Catfish

The abilities of Web 2.0 relationships came to life in the documentary Catfish. Catfish stars Nev Schulman, a photographer from New York who works and lives with his brothers and friends, who are also artists. After having one of his photographs published in the New York Times, Nev received a painting of this photograph in the mail. The painting was said to be painted by Abby Pierce, a eight-year-old girl from a small town in rural Michigan. Nev loved Abby’s artwork, and began to form a friendship with her through Facebook. Abby updated Nev about the progress of her artwork; she said that she had rented out an old warehouse in her town in order to display her work.

Nev also became friends with her mother, sister, brother, and some of her other friends from Michigan. Nev formed a particularly close relationship with Abby’s sister Megan, a young attractive musician. They began contacting each other through Facebook, texting, and even phone calls. After a few months of talking and forming an intimate online relationship, Megan sends Nev a few cover songs that she decided to sing and record for him. Nev’s brother and friend really liked Megan’s songs, so they decided to look up the original songs on YouTube. Instead of finding different versions of the songs Megan sent Nev, they found the same exact songs Megan said she recorded posted by other YouTube users. Megan used other people’s songs and claimed that they belonged to her. This event caused Nev and his friends to start to believe that the Abby story may be false.

To help answer their suspicions, Nev decided to do some further research on Abby’s family. He discovered that the warehouse that she had claimed to rent out was currently vacant, and had been vacant for four years. After growing more and more suspicious about the truth and identity behind Abby, Megan, and their family, Nev and his friends decided to fly out to Michigan unexpectedly to meet them.

The guys found Megan’s “house” to be completely deserted; letters he sent her remained sitting in the mailbox. The next morning, they showed up to Angela’s (Abby and Megan’s mom) house for Sunday brunch and obtained the truth about Abby. In reality, Angela was the artist behind Abby’s art; Angela also played Megan throughout her “relationship” wit Nev. Furthermore, Angela created several Facebook accounts pretending to be people who knew her daughters and the rest of her family. When hearing the truth, it was clear that Nev felt as though he had been betrayed. Angela said that the reason why she fabricated an entire group of people on Facebook is that she was using the Internet as an escape from her harsh reality; she had several childhood dreams such as becoming a professional dancer and an artist that she was unable to achieve. Moreover, when Angela married her current husband, she became the mother of two mentally disabled sons. This put a huge amount of stress on her, which somewhat explains why every night at eleven o’clock Angela slipped into the persona of a multitude of online characters.

Angela’s Facebook scheme pretty much epitomizes the idea of “democratized media.” Democratized media means that everyone can participate and have a say in what goes on on the Internet. Angela took it upon herself to create a wide range of identities on Facebook and to fool Nev into an elaborate scheme. Angela’s scheme echoes Andrew Keen’s viewpoint on social media. Keen thinks that the popularization of social media has led to an increase in false information being transported through the Internet. Keen also believes that social media promotes plagiarism on the Internet. Angela clearly demonstrates this, because she used photographs of people she did not know for her multiple Facebook profiles. Although I do not personally agree with Keen’s views, his beliefs on democratized media are portrayed through Catfish. Without the Internet, it is unlikely that Angela would be able to manipulate Nev in such a complicated way. The Internet allows people to hide their true identities behind identities they create online. People can pick and choose what information they want the world to see, and what information they do not want the world to see.

Although I personally believe that social media is a vital aspect of today’s society and is benefiting the world of communications, Catfish demonstrates how it can be taken for granted and used in a negative way. Social media should be used so real life people can maintain real life relationships. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see a problem in meeting people online through online dating or activities of the like, however, I find it completely unnecessary and unfair for people to create fake identities, especially when trying to manipulate others.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

            “Exit Through the Gift Shop” is a documentary initially created by Thierry Guetta, a French videographer addicted to taping every aspect of his life. The audience gets a look at his continuous filming in the beginning of the documentary, where Guetta shows us his countless amounts of videos he has taken throughout his live. Guetta tells us that he first began recording when his mother died; he realized how short life can be and did not want to miss one second of it. We see footage of his life including his wife and children, and other random events from Guetta’s life that he captured on film. We learn that Guetta is intrigued by the concept of street art, as well as learning about the anonymous faces hidden behind art found all over major cities. Guetta makes it his mission to film a documentary about street artists and how they are able to covertly display their art for the public to view free of cost.

            In the documentary we are introduced to Guetta’s cousin, “Invader,” a street artist whose mission is to post “Space Invader” images all over different cities throughout the world. Invader discusses the way he creates the street art, as well as the inspiration behind his work. Invader then introduces Guetta to the street artist Shepard Fairrey. Guetta follows Shepard Fairey around and happily films his work. While interacting with multiple street artists, Guetta begins to hear more and more about the street artist Banksy.  Eventually, the two are given the opportunity to meet. Guetta was intrigued by Banksy’s street art style and began to follow him around with a camera. Banksy was interested in doing risky street art projects, such as placing a Guantanamo Bay prisoner doll in the Magic Kingdom at Disneyland. Banksy was a worldwide phenomenon; his art could be found all over Europe and North America. Although a documentary primarily about Banksy would seem practical because people all over the world were curious about his identity and how he created his street art, Banksy decided to turn Guetta’s cameras onto himself and create a documentary about the obsessive videographer.

