Catfish

The Catfish documentary was interesting and surprising to me.  This woman from Michigan created fake Facebook profiles for her daughter Abby and Meghan as well as fifteen other people.  She is an artist, but made it seem like her daughter Abby who is eight years old, was doing all of the painting.  "Abby" connected with Nev who is a photographer in New York, and painted one of his photographs.  They started this online relationship by having conversation and sending eachother photographs and paintings.  Nev talks to Abby's mother on the telephone, which takes the relationship to a personal level. 

Nev then discovers Abby has an older sister, Meghan, who he finds attractive and develops a relationship with.  Nev and Meghan talk everyday, and she send him music that she recorded.  They start to develop romantic feelings towards each other, and text and talk on the phone as well.  Nev notices something strange when he finds the exact same song "Meghan" sent to him on Facebook somewhere else on the internet.  Nev and his friends decide to go see if this girl is real or not.  They discover that Meghan's farm is vacant, and the postcard he sent to her was still in the mailbox with "return to sender" on it.  They then drive by Abby's art studio, which is also vacant.  They go to Abby's house, where they meet her mother and the real Abby.  Nev discovers that the entire family is made up by the mother on Facebook.  She created a profile for many people and pretended to be all of them, including Meghan, who Nev had a developing "relationship" with.
This documentary shows how crazy people can be, to go through all the time and effort not only create fake profiles, but create fake lives and make someone else believe that it is real.  The mother lied to Nev so elaborately that it is shocking for me to comprehend.  She made up addresses that were real places, she went through the trouble to "record" songs for him when she actually searched and found them on the internet and posted them as if Meghan was the artist. She also talked to Nev on the phone as herself and ad Meghan.
Nev finds out that a real Meghan does exist, but she does not talk to the family.  The mother found pictures of someone else on Facebook and used them to create Meghan and Meghan's friends.

Nev felt betrayed and hurt by the entire situation, as anyone would be.  The mother even lied about having cancer and to her husband who thought Nev was her best customer for her artwork.  She escaped from her life taking care of two mentally challenged boys by going online and pretending to be these people. She explained it as "being parts of myself" and "becoming who I want to be."  She had dreams of being a dancer and felt she lost herself when she got married and stopped her career.  I do not feel bad for this woman, because everyone can be who they want to be; she is using her life as an excuse.  If she is not happy, there are other ways to help herself than by lying to an innocent person.  I have no pity for someone like that who lies to other people to make themselves feel better.
Her husband describes "catfish" as people who keep you on your toes in life.  The mother certainly did that to him and to Nev.
This whole situation can be supported by Web 2.0 from Andrew Keen's point of view.  Keen is negative about democratized media and how everyone can post things online.  The mother creating fake profiles supports Keen's theory of how there is no middle-man, and people cannot tell what is real from what is fake.  Not only can people create fake profiles online, they can also steal other people's work (like music) and make it seem like it is their own work.  This is the negative side of Web 2.0.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Do you feel that "Mister Brain Wash" is a legitimate artist who is creating meaningful art?


The "Prankumentary" Exit Through the Gift Shop was about Thierry Guetta, a French man who always had a camera in his hands. The film is the story of how he attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. Billed as 'the world's first street art disaster movie' the film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shephard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work ( http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/exit_through_the_gift_shop/ ). 
The film started out showing Thierry with his camera, and not knowing what to film.  He then met Shephard Fairey, a street artist, who let him follow him on late night street art activities.  Thierry documented everything about this artist, and then also wanted to film Banksy, another famous street artist.  He told the artists that he was going to create a documentary, but in reality, he had no intention of doing so. Thierry even helps the artists in putting up their creations on buildings and assisting them in their street art acts. 
Banksy soon realizes that Thierry is a lousy film maker, so Banksy decides to use the footage and add additional material to make his own movie about Thierry's journey in this project. Since Thierry spent so much time involved in the process of street art, Banksy also convinces Thierry to become a street artist himself. Thierry reinvents himself as street artist MBW, an acronym for "Mr. Brainwash". Banksy, in the end, may regret this suggestion.  Thierry takes what he has learned from these street artists and hires other artists to create artwork for him.  He had an illustrator create his own "label" and he began putting it up on buildings around LA.  He hired a crew to create his first artshow.  Basically, Thierry was the "boss" and the creative director behind the whole operation, taking pop art or someone else's work and having his team recreate it.
Surprisingly, Thierry had a successful art show and sold close to a million dollars worth of art.  This was due to praise by the other street artists, and the media giving it attention (an article was written in LA Weekly).  The last interview in the documentary was of Bansky.  He said that he thought Thierry was successful and is making more money than him now, but basically stole others ideas and that it wasn't really his own work.
The point of the whole documentary was to show how quickly an art movement can blow up in popularity, and how quickly someone can become an artist.
I do not think that Mr. Brainwash is a legitimate artist since he stole others techniques, methods, and even art to create something that he claimed was his.  He didn't draw his own logo, he had someone else draw it for him.  He hired artists to create his art show for him as well, and just directed them.  He may have come up with the ideas, but the ideas were not entirely his; they were recreations of art that was already made.  For example, he copied Warhol with his pop art inspired pieces and posters.  The most he would actually do art-wise that was hands on was splatter paint on his prints, or put his logo up on buildings.  He cared more about the press than actually putting together his show.  His art show was put together last-minute as people were waiting outside in line to get in, and Thierry was in an interview.
A real artist to me is someone who has spent a lot of time finding their style and actually creating their artwork using different methods until they find one that works best for them.  Banksy spent years and years perfecting his street art, and Thierry seemed to become one overnight.  Thierry was the mind behind his art show, but I feel that he was not the actual artist since he has so many other people helping him and doing the artwork for him.

