tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39655709900540679272024-03-28T13:15:15.302-04:00welcome toLeora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-53466004323051719242023-11-09T20:36:00.001-05:002023-11-12T13:53:06.141-05:00The Invasion of The Digital Creator People<p><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Remember when user-generated content on social platforms was dominated by memes, dogs on skateboards, cats on keyboards, and one</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">-</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">off viral videos? </span></p><p><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And i</span>f it seems like a long time ago that's because 10 to 15 years is an eternity in internet time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="328" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J---aiyznGQ" width="394" youtube-src-id="J---aiyznGQ"></iframe></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><div style="text-align: center;">73 million views later could <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_Cat" target="_blank">Keyboard Cat </a>be the original influencer?</div></span><p></p><p>Now, in the place of the random we have an actual sector called <a href="https://creativeclass.com/reports/The_Rise_of_the_Creator_Economy.pdf" target="_blank">The Creator Economy</a>, <span face="Calibri, sans-serif">an industry </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">filled with millions of people worldwide, </span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">producing content that encompasses new genres and new form factors and that mints new 'micro stars' every day. Some are participating for fun alone, others for profit, and if you can make your fun turn into profit, then</span> you're<span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> probably winning life.</span></p><p><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">O</span>nce thought of as either frivolous or known to only those in the know or, alternately, people logging too much time online-- now digital creators *are* the media, driving the culture by using direct to consumer, on demand platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. No conventional broadcaster or publisher permission needed, and nobody but the viewers themselves to decide what the definition of entertaining is. </p><p>To this point, in <a href="https://www.pipersandler.com/teens" target="_blank">new research on teens and consumption habits</a> respondents reported that they spend close to 30% of their viewing time on YouTube, exceeding the time spent on the professionally produced offerings on Netflix for the first time in this demographic segment.</p><p><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">When the platform companies first came on the scene few in the broadcast media industry considered the content posted on these gatekeeper-less sites to be a threat to their core business. </span><span class="eop" face="Calibri, sans-serif">After all, this was a bunch of amateurs, creating content about random topics and with little to no financial backing.</span></p><p><span class="eop" face="Calibri, sans-serif">Now, in addition to the e</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">veryday people who can go from hobbyists to full timers on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch, we also </span><span class="eop" face="Calibri, sans-serif">have things like #</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">BookTok, a community of readers, reviewers, and recommenders that find each other through the hashtag of the same name and that are <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/93201-booksellers-add-tiktok-to-the-toolbox.html" target="_blank">reported</a> to have accounted for over 175 billion views and tens of millions in sales in an industry that has been flagging in recent years.</span></p><div><p><span style="font-size: 16px;">These trends in media production, consumption, and perhaps most interestingly participation are quite clearly a huge departure from the world of broadcast media, with its pitching processes, high production and distribution costs, and fixed amount of shelf space.</span></p><p>And if you've got kids they may already be dabbling in digital creation, uploading to YouTube, TikTok, or SoundCloud and possibly hoping to become the next<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/03/mr-beast-money-hometown-greenville-creator-economy/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email" target="_blank"> Mr. Beast, aka Jimmy Donaldson</a>. And who wouldn't want to be Mr. Beast, with his 200M subscribers, a full production crew (including<a href="https://twitter.com/MattNavarra/status/1576850404134248449" target="_blank"> a 6-person thumbnail team</a>), a reported $82 million in revenue last year, a line of branded clothing and <a href="https://feastables.com" target="_blank">snack food</a>s, and charitable giving around the world including cataract surgeries for those in need.</p><p>There’s definitely a “so what’s going on?” question to be posed here. That question and others, such as what are your statistical chances of becoming the next Mr. Beast, are tackled in the Fall 2023 report I co-authored for the CMF (Canada Media Fund) entitled <a href=" https://cmf-fmc.ca/perspectives/" target="_blank">"Flipping The Screen"</a>.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIX-L8lqOMUUe7nUYGCCeXIOmHP2FqCJsux-mrDrsw7Udhc37qFoCsxof5xK__-tIqRSjkn6-WujF6E1PHlfmXRYyr-zOKadlvDcdJRx5hYFOoIZjRlMmeUiUoupGGBuWRgYMHZ8hyphenhyphenFIzeGy9X-bY-cZRpaFtbaz5aio-N4SWXzhkaw7CfrH_WuuBXJvjo/s1248/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-09%20at%207.22.33%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1248" data-original-width="1198" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIX-L8lqOMUUe7nUYGCCeXIOmHP2FqCJsux-mrDrsw7Udhc37qFoCsxof5xK__-tIqRSjkn6-WujF6E1PHlfmXRYyr-zOKadlvDcdJRx5hYFOoIZjRlMmeUiUoupGGBuWRgYMHZ8hyphenhyphenFIzeGy9X-bY-cZRpaFtbaz5aio-N4SWXzhkaw7CfrH_WuuBXJvjo/w389-h406/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-09%20at%207.22.33%20PM.png" width="389" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click <a href=" https://cmf-fmc.ca/perspectives/" target="_blank">here</a> to read "Flipping The Screen", the Fall 2023 report from the CMF's <br />Foresight & Innovation Team</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-6533646996233409352022-10-20T15:43:00.045-04:002022-10-21T20:54:06.192-04:00Your digital identity is only sorta kinda you<p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Since just before Covid hit I've been working as an advisor to a startup called</span><a href="https://koodoslabs.xyz" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank"> koodos.</a><span style="background-color: white;"> Perhaps the simplest way to describe it is this: They're building both </span><a href="https://koodoslabs.xyz/app" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">an app </a><span style="background-color: white;">(that's what you, the user, interacts with) and </span><a href="https://koodoslabs.xyz/protocol" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">a protocol</a><span style="background-color: white;"> (that's what developers interact with) that enable crowdsourced sentiment around any piece of digital media.</span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpOCcG7Yicux4ejCgzQdX0pV7e-DFsiosVTl0pIAOINC8LyKUJTpHVifcVuagmCWHzUYhOo7leDnI1Rxzj8VyGDfpXZioWrMd9wJMhflrk9NSRXcvRnAf734OfN52nyx8uygyA3kX2i-7q9G6uwboGAF_Zx5fYcYEtNEBocyki3ch4R0fIYhgIQ5KzA/s2732/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-20%20at%202.53.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="988" data-original-width="2732" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpOCcG7Yicux4ejCgzQdX0pV7e-DFsiosVTl0pIAOINC8LyKUJTpHVifcVuagmCWHzUYhOo7leDnI1Rxzj8VyGDfpXZioWrMd9wJMhflrk9NSRXcvRnAf734OfN52nyx8uygyA3kX2i-7q9G6uwboGAF_Zx5fYcYEtNEBocyki3ch4R0fIYhgIQ5KzA/w617-h224/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-20%20at%202.53.04%20PM.png" width="617" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So, working alongside koodos co-founder </span><a href="https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/jad-esber" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Jad Esber</a><span style="font-family: arial;">, I recently contributed to a fairly metaphysical piece on what this new approach to digital life signals. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">The full original post, entitled "From Shelf to Self: Identity Construction in the Digital World" was published on Substack and can be found</span><a href=" https://blog.koodos.com/p/from-shelf-to-self-identity-construction" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;" target="_blank"> here.</a></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">What follows here is an excerpted version.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b>Opening up your wallet</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div><div><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">When the team was thinking about the ways to describe its flagship app, </span><a href="https://koodos.com/" rel="" style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">koodos</a><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"> — a media ‘wallet’, they often found ourselves using the analogy of things tacked up on bedroom walls. Or record collections. Or the books on one’s shelf. All of these represent a physical manifestation of who we are, what we are, and how we want those closest to us to perceive us.</span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">Using this framing, of the shelf as a proxy for the self, it’s an interesting coincidence that the words </span><em style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">self</em><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"> and </span><em style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">shelf </em><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;">are only one letter apart. Because to self-chronicle is to self-construct. The journey of identity construction is intertwined with our active collecting and chronicling of things and ideas. It isn’t that fixed self that we have to actualize or memorialize, it’s the changing and evolving one.</span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0;"><br /></span></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">But there's got to be more to life online than just a series of swipes, right?