            Inspired by Banksy as well as the other street artists that he came into contact with, Guetta decided to give street art a try. Guetta had an image of himself holding a video camera created posted all over the city of Los Angeles. The image created a buzz throughout the city, and soon Guetta created an alter ego of a street artist named Mr. Brainwash. Mr. Brainwash became an overnight sensation in Los Angeles. However, Guetta did not create all of the artwork himself. In the documentary we meet several artists that Guetta outsourced to design artwork for Mr. Brainwash. He gave them orders, including what pictures and designs to incorporate into the artwork he was going to claim was his own. Guetta rented out an old television production studio in order to display “his” artwork. Guetta had Banksy as well as other street artists promote the opening of Mr. Brainwash’s gallery. An advertisement placed in LA Weekly caused hundreds of people to line up outside of Mr. Brainwash’s gallery opening. The gallery was extremely successful; Mr. Brainwash sold millions of dollars worth of artwork, says Banksy.

            The over arching meaning and point of “Exit Through the Gift Shop” was to show the other side of the street art movement. Normally, the public can only view the artwork that is created by anonymous street artists. This documentary gave the public a means of seeing how street art is created and how a street artist can be literally created overnight.

            The anonymity of Banksy, as well as of other street artists demonstrates the idea that their artwork is more about the content of their work, rather than themselves. Many artists maintain an anonymous image so that their appearance, educational background, values, opinions, wealth, and other characteristics are not the main reason for interest in their artwork. Rather, the viewers are solely interested in the work itself. Anonymous artists are less interested in self-promotion; rather they are interested in portraying a creative concept through their specific type of art. The artist could be anybody; this creates a mystery for the viewer, allowing them to come up with their own idea as to who created a specific piece of artwork.

            The anonymity of Banksy and other street artists can also be explained through Marshall McLuhan’s idea of “the medium is the message.” McLuhan’s idea is that the content of any medium is always another medium. For street art, the medium is the street, or any public surface that the art is designed on. There are many social implications of using the street as a medium for a message. For instance, because an artist chooses to create street art, we can assume that he or she wishes to remain anonymous. In addition, many street artists want everyone and anyone to be able to see their artwork; rather than displaying it in an art gallery that will only be visited by select people. Street art strives to make a statement that will reach a broad audience. Using the street as a medium is the easiest way for street artists to have their message reach a large amount of people.

            I think that Banksy’s anonymity contributed to his success and large amount of publicity. If the public were aware of Banksy’s identity, there would be less talk about his artwork and the meaning of it. If a well-known artist decided to create street art, there would be more discussion about the specific artist and his or her motives, rather than the artistic content of their message. However, an anonymous identity makes the audience more curious about the content of the artwork, as well as the statement and meaning behind it. Banksy’s anonymity strengthens the content and significance of his artwork, rather than his personal image. 

Grade Update

Vectorized Images

Vector Graphics

Vector graphic

Keen Questions

1. How does Keen define Democratized media, and what are his main issues with this trend? use examples from the web in the form of links.

In his book Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen defines democratized media as a trend in which the audience is the main author of sources of media and information. For example, instead of a world in which professional journalists, musicians, actors, reporters, etc. are the main producers of content, virtually anyone can produce content and post it on the web for the world to see. Keen's main issues with this trend is that professionals are being replaced by amateurs, which he sees to be a decimation of culture.
Keen also feels as though the democratization of media encourages plagiarism and intellectual property theft. He states, "Copyright and authorship begin to lose all meaning to those posting their mash-ups and remixing on the Web" (24). Many people, or "amateurs," post remixes of songs and other media content done by professional musicians on YouTube, and as a result gain fame and popularity For example, I found this video on YouTube created by YouTube sensation "Pogo," who creates remixes of songs and sounds from movies. Keen has a problem with the fact that nowadays anyone can start a successful career on the Internet, without any professional or formal training. Pogo was subsequently hired by Walt Disney Studios after attracting millions of hits to his remix videos.

Andrew Keen also has a problem with the fact that it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction on the Internet. Sites such as Wikipedia, which allow any Internet user to edit its information are devaluing true culture and content, believes Keen. Andrew Keen would much rather live in a world that still relies on print Encyclopedias and newspapers for obtaining information.


2. Compare and Contrast Keens take on Social Media with Douglas Rushkoff's. Which one speaks to you and your own experiences and why?

Douglas Rushkoff believes that Social Media can be very beneficial to society, by keeping us informed on a multitude of topics, allowing us to congregate a large amount of people for a particular cause, and to just stay connected. Basically, Rushkoff views Social Media as a positive phenomenon which gives society a power it never had before.
Andrew Keen holds an opposing viewpoint; he believes that Social Media is ruining our culture and is harmful to society's intellect. Keen thinks that if Social Media becomes (or maybe it already is) our primary form of communication and exchange of information, that we are going to be left with fictional data created by amateurs rather than professionals.
Douglas Rushkoff's view of Social Media speaks to me more because I feel as though my generation has grown up in a time where Social Media is almost the only thing we know. We cannot imagine life without Facebook or Twitter-how would we communicate with our friends? Aside from that aspect, I feel that Social Media is beneficial because it allows people that are miles apart to exchange ideas and viewpoints, and even start political revolutions, which we have seen in the current events in Egypt. Social Media has also greatly affected the ways companies market their products. Thousands of new jobs are being created because companies and organizations are realizing they need someone to run their Social Media profiles in order to remain a competitor in the market. Social Media is revolutionizing the way the world works essentially, and is here to stay. Sorry, Keen.