platformisation literature and feminist cultural studies to argue that influencer cultures have originated key social practices that now animate creative labour more broadly. This process is defined as influencer creep. Influencer creep has the following three key tenets – self-branding, optimisation and authenticity. The article shows how artists draw from self-branding techniques rooted within influencer cultures, take up strategic techniques of algorithmic optimisation and share more of their authentic (yet highly stylised) selves online. I conclude that influencer creep has generated accelerated demands to consistently perform and maintain an artistic identity across social media platforms, which deepens well-documented existing inequalities in cultural and creative work.