</h3><div><br /></div><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">Life online can move so quickly it often feels like a blur. Swipe left, swipe right, swipe up, swipe down. Dings and pings for update notifications. The rabbit holes that algorithms send us down, some of which end up being too good for our own good. And the next thing we know, three hours have passed. </span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">What if we could slow things down, so that each digital moment doesn’t merely ‘autoplay’ into the next one? A place where things that truly resonate with us can be captured and serve as extensions of ourselves. Where our online actions are more intentional, more contemplative, and more deliberately non-swipey.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">The people already using koodos come to it during what the team is calling a “koodos moment” — that recognition of “I love this”, that this thing I have encountered online really meant something to me, has reminded me of someone, has really resonated with me. If we wanted to get big-brainy about it, collecting on koodos lifts that moment to the level of consciousness. Of going from just one more nanosecond of life online to something of significance for us.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;">But simply collecting digital things, and moments, isn’t enough.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">To produce is to real-ize</h3></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In French, the word for producer is ‘réalisateur’ — or the one who realizes. To produce is to realize. It’s the idea of making something ‘real’, of taking a jumble of ideas and turning them into something understandable and appealing. That’s what good producers do. They make things that don’t yet exist ‘real’. And this applies beyond the context of identity construction. If we think about the process of navigating ideas, we strengthen our understanding of the problem or get clarity on the idea by producing, by shipping, by putting something out there. The act of producing helps you realize the idea and take it from abstract to concrete.</span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; caret-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">On the internet today, consumption is generally considered the main way to establish one’s particular identity (i.e. we are what we consume), and production is usually ignored in the discourse around identity-forming. But what happens if we reframe things so that more of what we do is also seen as productive, and constitutive.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The more we realize, the more we become ourselves</h3><div><br /></div><blockquote style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-left: var(--size-4) solid var(--background_pop); margin: var(--size-20) 0;"><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The unity of one’s life consists in the coherence of the story one can tell about oneself. </span></p></blockquote><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/simon-critchley/" target="_blank">Philosopher Simon Critchley</a></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><br /></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As life plays out, we’re constantly re-writing our one-page autobiography. And the story that we tell about ourselves might be different in different contexts, around different audiences or in different points in time.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Alice in Wonderland knows this phenomenon well, as illustrated in her interactions with that Caterpillar character.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-left: var(--size-4) solid var(--background_pop); margin: var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar. </span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-left: var(--size-4) solid var(--background_pop); margin: var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">Alice replied, rather shyly, “I — I hardly know, Sir, just at present — at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”</span> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-left: var(--size-4) solid var(--background_pop); margin: var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar, sternly. “Explain yourself!”</span> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border-left: var(--size-4) solid var(--background_pop); margin: var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))" style="font-family: arial;">“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,” said Alice, “because I am not myself, you see.”</span></p></blockquote><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="427" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_gpt2Zb5V5A" width="515" youtube-src-id="_gpt2Zb5V5A"></iframe></div><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))" style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">So, like Alice, we’re constantly writing a rough draft of our autobiography. From a </span>cultural<span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"> theory perspective, we find ourselves in a </span><a href="https://metamoderna.org/metamodernism/" style="color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary));" target="_blank">metamodern </a><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">phase of both self and society, or what comes after the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6s_sW6FZ2g" style="color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary));" target="_blank">postmodernist</a><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"> view of a rejection of grand, all-encompassing </span>narratives</span><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"><span style="font-family: arial;"> and performances of the self</span>.</span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0; text-align: left;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"><br /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Delineation of the self as part of our story</h3></div><div><br /></div><div><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And as we chronicle our lives online, we are forced to distinguish between our role as reader and our role as protagonist. In the process we separate the self from the things that influence the self in the story we tell ourselves and the story we in turn tell the world about ourselves. <span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">The reluctance of most user-generated content platforms to come to terms with their status as not just a social network but also a personal resource is rooted in this tension. </span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"><br /></span></span></p><p style="--tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246 / 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; color: var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary)); line-height: 1.6em; margin: 0 0 var(--size-20) 0;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))">Therefore any effort to understand the nature and origins of the self is an interpretive effort largely done elsewhere, in parallel somewhat to our life online. Where koodos sees a big opportunity is applying a </span><span color="var(--print_on_web_bg_color, var(--color-primary))"><a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/constructivism-and-psychotherapy-2337730" target="_blank">constructivist </a>lens, in which the self is something always evolving, to our digital identities.</span></span></p></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-84305954527419539082022-10-09T15:07:00.006-04:002022-10-10T12:07:53.390-04:00Found Object: Godard essay from the 80s<p>I tend to think in what could be thought of as 'circuitous' ways. If there's a straight line way to come at something, I probably won't take it. Not because I don't value efficiency, but because I can 'what about this, what about that' myself to death. And depending on your own style of thinking and store of patience, you might be happy to play along, or, alternately, it might drive you nuts. I know it has driven some nuts in the past. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWO9ic2dUMqNBTJCEifPmMlysafz0iurMgG402pH01QgEu7fA9R0G63AaVBTmUzHkkKF3MbtgLOTY2OizChiAkYe30DY1tKLNR54n8jMv9FZWN6cM_x-3b6LapgMPt1hAi93SI1jSp7EuN48nypxS6J_gmwmydXsxeyIucFShqgc9xma42c0aKhjdsw/s786/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-08%20at%205.03.15%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="786" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSWO9ic2dUMqNBTJCEifPmMlysafz0iurMgG402pH01QgEu7fA9R0G63AaVBTmUzHkkKF3MbtgLOTY2OizChiAkYe30DY1tKLNR54n8jMv9FZWN6cM_x-3b6LapgMPt1hAi93SI1jSp7EuN48nypxS6J_gmwmydXsxeyIucFShqgc9xma42c0aKhjdsw/w435-h241/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-08%20at%205.03.15%20PM.png" width="435" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome to my head.<br />Not always this bad, though it can be<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What brought this to mind was recently coming across a paper I wrote many moons ago, during undergrad days actually. Like so many people the Covid close-in meant having the occasion to go through piles of things I hadn't looked at in ages. </p><p>Which is when I found this, an essay called "The cubistic element in Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless"(1960), written by me in a previous life, also known as the 1980s. </p><p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuf7H9oPHXHrIPwc_aXAvUKD5b0egvZ0jJvS2gKRI5vLKSYMRx2PaMVL2_uluILUIxirxzGqzLhiFsX1LtcoMS4N7l8e0ift8zkcruztiGRUXifqbbqaGWjKCMBbm8xYcroiRINFZLVkouPw84q-0htwLSW7d6QVrAAMrxW-XwBe05vK8gk2N89Z8Kqw/s640/0-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="683" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuf7H9oPHXHrIPwc_aXAvUKD5b0egvZ0jJvS2gKRI5vLKSYMRx2PaMVL2_uluILUIxirxzGqzLhiFsX1LtcoMS4N7l8e0ift8zkcruztiGRUXifqbbqaGWjKCMBbm8xYcroiRINFZLVkouPw84q-0htwLSW7d6QVrAAMrxW-XwBe05vK8gk2N89Z8Kqw/w512-h683/0-1.jpeg" width="512" /></a></p><p>And this is where the non-linear stuff starts to comes in. Looking back at this paper, and the image of the protagonist Patricia character alongside a Picasso, both presented in profile, I was reminded that it forced a very young me to think in literally figurative ways. In this case how a cubist approach to composition in film. Angular and fragmented. Highly realistic in some ways. Stylized and distancing in others. Here, arguably, the most interesting path from point A to point B is showcased. And even though I was an art history major at the time, until that point I really hadn't thought very much about the philosophy of a particular artistic style residing in more than just one medium.