Grade Update

What is my grade so far in this class?

Check out this website that I have published articles on:
http://www.maristmy575.com/

My journalism class writes stories relating to Marist and is responsible for publishing them along with multimedia content, on the site weekly.

Illustrator Vecotrized Ballerina Photograph

Illustrator Logo Vector Graphic

Vector Logo created in Illustrator

Original Logo

Andrew 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.

Keen defines democratized media as being a place where everyone can share their opinion and put themselves out there through the internet.  He believes that the internet is stealing our culture because of this ability to broadcast ourselves to the world.  With democratized media, the dis-intermediate, or the "middle man" according to Keen is lost; the fact-checker is not there regulating what people say.  This is true in news because people are now finding out information on blogs or other internet sites (like Wikipedia) that are not factual.  The truthfulness in news has deteriorated because of this.  He relates this concept to musicians that aren't making money anymore because people can steal the music online.  All media can be shared, which takes away from the artist.  Keen favors real news and not mainstream media, which focuses on celebrities and gossip rather than actual news.  Keen's argument is that there are consequences to Web 2.0; the internet creates less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless information.  He believes that this digital obsession is blurring the truth, maybe even making it disappear.  

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

 Keen and Rushkoff both believe that Social Media is a way for people to put themselves out there and reach a large audience.  Keen sees this as a negative thing, whereas Rushkoff sees it as a positive way to express yourself and communicate easily with others.  Keen believes that blogs demoralize the truth.  Rushkoff believes that social media allows for a free medium to broadcast yourself and connect and communicate with other people.  Rushkoff focuses on the positive impacts of social media, while Keen is opposed to it.

 

I agree more with Rushkoff's view of social media, in that it allows people to express themselves and put their opinions and creativity out there.  It allows people from all over the world to connect and communicate instantly.  People should know that a comment or blog posting is not real news, and should not be looking at those sites for reliable information.  People should know what news sites to trust for news information; not everyone reads and believes what is written in blogs or unreliable websites.  The way in which we use social media and the internet is up to us; we should be responsible and knowledgeable about how we are using the internet.  Personally, I look at news sites to find out what is going on the world.  I use social media to connect with family and friends, even potential employers.  The internet can be used for many bad things, but it also can be used as a launching pad for all artists to display their work and put themselves out there to be recognizable.  I do think that file sharing and downloading music is wrong, but so many people do it now that artists are becoming more famous because of it.  Artists can make money in other ways, through concert ticket sales and merchandise sales. 

Essay Comments

I commented on Joelle Zahka's essay, Brett Houseal's, and Connor Norton's.

Do social networks expand our identity?

Whither the Individual?
As we join groups and social networks from affinity sites to Facebook, are we extending and expanding identities, or increasingly conforming to the cookie-cutter profiles demanded of these interfaces? Is the loss of "personal space" and "reflection" so many users complain of merely the necessary surrender of "ego" as we learn to participate as members of a more evolved "collective organism" of "hyper-people?"


