Social media has created so many new ways for people to connect and unite upon common goals, such as art — was Ap0cene originally created with the intentions of being a fully digital community?
Mackenzie— So when we started to grow, we definitely had the idea of being a print magazine or a digital magazine. At the beginning, we even called ourselves a magazine, as opposed to a community. So that was kind of on the horizon of things we wanted to explore. We decided to stick with the digital community. And now, I think Ap0cene is literally the epitome of how powerful social media can be for small creators. It's really fulfilling because sometimes small creatives who we repost will say, 'This person saw my work because you reposted me,' or like, 'I was like losing faith and this re-installed, you know, some sort of hope in me,' which is really exciting for us too. I think it's really powerful that one random day, who knows who's going to see your work and that could turn things around. You know what I mean?
You have experienced a growth of Ap0cene’s online community on Instagram from 50k to 95k in just under six weeks. When you first launched Ap0cene, did you expect this much growth?
Mackenzie— No. And I think that that period of time is kind of when we really put a lot of time and more curatorial energy into Ap0cene, and we engaged more with the artists that we were featuring and the people who engage with our page as well.
Alicia— Yeah. I guess that spike was literally at the exact time when we kind of solidified, directionally, what we wanted to be.
Mackenzie— I remember there was a point in time, in the spring maybe, or March-ish, when we were getting about 700 to 900 new followers every day, and we were like, 'Whoa, this is kind of crazy!,' because I mean we're still just two gals.
Alicia— But we definitely are still striving towards how we can build a sense of community, a deeper connection between all of the designs and all of the creatives. That's also something we focus on — we don't discriminate between art, because art at the end of the day is art. It could be a sculpture, it could literally be performance art. It could be clothing, jewelry, shoes, make-up, or dance — any form of expression. We really want to invite that diversity. And we also really focus on making sure that we curate inclusively — all different people of color and backgrounds and ethnicities, and the LGBTQ community. We want to focus on amplifying their voices and their designs because we find that the Instagram algorithm always silences them. It's crazy.
Mackenzie— We don’t really plan —
Alicia— Yeah, we hate planning our feed.
Mackenzie— It works so much better when it’s organic and we’re inspired, naturally, by something that we see.