</p><p>So why am I thinking/writing about this now? Because coming across this paper coincided with the recent passing of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, who <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/jean-luc-godard-influential-french-new-wave-filmmaker-dies-aged-91/5174409.article" target="_blank">moved on</a> to the big naturalistic set in the sky in mid September 2022. For those who don't know, a quick Godard primer: He was a leading proponent of the Nouvelle Vague, or <a href="http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-start.shtml" target="_blank">French New Wave</a>, a 1960s artistic movement which was all about rule-breaking, norm-shattering, and a DiY approach to making movies. Godard and his filmic counterparts believed the way features were being made had become too set in the ways of studios and stars and structure. Who needs those, after all, when you can just explode all that came before.</p><p>My exposure to Godard came before the paper on "Breathless" though. A year or two earlier I remember having my even younger mind blown in another film class, where they had us watch Godard's <a href="https://www.criterion.com/films/28441-weekend" target="_blank">"Weekend"</a>, from 1967. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="394" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GjwsxoyGmsA" width="475" youtube-src-id="GjwsxoyGmsA"></iframe></div><p>That long traffic jam tracking shot in particular stuck with me. WTF was that? Whatever it was, I had never seen anything like it on a big screen. And then, a couple of years later came the class where we watched <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/" target="_blank">"Breathless" aka "A Bout de Souffle"</a>, Effortlessly beautiful Jean Seberg. Suave Euro bad boy Jean Paul Belmondo. The streets of Paris in 1960. What could be cooler.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="387" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ib1OMh5fTkQ" width="466" youtube-src-id="ib1OMh5fTkQ"></iframe></div><p>Actually, I have an answer: The imperfection of a roving handheld camera, the abruptness of jump cuts that at first seem like mistakes. There's that non-linear thing again. All these visual shards forcing our brains to fill in the spaces between, as is the case with so many cubist works.</p><p>Or as 4 decades ago me put it, in prose that was clunkier that it should have been:</p><p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKe1JJK_dlo_MlzK6PqFH2ZzAra_m3WvDKMuL02pzwkASqaqa6TUXqzwd2xuKpbs2Jc6n7HHNeRI7z91v5xXqud05VZn61h_2YcpoUSrPH8alJVa9UZVWrBC6q3MGQ_CAhBaAKLOjAxF7r4Sszolzo4DP2OT9_T34ZOZbNjID4SH7TZ9uXmAIs_kZcA/s640/0-6.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="684" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWKe1JJK_dlo_MlzK6PqFH2ZzAra_m3WvDKMuL02pzwkASqaqa6TUXqzwd2xuKpbs2Jc6n7HHNeRI7z91v5xXqud05VZn61h_2YcpoUSrPH8alJVa9UZVWrBC6q3MGQ_CAhBaAKLOjAxF7r4Sszolzo4DP2OT9_T34ZOZbNjID4SH7TZ9uXmAIs_kZcA/w512-h684/0-6.jpeg" width="512" /></a></p><p>But why rely only on words written on an <a href="https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/selectric/" target="_blank">IBM Selectric typewriter </a>when you can use other state of the art technology of the time -- a photocopier and a glue stick -- to augment your point about the connection between cubist works of art and Godard's "Breathless".</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlD3rq_a7nE8q-rtqFXMAmQmBpkQecmSTNsR3g6zL9wSkBQ-K2PG9Tvh8qouDSEiM7mvFwFnp_CIxm9TKS42_qwIy-h_0CtW_Q9WMm5pHln4cL8nAANo8cVvVqrwZRnUeeC9PUQQFRHBhzetRS-zXcegJNRYNtl8OnGlcB-wmxFpJHo9cuOOiyaucthg/s640/0-3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlD3rq_a7nE8q-rtqFXMAmQmBpkQecmSTNsR3g6zL9wSkBQ-K2PG9Tvh8qouDSEiM7mvFwFnp_CIxm9TKS42_qwIy-h_0CtW_Q9WMm5pHln4cL8nAANo8cVvVqrwZRnUeeC9PUQQFRHBhzetRS-zXcegJNRYNtl8OnGlcB-wmxFpJHo9cuOOiyaucthg/w183-h242/0-3.jpeg" width="183" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ziktZ3EUM5ftHvi4ViQfY1eExkn_HyDqyzNUDXTl_N0Cjdrri766e3n3AP05ZEXQE_DLH6taS7I_gPSZ4RBCsZrojnPa_sv9luogknmwahnGlabaNH_vHMN4y0DkyO6Xsy68neggqUkUDt5NRbTs0I5SoMz4drGxv9n0A9lm8fldw-4irFkWnFOzpQ/s640/0-2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6ziktZ3EUM5ftHvi4ViQfY1eExkn_HyDqyzNUDXTl_N0Cjdrri766e3n3AP05ZEXQE_DLH6taS7I_gPSZ4RBCsZrojnPa_sv9luogknmwahnGlabaNH_vHMN4y0DkyO6Xsy68neggqUkUDt5NRbTs0I5SoMz4drGxv9n0A9lm8fldw-4irFkWnFOzpQ/w180-h240/0-2.jpeg" width="180" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOotxPcmklW0kt0ccU_6pev6ffXwfnC8WRpmDH2C7npk9yVa5EWMPgj76N6uX1M22SnoqasugH2YpSDsMI78goJMLICEy0ZkflvMbPm0klWXwDbgnHvRfNW_jWX-LKEu5wqShzQnFk2moPaTS3BZ4R3pgyQ8iME6e9DU0BwWO65WGdToOE5vzVqACyTw/s640/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOotxPcmklW0kt0ccU_6pev6ffXwfnC8WRpmDH2C7npk9yVa5EWMPgj76N6uX1M22SnoqasugH2YpSDsMI78goJMLICEy0ZkflvMbPm0klWXwDbgnHvRfNW_jWX-LKEu5wqShzQnFk2moPaTS3BZ4R3pgyQ8iME6e9DU0BwWO65WGdToOE5vzVqACyTw/w181-h241/0.jpeg" width="181" /></a></p><p>The passing of the decades has definitely led to a certain amount of cringe as I revisited this paper from decades ago. On top of noticing the more tactile experience of reading typewriter keystrokes on paper, and my little arts and crafts project on the back pages that preceded the bibliography, what struck me is how much better this paper would have been without the superfluous adjectives.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBo1y6cyDdvDTXKRaNZpvLfkojEsN6NHWu7gNGT2YOmN2xcVXtWNyNVDGnqlFm1wDumg8XorhCpddw_TW6gRYnwDOG7L-Bh8NaKtimYzJa3lZkond_rnytMHG_itzJ10T-o2bD23aJc8a7MhcD6m_eQDAHR9Uz3UBvltPmg-IbpIUXibbX44x2PNQGQ/s640/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="597" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihBo1y6cyDdvDTXKRaNZpvLfkojEsN6NHWu7gNGT2YOmN2xcVXtWNyNVDGnqlFm1wDumg8XorhCpddw_TW6gRYnwDOG7L-Bh8NaKtimYzJa3lZkond_rnytMHG_itzJ10T-o2bD23aJc8a7MhcD6m_eQDAHR9Uz3UBvltPmg-IbpIUXibbX44x2PNQGQ/w448-h597/0.jpeg" width="448" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Maybe even using 'superfluous' above is itself superfluous. But I can let that one go. The bigger insight for me in revisiting this stuff has been realizing the lasting effects of being exposed to a suite of so many cool and radical ideas at such an impressionable age. </div></div><br /><p></p>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-8672253995788835162022-09-13T17:08:00.003-04:002022-09-13T21:17:27.206-04:00My Britpop Boomerang (or how a Radiohead interview I did in 1996 came back to me as a Facebook recommendation 26 years later)<p>During a brief bout of sleeplessness last night I opened my phone and went into Facebook. Not the best antidote to temporary insomnia, I know I know. Nevertheless...swipe, swipe, swipe I did. </p><p>Hmmm, nothing much of interest here. </p><p>Then <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/radiohead-thom-yorke-cover-oasis-wonderwall/" target="_blank">*this* story</a> pops up, from a source I don't even follow. Meaning it came to me through the recommendation algorithm. Okay, it's from Far Out Magazine and it's about Britpop, a genre I was very partial to in the 1990s. I get why it was pushed. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqlQzpIUy3aizR-JzHYiBy0UoafnKWZrrRyg1H9mFylP1zH6yNnKDknm7F7tvcix9s2O2QZAt-3EztTnj9pP_bvq0Ij_vmy-iOZD7kd75YJXcLLntfM3-gDEcu-V4NyzW2e3HKGy0ydK87clXDZu6rkf7K24XZ28IVnihlk6girBQk4TZt7cbMeKEWg/s1188/Far%20Out%20in%20FB%20feed.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="1188" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqlQzpIUy3aizR-JzHYiBy0UoafnKWZrrRyg1H9mFylP1zH6yNnKDknm7F7tvcix9s2O2QZAt-3EztTnj9pP_bvq0Ij_vmy-iOZD7kd75YJXcLLntfM3-gDEcu-V4NyzW2e3HKGy0ydK87clXDZu6rkf7K24XZ28IVnihlk6girBQk4TZt7cbMeKEWg/w400-h356/Far%20Out%20in%20FB%20feed.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Then I look at the pull quote - "It's always good to make fun of Oasis" - and I thought to myself "that sounds awfully familiar." So I click and dig into the article. It's all about a Gallagher brother, Noel in this case, slamming Radiohead. If you weren't particularly interested in music in the mid 1990s or maybe you weren't even born yet, you need to know that the Gallagher brothers of Oasis were endless sources of caustic quips about other musicians. Always salty, always amusing. </p><p>See exhibit A below, from the Far Out article, for an example of the kind of thing I'm referring to.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwyCyUJZ2uBdnYJCNa4IQLmhfQ5MnmNnMktR71hMRT0Kgj8VJvBd7gd2GDUDKrIGvcS925qk0b8duMj5pNxLBpBkbFCHxKaRHc9LeKwDNYl9tXY_niaV_5ReV1s58SyWeCfNamEM2DxNL8e8MF3aEkxsjQ52lrp3jY6VPtS3Xl9_O4RFigEG2m9KufQ/s1602/gallagher.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="1602" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbwyCyUJZ2uBdnYJCNa4IQLmhfQ5MnmNnMktR71hMRT0Kgj8VJvBd7gd2GDUDKrIGvcS925qk0b8duMj5pNxLBpBkbFCHxKaRHc9LeKwDNYl9tXY_niaV_5ReV1s58SyWeCfNamEM2DxNL8e8MF3aEkxsjQ52lrp3jY6VPtS3Xl9_O4RFigEG2m9KufQ/w640-h160/gallagher.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>The back and forth battled behind Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and the Oasis guys seems to have spanned decades. Who knew that in 2015 Noel Gallagher was still dumping on Radiohead in the press, but apparently he was. Anyway, then we get to the part of the article that talks about an event that occurred in early 1996. </p><p>And this is where things start to get very self-referential, and why the "It's always good to make fun of Oasis" line jumped out at me. </p><p>It's because the event referenced below, in what we'll call Exhibit B, happened during a recording for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealTime_(radio_show)" target="_blank">a radio show I hosted </a>at CBC in the mid 1990s. And now it's coming back to me as a recommendation in my Facebook feed in September 2022? Now we know how long it takes for the cycle to complete itself. Though why this appeared on the radar of the UK's Far Out at this point in time remains a mystery to me.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4MiPuukQrLjaUbg7nkIiRVqtwxYkM7hlCXktW8v2JwpDte6VuAptYQarcF4NTmq7gR1vIgfRFaBCfl9gcTchUC-G6QP_aMEtJQJjiLdQRVeCvyFw_J611LNk9zfUXMLyncsGSaIA4Jb7Qwgjorwpm-MvljsPZY7egs2PBUb_jGWEfJTS9rLGmZuKpw/s1588/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-13%20at%204.21.02%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1588" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4MiPuukQrLjaUbg7nkIiRVqtwxYkM7hlCXktW8v2JwpDte6VuAptYQarcF4NTmq7gR1vIgfRFaBCfl9gcTchUC-G6QP_aMEtJQJjiLdQRVeCvyFw_J611LNk9zfUXMLyncsGSaIA4Jb7Qwgjorwpm-MvljsPZY7egs2PBUb_jGWEfJTS9rLGmZuKpw/w640-h282/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-13%20at%204.21.02%20PM.