Social networks, like Facebook, are expanding our identities because it is an extension of ourselves.  We can share personal information about ourselves (if we choose to) and post pictures of our lives.  On a social networking site, we can document and share our lives with other people, usually our relatives and friends.  The amount of information you choose to disclose is up to you, you can write as much or as little about yourself as you want others to see. 
Setting your privacy settings also puts you in control of who sees this information.  Facebook profiles outline what you could include in your profile, which in a way is limited, but there are other ways to put yourself and your opinion out there, through blogs for instance.  If you want to let the world know about yourself, having your own blog, or your own website is possible.  With a social networking site, it is cookie-cutter in the style of the site and what information you can publish on your profile.
If users complain of losing "personal space" then they shouldn't be using a platform such as a social networking site.  The whole purpose of a social network is to put your information out there in order to connect with other people online.  It is up to the user as to how much information they publish,and who has access to their profile.  If they feel that it is violating their personal space, then they should not have a social network profile.
So many people use social networks to connect with relatives, friends, co-workers and industry professionals, that it is almost impossible not to have one.  It is the "norm" in society to have a Facebook, and more and more, a LinkedIn profile. On LinkedIn, professionals can post their resumes, and network with other employees in their fied to look for a job. Once you meet someone, most people look them up on Facebook and add them as a friend.  Making this initial connection can lead to conversations on the site, the sharing of photographs and of personal information.
In a blog, http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/ , it explains this era as being "The Age of Connection," because "human behavior, human beliefs, and human relations are all reorganizing themselves around connectivity."  Everyone can expand their indenities online through social networks. The ability to connect with people around the world at the speed of light is given the title, "hyperconnectivity." Social networks, bring people from around the world to us, and we can connect with them instantly.  By posting photographs, we are engaging in "hyperdistribution", which is the capability to send something everywhere instantaneously.  Humans share because we like to reach out to our connections to reinforce our relationships or to increase our credibility with someone.
With social networks, we can be connected with people all the time, on a computer, or in our hand.  Mobile apps allow us to check our social networks constantly.  This shows that we are a collective organism in that we are all constantly connected.  In order to fit into society, it is expected that you have a social network site to stay connected and keep relationships with people.

Social Media Questions

 1. Advertisments or TV shows that look amateurish to emulate the Web are common today, and I think they will continue to be.  So many people turn to the Web to watch videos (on YouTube for example) and are used to seeing that "homemade" looking quality.  They are used to seeing it,  and are drawn to commercials that emulate that feel because they can connect with it - it is something that looks like someone else made it, not necessarily a professional.  Geico commercials use this home made appeal to show that in the fifteen minutes it took them to make a commercial, is how long it would take to save on car insurance. 

2. Social media sites that I use the most are Facebook and LinkedIn.  I look at Facebook to see what friends are up to, and connect with family members that are far away.  Groups send me messages to let me know of meeting times.  I can connect with classmates through Facebook to communicate with them about a project, or have discussion when we can't meet in person.  LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, where I can follow companies that interest me, as well as connect with other people in the industry I am looking to get into.  LinkedIn has professionals from these companies which makes it easy to make connections and for them to view my profile, or my resume.  LinkedIn will be very helpful to me when job searching, and internship searching. 
Facebook is more successful than MySpace because you can constantly add content to your Facebook profile page.  You can upload pictures and videos and share them with friends.  MySpace was more of just a profile, like your own website, but I feel that Facebook is more interactive, and that is what draws users to it.  Groups can be created within Facebook for easy communication with a lot of people.  Events can be created that you can invite others to.  

3. Transparency is important in the online world because it can have mixed motives for people for post things online.  People may post things on social sites for personal gain, to try and get respect or recognition from others, or they can be greedy and say things they don't believe in for money.  Online, people do not have to be honest, they can say things they don't mean for some sort of self benefit.  People can respond to other people's tweets or comments because they want them to like them more.  I think transparency is more important in the online world because you can connect with people that you otherwise couldn't meet with in person.  You can help to develop relationships with people online through different forms of communication. 

McLuan Photoshop 2

I chose texting as another medium of communication.  I was able to start this Photoshop assignment in class, but it is not finished. I wanted to show how much texting has become a part of our daily lives, and how distracted it makes us.  People text during class, while driving, and while walking.  This connects us with people constantly, but makes us lose touch with our surroundings.  Texting is distracting, and limits actual conversations with people around us.  In one way, is is connecting us to people, and in another it is limiting our face-to-face social skills.  This is a medium because it is an extension of ourselves, almost everyone texts. 

McLuhan Photoshop Final Post

The medium that I chose to do the Photoshop assignment on was YouTube.  YouTube has changed our society because anyone can record, edit and upload a video onto YouTube for the world to see.  Everyone can put themselves out there to have their 15 minutes of fame.  I tried to depict this in my Photoshop image by showing a Camcorder and a Flip Camera to show how accessible it is to film a movie.  I then put in an image of Windows Movie Maker, one of the many free editing softwares that is available to edit movies.  Not only can people edit their own movies by cutting out scenes or rearranging them, they can get a movie offline (like a music video, advertisement, or a speech) and use an editing software to add text, music or voice-over, and other elements.  YouTube is a global platform, which means that anyone searching on YouTube can see your video once you publish it to the site. This public viewing is why I chose to put the world behind the YouTube logo, and have an audience watching the computer screen.  Like McLuan said, YouTube is a medium because it is an extension of ourselves.

Mediums of Communication

You Tube is a Medium of Communication because it allows anyone to post a video of themselves or something else and have it be viewed by millions of people.  Anyone can upload/publish videos on You Tube.

 Texting is another medium in that people are so connected to their cell phones.  They can be in constant contact with others no matter where they are without having to call the person.

News Sites, such as Yahoo News allow readers to comment on stories.  Many online news sites allow this interactive feature for readers to get feedback on the stories and create a discussion among readers.