Legendary Account AI-researched
Joel Holmberg, 2008
Yahoo Answers performance
A performance piece in which the artist asked profound existential questions on Yahoo Answers — 'What is time?', 'What is space?' — exploiting the contrast between philosophical inquiry and the platform's mundane Q&A context.
“Legendary Account” is a performance by Joel Holmberg conducted on Yahoo Answers beginning around 2008. Holmberg used the Q&A platform to pose existential and philosophical questions — “What is time?”, “What is space?”, “What is between everything?” — among the platform’s typical questions about homework, relationships, and consumer products.
The work was exhibited at the New Museum’s “Free” exhibition and is archived on Rhizome’s ArtBase. Its power derives from the juxtaposition of the questions’ seriousness with the platform’s casual, often absurd context. With Yahoo Answers’ shutdown in May 2021, the original platform context is destroyed — the work now exists only as screenshots and documentation.