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>And here's the Oasis-piss-taking-by-the-Radiohead-guy, assisted acoustically by 2 members of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Posies" target="_blank">The Posies</a>. (Note: That's 1996 me saying "Yeah" at 1:10). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="292" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jLS-lAzTl2w" width="351" youtube-src-id="jLS-lAzTl2w"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So how did this strange little bit of messing around in a CBC studio in Vancouver in the mid 1990s end up as a story in an online UK publication in 2022, and then pushed to me on Facebook?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It would have all started with somebody, back in 1996, recording the radio show, onto cassette, and then dubbing copies for friends. I remember doing so much of that kind of thing myself I even had a dedicated <a href="https://www.duplication.ca/Yamaha-Dual-Cassette-Deck.html" target="_blank">dubbing cassette deck</a>. This era coincided with the rise of the commercial consumer internet, where people organized themselves into interest groups, using<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system" target="_blank"> BBSs</a> (online bulletin boards), <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/3210/usenet" target="_blank">Usenet</a>, and sites like <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/692445/remembering-geocities-the-1990s-precursor-to-social-media/" target="_blank">Geocities</a>. The cassette distribution would have gone from known person to known person to a not personally known individual as recipient. And then from that person to people s/he knew and also potentially other online pals. Yes, kids, this was the world before the viral videos of YouTube and TikTok.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Once we hit the end of the 1990s, we got into the file-sharing world of Napster and later the likes of Kazaa, Limewire, and several other peer-to-peer music sites where MP3s were uploaded and downloaded, and copyright enforcement became too big to take on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From the same session in which the Oasis Wonderwall bit appeared, the following full song was also recorded. And in between the mid 1990s and the early 2000s Radiohead became one of the biggest bands in the world and the internet as a mainstream technology for global connection had taken hold.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thus we get the full song featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies making the rounds first through cassette sharing and trading, then on file-sharing sites, and finally onto YouTube, as confirmed in the comments section.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUMZFXtKYfdzIEwOQgBJyp0R6HpwtDSsh0R2cxPgCtXbGlGeVW8lbV1AYAoF3xMJJfhhY_GX0NYZhacS1vt_u9DkQXKqdJjPA-IZgMwjp7NIV09TaH6mv4ooqzSU8A0f1BUtpV2St7NqlEyP74kMpkyC9ilBapGrvDJHNGGeUfzMBZ9JAA2WbQgvSaLQ/s990/had%20since%201999.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="990" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUMZFXtKYfdzIEwOQgBJyp0R6HpwtDSsh0R2cxPgCtXbGlGeVW8lbV1AYAoF3xMJJfhhY_GX0NYZhacS1vt_u9DkQXKqdJjPA-IZgMwjp7NIV09TaH6mv4ooqzSU8A0f1BUtpV2St7NqlEyP74kMpkyC9ilBapGrvDJHNGGeUfzMBZ9JAA2WbQgvSaLQ/w320-h80/had%20since%201999.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeJ7r-iMlPMXKv1WxIEvcWiHNhKOTOR5xEYKiY_pO03sCM4eLPMbggrU4BlvS_b6JWpki68z6L8hOdIfezOPnxypcVBlrJhMgDgflUthnA-a_WohWihTDs9oBTIzY0r4km5HaB2whezGglnE4B4XAkR40Jl_H4S3ZLuM6xbIBaaTfwmgTuns8_wSXdbw/s806/saved%20from%20napster.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="806" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeJ7r-iMlPMXKv1WxIEvcWiHNhKOTOR5xEYKiY_pO03sCM4eLPMbggrU4BlvS_b6JWpki68z6L8hOdIfezOPnxypcVBlrJhMgDgflUthnA-a_WohWihTDs9oBTIzY0r4km5HaB2whezGglnE4B4XAkR40Jl_H4S3ZLuM6xbIBaaTfwmgTuns8_wSXdbw/s320/saved%20from%20napster.png" width="320" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vBW6QXanDsM" width="343" youtube-src-id="vBW6QXanDsM"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>And because there are few mysteries unsolved on the internet, 11 years ago someone who came across the YouTube video had the provenance information for the recording, even though at that time about 20 years had elapsed between the recording and its posting on YouTube.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcws86OxzOR3rvW6ujTXqrUrFWtBaL_gbIk3tdwykHurFMfQ9a2wxOoPfVpUiFqCpsXAwC6mW5umtLka0HS3f8gL0dxk7q-55RimC6W4Dc3ZdC-TqTCN7M_Hl_Aadyefcit_0lqAfC6_BWlaNUFA7wp0PuoMW_JuTmVyYCU7NBVHTLJikRbqkqc1xh9g/s1522/LK%20at%20end.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1522" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcws86OxzOR3rvW6ujTXqrUrFWtBaL_gbIk3tdwykHurFMfQ9a2wxOoPfVpUiFqCpsXAwC6mW5umtLka0HS3f8gL0dxk7q-55RimC6W4Dc3ZdC-TqTCN7M_Hl_Aadyefcit_0lqAfC6_BWlaNUFA7wp0PuoMW_JuTmVyYCU7NBVHTLJikRbqkqc1xh9g/w640-h448/LK%20at%20end.png" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And there's little old me, chiming in on the comment stream. If you make it to the end of the YouTube video above you'll hear 1996 me in some kind of Nostradamus mode, predicting the likelihood of a bootleg of the recording showing up one day.</div><div><br /></div><div>It sure is nice to be right once in a while.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-87110681752933126392021-11-04T15:07:00.013-04:002021-11-06T16:16:52.881-04:00The Internet as Economic Force - What does that even mean?<p>The internet in 2021: Unstoppable economic force or the root cause of most/all evil?</p><p>Answer: Yes.</p><p>To both. </p><p>Because, not unlike your relationship status on Facebook back in the day 'it's complicated'.</p><p>And it's been on a mind a lot lately, and when I say lately, I mean the past year, as my task was to work on a project that estimated the value of the internet to the US economy. Daunting, yes, but this was my fourth time on the gig, so I knew what I was getting myself into. Even so, these projects always come with new brain-bending challenges, as these miscellaneous notes of mine suggest.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQD_hlF1cSuQY1lIkiHuHZHPsJWLkLxCXdUPNdcmH-ekiPj8fBH33nv46ZtpLsgIZtCQjD_JQOGGK15TEPk8ORrWJ-KCqzhvGssjzgCa5gyHxwbHtx4MeNregn4oIVUwG_x1d9DhrWMxWF/s1200/241188409_10159202526810985_5339781666833431270_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQD_hlF1cSuQY1lIkiHuHZHPsJWLkLxCXdUPNdcmH-ekiPj8fBH33nv46ZtpLsgIZtCQjD_JQOGGK15TEPk8ORrWJ-KCqzhvGssjzgCa5gyHxwbHtx4MeNregn4oIVUwG_x1d9DhrWMxWF/w320-h400/241188409_10159202526810985_5339781666833431270_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></p><p></p>So...what is the value of the internet to the US economy? First, the TL;DR answer: 12% of GDP, or $2.45 trillion. The 162-page version of the answer can be accessed<span style="text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://www.iab.com/insights/the-economic-impact-of-the-market-making-internet/" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">here</a>, along with breakdowns of employment by US congressional district. Yes, this project goes hard.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption"><br /><span style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1L5McMcixU4ItDl0UbxrDOOg3NIR_Ob_wFwI9aZYSOdmqaIthGLYJ21Mvq3jnVbgBGWWKApcsCWlC6sbNSuLcLIkURSQJvQCQ6N8GmjuX2wMD8G-DwMVsiGN011_lbyNygHAtQFBn7SUy/s1714/2020+map.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1714" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1L5McMcixU4ItDl0UbxrDOOg3NIR_Ob_wFwI9aZYSOdmqaIthGLYJ21Mvq3jnVbgBGWWKApcsCWlC6sbNSuLcLIkURSQJvQCQ6N8GmjuX2wMD8G-DwMVsiGN011_lbyNygHAtQFBn7SUy/w534-h388/2020+map.png" width="534" /></a></div></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>And what's the big picture here? For starters, you're better off looking for a tech job in Seattle or Boston than, say, Montana or North Dakota. That's not too big of a surprise. But what is interesting is that the internet economy now accounts for 12% of GDP. That's up from the 2% estimated in the 2008 report, 4% in 2012, and 6% in the 2016 analysis. And when compared to the economy as a whole, the growth rate of the internet economy is 7 times that of the overall economy.<p>So how did we get here?</p><p>The digitization, automation, and networking of previously analog, standalone processes kind of changes everything. Simply put, the internet is getting woven into the fabric of more industries and activities, more and more. </p><p>And then there's the iceberg issue. Which is that the part of the internet you see and know is just the tip of the iceberg. There are of course all those underlying protocols and technologies that you don't have to know about or think about, but without them, no Netflix, no comparing airfares on your iPad.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZi624896uFkV19wXFrhEuIs7J_09DmdHpwWCl5V42AmwCt3uKvbWW6sWzGtDHrvSZfyqqfNV5ArAYHa6Vm2EIl6i2swfSZL4zYv4kDV53Z3dR9n7MWVWRskVn6Jc4eJOIpRcu_8top9KR/s1570/Screen+Shot+2021-11-04+at+5.37.26+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1570" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZi624896uFkV19wXFrhEuIs7J_09DmdHpwWCl5V42AmwCt3uKvbWW6sWzGtDHrvSZfyqqfNV5ArAYHa6Vm2EIl6i2swfSZL4zYv4kDV53Z3dR9n7MWVWRskVn6Jc4eJOIpRcu_8top9KR/w400-h279/Screen+Shot+2021-11-04+at+5.37.26+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p>Part of the rapid rate of growth is technological capabilities, part of this is consumer expectation, part of this is the availability of capital for startups. When companies like Dropbox or Slack or Square start to take hold, they really start to take hold. And exponential growth is where venture capital dollars want to be. Yes, they 'lose' 9 times out of 10, but when they get the win it more than erases than the losses of the other 9.</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">It started with 'shared' music files in the late 90s (and I fully realize that sharing is a euphemism for pirated which b</span>ecame a euphemism for distribution and then became a euphemism for promotion and eventually found its way to the all-you-can-eat streaming of Spotify and SoundCloud and YouTube et al). As the tech ecosystem has evolved some are 'free', thanks to ads, some are free thanks to business models like freemium, some offer an uninterrupted, ad-free experience in exchange for a monthly subscription, and some are both.</p><p>Market evolution = more choices, more tiers of services, and new business models, many of which we don't even think about. I mean, how often do you think about how the people on the other end, wherever that is, are getting paid for all the stuff you do online without paying with out of pocket dollars. Probably not that much. </p><p>As your elders told you, there's no free lunch. The truth of the matter is if you're not paying with dollars then you're paying with data. Or, you're <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/free_rider_problem.asp" target="_blank">free riding,</a> to use another term from the dictionary of economics. Except on the internet free riding has been turned into a<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/freemium.asp" target="_blank"> new kind of business model.</a> Best example: Those up to 40 minute Zooms you're not paying anything for? It's the people who pay for the premium features that are making those possible.</p><p>When considering the runaway growth of the internet economy it's also worth thinking about all the things we do online now without even thinking about them. They're just there. As if they've always been there. Dating by swipe, banking by phone, language learning by app, ride ordering by Uber and Lyft, pushing a few virtual buttons and then magically receiving groceries, furniture, cat food, and clothes. Earlier this year crypto became<a href="https://qz.com/1954555/all-the-worlds-crypto-is-now-worth-more-than-1-trillion/" target="_blank"> the world's 5th most circulated currency</a>. The internet is increasingly everywhere. Heck it's even <a href="https://www.vendingtimes.com/articles/how-why-ai-is-driving-innovative-vending-operations/" target="_blank">in vending machines</a>.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRuoqqYwIKPd87SoAgMcvp6iaISNrXWtGMkqr3MmD04J20yzaGBwYG5rkxNIyuV_GKcBnYQslVR7SDTIeDRZqOcHAfEWSJX_aXBAf-Od-smKuMq_m936N01fiYUaQMeW074fMzRwZcmrj/s1376/Screen+Shot+2021-11-04+at+2.49.13+PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="1336" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLRuoqqYwIKPd87SoAgMcvp6iaISNrXWtGMkqr3MmD04J20yzaGBwYG5rkxNIyuV_GKcBnYQslVR7SDTIeDRZqOcHAfEWSJX_aXBAf-Od-smKuMq_m936N01fiYUaQMeW074fMzRwZcmrj/w388-h400/Screen+Shot+2021-11-04+at+2.49.13+PM.png" width="388" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><p><br /></p><p>The full report can be accessed <a href="https://www.iab.com/insights/the-economic-impact-of-the-market-making-internet/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-5975350346203196312021-05-09T18:45:00.012-04:002021-11-04T15:34:34.968-04:00Going back to the internet of the 90s to think about the internet of the futureIt's home to permissionless publishing, constant connectivity, and peer to peer networks. <div><br /></div><div>On the internet don't need a 'them' to green light whatever it is we may want to do online. Plus we get to click on the things we want to read or watch, and ignore those things we don't want to know about. <div><br /></div><div>Well, most of the time, anyway.<br /><br />At this point I think it's safe to say that we've all been on the internet long enough to know that such openness and on-demand everything can yield less than optimal outcomes. Whether it's the bad actors that manufacture disinformation or the ones responsible for ad fraud, bots, or a litany of other undesirable things, the internet exists in the contradiction that the greatest treasure trove of information ever amassed can also have a sewage pipe attached to it. That's the flip side of the ubiquitous connectivity and networks. It seems self-evident that we're infinitely better off with the internet than without it, but we're also at a point in its evolution (about 25 years in to the consumer internet phase of things) that decisions being made now, and companies being built now, will determine where this crazy experiment in global connectedness goes.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>So what can we do about it now? Sometimes looking back can provide a valuable lens as we look forward, as was the case at a recent <a href="https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/hindsight-2020" target="_blank">event</a> that brought together some pioneers of the internet with <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/baym/ " target="_blank">an academic </a>who has been studying online communities since they began to emerge in the 1990s.</div><div><br /></div><div>The pioneers sharing their perspectives were <a href="http://www.bohnettfoundation.org/david-bohnett-bio/" target="_blank">David Bohnett</a>, founder of Geocities and<a href="https://caterina.net/about-2/" target="_blank"> Caterina Fake</a>, co-founder of Flickr. As a quick refresher, Geocities hosted tens of millions of websites at its peak in the late 90s. Some say it was a<a href=" https://www.howtogeek.com/692445/remembering-geocities-the-1990s-precursor-to-social-media/" target="_blank"> precursor to social media</a>, with web software that let anyone create and publish a website. And it's easy to forget what a big deal that was at the time. But it really was. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/special-report-what-is-low-code-no-code-a-guide-to-development-platforms/" target="_blank">You didn't need to know how to code,</a> you didn't have to pay extra for domain names or hosting. It was <a href="http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Geocities " target="_blank">all taken care of by Geocities</a>. As noted in a Wall Street Journal article in 2007 on Geocities: “Back then, entries were known as home pages, not profiles. But the basic, expressive elements of today’s Facebook and competitor MySpace…were all right there.” So what happened to Geocities? Well, it was <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/yahoo-completes-geocities-acquisition/ " target="_blank">purchased </a>for $3.5 billion by Yahoo in 1999. And <a href=" https://mashable.com/2009/04/23/geocities-shutdown/ " target="_blank">shut down</a> a neat and tidy 10 years later. Its founder David Bohnett started <a href="https://www.barodaventures.com" target="_blank">his own venture capital firm,</a> investing in other startups, and now runs a <a href="http://www.bohnettfoundation.org " target="_blank">foundation focused on improving society through social activism.</a></div><div><br /></div><div>A few years after Yahoo's acquisition of Geocities, <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-Flickr" target="_blank">along came Flickr.</a> It launched in 2004 and was one of the first, if not *the* first online photo-sharing sites. You had pictures that you wanted to post online and tag? Flickr was the place to do that. Basic features were offered for free, and you could pay extra for a premium account with added bells and whistles. After a year of explosive growth Flickr was also <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/23/flickrs-acquisition-9-years-later/" target="_blank">acquired by Yahoo</a>, though at about $25 million it fetched nowhere near the price of Geocities. </div><div><br /></div><div>As Caterina Fake's co-founder Stewart Butterfield <a href=" https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/23/flickrs-acquisition-9-years-later/" target="_blank">put it</a>: "Flickr missed some of the uptick in the market, as others sold for more when the market took off: Myspace sold to News Corp. for $580 million in July 2005 and later YouTube, which Google acquired in October 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock. We definitely made the wrong decision in retrospect. We would’ve made 10 times [what we did]. But it’s not like I regret it." Fret not, however. Things turned out fine for Butterfield. More than just fine. After a series of entrepreneurial ventures he created Slack, which got <a href="https://investor.salesforce.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2020/Salesforce-Signs-Definitive-Agreement-to-Acquire-Slack/default.aspx" target="_blank">acquired </a>by Salesforce for $27 billion in December 2020. Things<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/19/caterina-fake-is-known-for-her-trend-spotting-heres-some-of-what-shes-chasing-now/" target="_blank"> turned out well</a> for Caterina Fake too. She did another startup after Flickr, and it got acquired by eBay. She became an investor herself, taking bets on Uber, Etsy, and Kickstarter, among others. Today she is a partner in an early stage investing firm called <a href="https://yes.vc" target="_blank">Yes VC</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>And with that, let's go to the event, with David Bohnett, founder of Geocities, Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=nancy+baym&ref=nb_sb_noss_2" target="_blank">author </a>and academic <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/baym/" target="_blank">Nancy Baym</a>, and moderator Jad Esber, co-founder of the startup <a href="https://join.koodos.com" target="_blank">Koodos</a>* for a discussion of such questions as:</div><div><br /></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How can what we've learned from the social internet's past help us create a better shared digital future?</li><li>If each new social platform is as a new type of 'society,' how have these assumptions shifted over the years?</li><li>And, of course, what might be coming next...</li></ul><div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="378" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4qQGX2z3J10" width="455" youtube-src-id="4qQGX2z3J10"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">PS And you can see the full transcript from the event<a href="https://cyber.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/2021-03/Hindsight%20is%202020_transcript.pdf" target="_blank"> here</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Disclosure: I'm an advisor to Koodos. And may I say it's been a fascinating ride.</span></div></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-2453050450987855012021-01-07T19:17:00.012-05:002021-01-08T11:04:18.696-05:008 Takeaways from 8 Episodes of the Now & Next PodcastIt’s been a year in which coming up with creative solutions to pressing problems has taken on a whole new meaning for the screen-based industries. And Season 3 of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">Now & Next</a>, the podcast that I host, has made it a priority to explore the range of ways in which people in film, TV, games, and digital content creation have been keeping things up and running during the long haul that is Covid-19. <div><br />Not surprisingly, we found a number of common threads emerging over the course of the 8 episodes of this season: <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A new community-minded focus taking precedence for everyone from entrepreneurs to industry associations</li><li>An awareness of the ongoing challenges of implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives that go beyond ‘ticks in boxes’</li><li>A deeper understanding of the new demands on digital creatives working from home and for actors and crews working on set during Covid-19</li></ul><div><br /></div>As a handy guide to Season 3, here are 8 takeaways from its 8 episodes. You can click the episode number/title below to go straight to that podcast audio file, or click <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">here</a> to subscribe to the series on Apple Podcasts. And here we go...<div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19" target="_blank">Episode 1: Practicing “Safe Sets” in the COVID-19 era</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8YGxBhFoMZa5P-CARlfdcCpNQeipFk8wuYiWUmnEsfq9VcO5Q4BZuzFJvtTPE0T7eqeq6NUTwzfyrm4C8Gj0Raybg_DReD8Z7xAxS7QXCn3umf3ztGxsMcPcj80Ipgphad13H5JGy-Wf/s324/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.27.37+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="324" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA8YGxBhFoMZa5P-CARlfdcCpNQeipFk8wuYiWUmnEsfq9VcO5Q4BZuzFJvtTPE0T7eqeq6NUTwzfyrm4C8Gj0Raybg_DReD8Z7xAxS7QXCn3umf3ztGxsMcPcj80Ipgphad13H5JGy-Wf/w139-h137/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.27.37+PM.png" width="139" /></a><b>Takeaway: </b>In a time of crisis helping the industry helps everyone</div><div><br /></div><div>On this episode we meet a young serial entrepreneur named Alex Kolodkin who, when Covid-19 led to a shutdown of movie and TV sets across Canada, started a new company to help equip the industry with up to date and accurate health and safety information that was vetted by a team of medical professionals and that also provided certification for TV & film professionals. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sounds pretty straightforward, right? But there’s a twist. He isn’t charging anything for the services offered by this latest venture, called Safe Sets International. Why is that you ask? Alex explains it this way:<br /><br />“I felt useless sitting at home while Covid ravaged the industry. There were times where I was just twiddling my thumbs and thinking, I wish I could do something, and the only thing I can do is sit at home…[but] when I see that there’s a challenge, my instinct as an entrepreneur is: how can I help? That’s where Safe Sets came from. My way of helping is just to get education out there for everybody, and I think it’s the simplest thing I could have done.” <div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve" target="_blank">Episode 2: Making on-screen racial diversity easier to achieve</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpn0W5scLW8DM-ompxgRsyaaCCWmTMSPmSdMZS1yeEAOhasiwsmKzJKrcep4B0u31sO3OYlUn6tNqyvSHpRq4vfPyCLA2dVVVB_B5V7Gfv4LJlG9FHeD0_JC_sWUaxEzHttIR81tWEFMpV/s324/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.29.53+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="324" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpn0W5scLW8DM-ompxgRsyaaCCWmTMSPmSdMZS1yeEAOhasiwsmKzJKrcep4B0u31sO3OYlUn6tNqyvSHpRq4vfPyCLA2dVVVB_B5V7Gfv4LJlG9FHeD0_JC_sWUaxEzHttIR81tWEFMpV/w141-h140/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.29.53+PM.png" width="141" /></a></div><b>Takeaway: </b>Achieving meaningful diversity & inclusion continues to be a challenge in TV & film<div><b><br /></b>“I’ve been hearing about creating diversity and inclusion since the late ’70s. I’ve sat at more roundtable discussions about increased diversity and inclusion than most people have. And the needle is moving very slowly.” Those are the words of award-winning actor and founder and Executive Director of the ReelWorld Film Festival Tonya Williams.<br /><br />Tonya joined us on the podcast to talk about both the achievements made and challenges faced over her 20 years with the festival whose focus is to support and showcase the work of Canada’s racially diverse filmmaking and production community. Most recently Tonya launched Access ReelWorld, the most complete database of Black, Indigenous, Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American talent in the Canadian entertainment industry.<div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential" target="_blank">Episode 3: Virtual production moves closer to mainstream</a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZc1tTBsMQoC6CVg6u2msV7UWzLJHvLEX1MOq4ctjZ4Gu-lN-R3Doa9sB48mN8t8AfDr-yQqvwQNITWPrgkbSo1Jqi46gBS-1OptA72NQOBfPVks8kI4Kb-Vmxg4nprjDeg-oD89oajgxt/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.31.59+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="316" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZc1tTBsMQoC6CVg6u2msV7UWzLJHvLEX1MOq4ctjZ4Gu-lN-R3Doa9sB48mN8t8AfDr-yQqvwQNITWPrgkbSo1Jqi46gBS-1OptA72NQOBfPVks8kI4Kb-Vmxg4nprjDeg-oD89oajgxt/w132-h134/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.31.59+PM.png" width="132" /></a></div><div><b>Takeaway:</b> Boundary-pushing technology doesn’t have to mean big budgets</div><div><br /></div><div>What if, instead of bringing all the elements of a live action set together in one place – the actors, crews, props, and locations – filmmakers could build out the production digitally, one layer at a time? That’s the promise of virtual production, the approach to filmmaking we’re exploring in this episode with the Alberta-based production team of Andrew Scholotiuk and Dylan Pearce. <br /><br />In recent years this style of production has moved from the exclusive domain of mega budget, major studio movies to the more modest budgets of indie and DIY filmmakers. This is because truly cinematic visual effects can now be rendered in real time using iPhones and video game engines like Unity and the Unreal Engine. As Dylan Pearce explains in this episode: <br /><br />“If you have an iPhone or a camera that utilizes face capture technology, you can start to play with creating your own face capture and digital avatar. You can open up Unreal and use your phone, and then you can start to digitally move around a character’s face in real time. There’s also an app that utilizes your phone to fully mo-cap somebody. Now, this might not be Hollywood level grade, but it’s a wonderful foundation to learn the platform and to get familiar with it so that when you do have a production, you understand it and you can put your money in the right places for it. I think that’s the first step.” <div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19" target="_blank">Episode 4: Staying eco-conscious on set during Covid-19</a></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkjznc0yHKbLthvBkgl-XPFD966T20nh-WUj1-guYqS24eyAm0UccD3enKMeJychzbpm-_t3cCgbWlwaJaecRfQgNEK7pnXwFTMTRqKJ9SOitTA3miQ37BuzfPb2OpxqiCLO3yXrL__6H/s318/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.36.19+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="318" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHkjznc0yHKbLthvBkgl-XPFD966T20nh-WUj1-guYqS24eyAm0UccD3enKMeJychzbpm-_t3cCgbWlwaJaecRfQgNEK7pnXwFTMTRqKJ9SOitTA3miQ37BuzfPb2OpxqiCLO3yXrL__6H/w138-h138/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.36.19+PM.png" width="138" /></a></div><div><b>Takeaway:</b> Production can be green even during Covid-19</div><div><br /><div><div>On this episode we meet Clara George, a pioneer in the greening of film and TV sets. Clara has spent close to three decades working as a producer in film and TV and during this time became increasingly aware of how little things could make a big difference when it came to reducing the environmental impact of production.<br /><br />Today, being in charge of sustainability initiatives is Clara’s full-time job, and she’s been able to do everything from keeping eco-consciousness on set top of mind, even during Covid-19, to reducing her productions’ overall carbon footprint by shifting from fossil fuels to the clean grid of hydroelectric power. Clara’s current plan is to take these sustainability initiatives put into place on her productions in Vancouver and create a template for the whole industry. </div><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges" target="_blank">Episode 5: How the game industry is staying relevant during Covid-19</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb9Kd1fHijsA_6qnRXrOvIBLNIu0WxLFh1MG6Z0mXcIlqioUnb6BjXlm4SF_zpJeswE4y96xkD3Xp4trhTDs9CTQBeKgjH4bfzlEVoeD1ECIDUYG1GWaH6DaRXImyk9cmbM0SKhCE-3rja/s320/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.38.11+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="316" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb9Kd1fHijsA_6qnRXrOvIBLNIu0WxLFh1MG6Z0mXcIlqioUnb6BjXlm4SF_zpJeswE4y96xkD3Xp4trhTDs9CTQBeKgjH4bfzlEVoeD1ECIDUYG1GWaH6DaRXImyk9cmbM0SKhCE-3rja/w144-h145/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.38.11+PM.png" width="144" /></a></div><div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Takeaway:<span style="font-weight: normal;"> Virtual schmoozing is real, especially in the game industry</span></span></h4><div><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>Almost every industry says it’s a relationship industry, but the game industry is probably more reliant on in-person networking and trade shows than other media and entertainment sectors. Just ask anyone who has attended events like GDC in San Francisco, E3 in Los Angeles, or GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, and you’ll likely get an earful of stories about these epic gatherings of tens of thousands of people and round the clock socializing.<br /><br />And then Covid hit in March, and the game industry was one of the first to go into ‘safe mode’. Developers, designers, and project managers grabbed their headphones and computers and quickly moved to working from home. Covid meant those legendary industry events were no longer possible. But then the Canadian game industry responded, with a virtual version of a large-scale networking event that came about as a collaboration between the provincial interactive media associations across the country. <br /><br />On this episode we’ll hear about how a variety of game studios have been adapting, and how the virtual networking offered by the new Canada Games Online event helped keep the industry’s momentum going by bringing studios together with publishers, investors, and other strategic partners.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie" target="_blank">Episode 6: Making movies social again</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVouUpZMHiAX0YZNNrWeS4JWEAT_XieFlIt7o3yWTDMzlgqu7gmXBhHlhIdCCXJ6h0bGroSaVoHdm5tnbJS-pj4KnCf4IAIVPfk8onhJMNpFVR4oBroXNlh2-QXzkbrkD3IFRhEF4bcRV/s322/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.40.38+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="322" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYVouUpZMHiAX0YZNNrWeS4JWEAT_XieFlIt7o3yWTDMzlgqu7gmXBhHlhIdCCXJ6h0bGroSaVoHdm5tnbJS-pj4KnCf4IAIVPfk8onhJMNpFVR4oBroXNlh2-QXzkbrkD3IFRhEF4bcRV/w153-h149/Screen+Shot+2021-01-07+at+7.40.38+PM.png" width="153" /></a></div></div><div><b>Takeaway:</b> Movies can be social, even when we’re home alone</div><div><br /></div><div>Sometimes it takes a pandemic to take an interesting idea and push it to the next level. That has certainly been the case for Hilary Henegar and Fiona Rayher, the two British Columbia-based entrepreneurs behind Hoovie. The project started as small, in person screenings of ‘conversation sparking’ movies, generally from the film festival circuit. But during Covid, Hoovie has been nudged into its next incarnation, as a technology platform.<br /><br />On this episode you’ll hear about how Hilary and Fiona have orchestrated the shift from a business model based on backyard and living room screenings to virtual events that aim to cultivate community by bringing a social dimension to the viewing experience as well as providing a new way for filmmakers to reach audiences. </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out" target="_blank">Episode 7: Breaking On-Screen Stereotypes from the Inside Out</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN06vUw7qSJc8lYeu3oN2houkrcGwzPWY9XtLy1fftODz8Oify2zWw01kRkdrNzwFMkCVwxfIQn4nGpRM6Ums2w38t9U6sv-r8gGhRFcwIJw2A1iR1idZZQ6puCSBeBAwneNIALyFbPMyj/s320/jacob.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="312" data-original-width="320" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN06vUw7qSJc8lYeu3oN2houkrcGwzPWY9XtLy1fftODz8Oify2zWw01kRkdrNzwFMkCVwxfIQn4nGpRM6Ums2w38t9U6sv-r8gGhRFcwIJw2A1iR1idZZQ6puCSBeBAwneNIALyFbPMyj/w158-h154/jacob.png" width="158" /></a></div></div><div><b>Takeaway: </b>A 20-something from small town Saskatchewan has a few things to teach Disney</div><div><br /></div><div>Jacob Pratt describes himself as “just a res kid”, a reference to having grown up on the George Gordon First Nation reserve, about 100 km north of Regina. These days that ‘kid’ from Saskatchewan finds himself based in Los Angeles, having recently completed a Masters degree at the University of Southern California, and running Skoden Entertainment, an Indigenous story focused entertainment production company. </div><div><br /></div><div>His first client? The multinational media and entertainment conglomerate called Disney.<br /><br />On this episode Jacob explains his journey from the Canadian prairies to the heart of the global entertainment industry, and how he convinced Disney that the best way to break decades of on-screen stereotypes of Indigenous peoples was to work with him and his company. As Jacob puts it: “How can we reverse or eliminate those stereotypes? The number one answer for me was: Use the same medium that created and reinforced those stereotypes to reverse them.” </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home" target="_blank">Episode 8: When going to work means never leaving home</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSU72naJAtz6y3v3-E5eUnkqhD8nb8b5w5aj4MC5qAMQEG_Ak8t6tVSGoO4A-hjcR3y8QsAtgvsa1WJarQ5i5arYY4vNg-VfmRK1wftPvVIajXRuChV9enHpuW_h-MAxzzt4CQH0PH7iFs/s324/isolation.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="324" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSU72naJAtz6y3v3-E5eUnkqhD8nb8b5w5aj4MC5qAMQEG_Ak8t6tVSGoO4A-hjcR3y8QsAtgvsa1WJarQ5i5arYY4vNg-VfmRK1wftPvVIajXRuChV9enHpuW_h-MAxzzt4CQH0PH7iFs/w158-h154/isolation.png" width="158" /></a></div></div><div><b>Takeaway: </b>The shift to work from home mode may not be as simple as it seems</div><div><br /></div><div>We’ve all heard the saying ‘be careful what you wish for’. Well this year it’s taken on a new meaning, as millions of people no longer have to wonder about how great working from home is, or perhaps isn’t. On this episode of the podcast we meet Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan and Jim Munroe, two long time game arts and industry professionals whose current project is conducting research and reporting on what the shift to working from home has been like for people in the game industry. <br /><br />Marie and Jim are currently putting the finishing touches on the report, and its title, “Isolation Nation”, provides a hint at some of the findings. Not surprisingly, many are feeling anxious and alone and are having to learn new skills, such as being their own boss and finding ways to keep their morale up without the usual office socializing and team building events.<br /><br />Marie describes the research project this way: “People are really isolated right now, and I say that’s more the case for people making games, especially small studios. Life is easier when people can solve problems together. So the goal of this project is to gather knowledge from people making games all over Canada, in small studios, in larger studios, or people working alone. And then gather that knowledge together into one resource so that people can share the things that they’re struggling with, and how they’re getting past them.” </div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Note: This post <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/season-3-of-the-now-next-podcast-8-takeaways-from-8-episodes/" target="_blank">originally appeared on CMF Trends</a>.</span><br /> <div><br /></div></div></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-4494528135352729752020-12-16T14:44:00.013-05:002020-12-16T15:06:15.634-05:00A double shot of podcasts for the Season 3 finale<p>Tis the season...for what, I'm not sure this year. But one thing we do know is that for the past 9 months some of our best companions have been podcasts. To bring Season 3 of <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">Now & Next,</a> the podcast I host, to a close, a double shot of episodes have just been dropped for your earbud fulfillment. In one we meet an indigenous actor, producer, and filmmaker who as a kid wondered why there was no one who looked like him in <i>Home Alone</i>. Today Jacob Pratt is based in LA, and his latest project is creating Indigenous themed content for Disney. The other episode picks up on this theme of home alone-ing and offers a preview of a forthcoming research report on how people in the game industry are adapting to working from home. Enjoy.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Now & Next Podcast S3 E8 – Isolation Nation: Insights into #WFH</span></h3><p>Have you ever said to yourself ‘if only I could work from home whenever I wanted’? And then followed up with a list of all the ways in which it would be better than the daily grind of an uncomfortable commute, overpriced coffee, and hours spent pushing paper and clicking keys at your desk, interspersed with hours in meetings and boxes of muffins? Now, for better or worse, most of us know what that’s like. Spoiler alert: it’s not as great as we thought it would be.</p>On this episode of the Now & Next podcast we’re taking a closer look at an industry that was one of the first to go to full work from home mode: the game industry. In some ways it was a fairly straightforward transition, because the majority of developers, designers, producers, and testers were already working independently and on screens for much of the time. But has the transition really been that seamless?<br /><br />The guests on this episode of the podcast are <a href="https://marieflanagan.com/" target="_blank">Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan</a> and <a href="https://jimmunroe.net/" target="_blank">Jim Munroe</a>. They’re long time game art industry professionals who have been tasked with finding out what the shift to working from home has actually been like for game industry personnel. They’re putting the finishing touches on a research report about the sector’s transition from studio-based work to home-based work called “Isolation Nation”. Marie and Jim provide us with a sneak peek into some of their interview-based findings so far, such as the challenges of people having to be their own boss at home, the tendency to work too much, as opposed to working too little, and mechanisms for keeping morale up when the opportunities for the usual team building events are limited due to the Covid-19 restrictions.<br /><br />Marie describes the research project this way: “People are really isolated right now, and I say that’s more the case for people making games, especially small studios. And we think life is easier when people can solve problems together and share knowledge. So the goal of this project is to gather knowledge from people making games all over Canada, in small studios, in larger studios, or people working alone. And then gather that knowledge together into one resource so that people can share the things that they’re struggling with, and how they’re getting past them.”<br /><br />On this episode, learn more about:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How did the gaming industry respond to Covid in terms of getting people set up to work from home? (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=02:37">02:37</a>)</li><li>How team health is affected by working from home (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=09:00">09:00</a>)</li><li>Ways studios are trying to build camaraderie and trust with people that joined during the pandemic (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=11:25">11:25</a>)</li><li>Studios dealing with mental health challenges (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=15:00">15:00</a>)</li><li>The most surprising discoveries Marie Claire and Jim made from doing this research (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=18:35">18:35</a>)</li><li>Getting creative work done while being stuck at home during a pandemic (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home/s-BAqSkVyfFL7#t=22:30">22:30</a>)</li></ul><p><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/947331337&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe></p><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/isolation-nation-when-going-to-work-means-never-leaving-home" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Isolation Nation: When Going to Work Means Never Leaving Home">Isolation Nation: When Going to Work Means Never Leaving Home</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NNE08-GAIN-English-Transcription.docx.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear; white-space: normal;" target="_blank"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">Download a transcript of the episode</span></a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div>Dig Deeper:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Find out about <a href="https://gameartsinternational.network/" target="_blank">The Game Arts International Network</a> (GAIN), the organization behind the forthcoming 'Isolation Nation' report;</li><li>Check out <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/research-reports/gameplanner-events-independant-video-game-producers/" target="_blank">Gameplanner</a>, a resource created by GAIN and intended to help indies plan their exhibition and networking strategies;</li><li>Hear from <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/now-next-podcast-s3e5-how-the-game-industry-is-staying-relevant-during-covid-19/" target="_blank">several leaders in the Canadian gaming industry</a> about the challenges and opportunities that come with working in a socially distanced world</li><li>Read <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/16/21222465/coronavirus-game-developers-work-from-home-bungie-riot" target="_blank">In a Self-Isolated World, Developers Are Learning to Make Games From Home</a> on The Verge</li><li>Read <a href="https://www.shacknews.com/article/118121/work-from-quarantine-how-covid-19-has-upended-game-development" target="_blank">Work From Quarantine: How COVID-19 Has Upended Game Development</a> on ShackNews</li></ul><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Now & Next Podcast S3 E7 – Breaking On-Screen Stereotypes from the Inside Out </span></h3></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div>As a child growing up in southern Saskatchewan Jacob Pratt found himself watching TV – as most kids do – and wondering why he saw no one who looked like him. Jacob grew up on the George Gordon First Nation reserve, about 100 km north of Regina, and remembers that the only images he saw of people from his culture on TV and in movies were stereotypes like people dancing around drums or as members of a tribe from the 1800s riding into town on horseback. <p></p>“Why is there no one that looks like me in <i>Home Alone</i>?”, he thought to himself.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zlu7S8dUUBY" width="320" youtube-src-id="Zlu7S8dUUBY"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>It took several years for Jacob to process, and ultimately answer that question for himself. He built his career in the entertainment industry one step at a time, first as a dancer, then as an actor, and more recently as a producer and director. It was along this journey that Jacob realized that the stereotypical images of Indigenous people he had seen his whole life were not just created by the industry, but reinforced by it. “And then I started thinking to myself, well, how can we reverse or eliminate those stereotypes? And the first answer that came to me was: use the same medium that created and reinforced those stereotypes to reverse them.”<br /><br />On this episode of the Now and Next, Jacob Pratt talks about his journey from a town of a few thousand people on the prairies to the heart of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, where he recently completed his Masters at USC, and launched his own company, <a href="https://www.jacob-pratt.com/" target="_blank">Skoden Entertainment</a>. Skoden is an Indigenous story-focused entertainment production company whose first client happens to be Disney. But this is not the story of an overnight success. Far from it. While still based in Canada, Jacob<a href="https://youtu.be/6ZbA4G2Qp74" target="_blank"> hosted</a>, produced, and directed several shows on APTN. And it was while doing an internship at Disney, as part of his Masters program at USC, that he forged the relationships that would lead to his current work with the entertainment industry giant. <br /><br />On this episode, learn more about:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How using the entertainment industry can be a great way to reverse stereotypes created and reinforced by the media (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out/s-oRPf90qCWp1#t=02:20">02:20</a>)</li><li>The biggest challenges in bringing Indigenous stories created by Indigenous filmmakers to a wide audience (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out/s-oRPf90qCWp1#t=06:30">6:30</a>)</li><li>The story of how of Jacob got the deal with Disney (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out/s-oRPf90qCWp1#t=09:00">09:00</a>)</li><li>Skoden Entertainment’s plans to impact Indigenous communities more directly in the future (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out/s-oRPf90qCWp1#t=10:30">10:30</a>)</li></ul><div><br /></div></div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/947319553&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/breaking-on-screen-stereotypes-from-the-inside-out" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Breaking On Screen Stereotypes from the Inside Out">Breaking On Screen Stereotypes from the Inside Out</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><span face=""Open Sans", arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NN-E07-Jacob-Pratt-English-Transcription.docx.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></span></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div>Dig Deeper:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Learn more about <a href="https://disneynow.com/shows/use-your-voice" target="_blank">Use Your Voice</a>, the project Jacob created for Disney Channel</li><li>Jacob is still very active in Canada where he currently has three shows on APTN: <a href="https://www.aptn.ca/wildarchaeology/" target="_blank">Wild Archaeology</a>, <a href="https://www.aptn.ca/louissays/" target="_blank">Louis Says</a>, and a self-produced show called <a href="https://landswandered.com/about" target="_blank">Land Wandered</a></li><li>Read <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/jacob-pratt-indigenous-disney-1.5786518" target="_blank">Sask. man working on project for Disney wants to redefine how TV and movies portray Indigenous people</a> on CBC</li><li>Read <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/34bdcbb62ba04aa2a63a2bdc1e8accab" target="_blank">Indigenous Representation in Media</a></li></ul></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-5181497697001944512020-12-07T19:59:00.003-05:002020-12-08T17:42:47.041-05:00Making Movies Social AgainIf we’re going to be spending so much time alone during Covid-19, we might as well do it together. And not on yet another Zoom meeting. Instead, how about taking the experience of watching a movie, add a group of like-minded individuals, and finish the evening off with some captivating conversation? And do it all at a safe distance online. <br /><br />That is essentially what Hilary Henegar and Fiona Rayher, the entrepreneurs behind the startup <a href="https://hoovie.movie/" target="_blank">Hoovie</a> are doing. The two friends began organizing in-person events in Vancouver a few years ago that were essentially ‘pop up’ movies. They called them Hoovies, a blending together of the words ‘home’ and ‘movies’. <br /><br />These events took place in living rooms, in backyards and in basements – anywhere where people could gather and share the experience of watching a documentary, art house movie or film festival award winner together. The evening was capped off with a post-film discussion, usually accompanied by some wine and cheese, and oftentimes the exchange of phone numbers. People were meeting new people and sharing new ideas at Hoovies. Then Covid-19 hit, and like many entrepreneurs, Hilary and Fiona had to adjust their model. “Since Covid, <a href="https://hnmag.ca/interview/hoovie-virtual-moviegoing-with-fiona-rayher-and-hilary-henegar/" target="_blank">said Fiona</a>, we’ve pivoted. We’ve really tried to bring the magic of what we used to do to the online world.”<br /><br />On this episode of the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">Now & Next podcast</a>, we’ll hear from the two BC-based entrepreneurs about what it’s been like shifting their model from people’s yards and homes to their laptops and tablets. As Hilary explains in the interview: “What we know is that there’s this longing people have to interact during the film. As one of our users has said, you can actually feel the audience in the room. And that’s been a real guiding light in how we build the technology.” <br /><br />And there’s good news for producers too. On top of adding a new social dimension to the viewing experience, Hoovie also provides a new way for filmmakers to reach audiences. Some filmmakers are already finding new audiences in this way while others are using the platform as an additional window, both with a revenue stream attached.<br /><br />In this episode, hear about:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Using cinema as a tool to build online communities (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie/s-qfLVZvVTKU5#t=01:40">1:40</a>)</li><li>How food remains an integral part of a movie watching experience, even online (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie/s-qfLVZvVTKU5#t=07:00">7:00</a>)</li><li>Why independent films are uniquely suited to a social cinema model (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie/s-qfLVZvVTKU5#t=10:30">10:30</a>)</li><li>The new distribution window for filmmakers offered by Hoovie (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie/s-qfLVZvVTKU5#t=14:35">14:35</a>) </li><li>The story behind how Bob Stein, the founder of the Criterion Collection, fell in love with the Hoovie model (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie/s-qfLVZvVTKU5#t=21:53">21:53</a>) </li></ul><div><br /></div></div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/938890159&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/making-movies-social-again-the-entrepreneurs-behind-hoovie" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Making Movies Social Again: The Entrepreneurs Behind Hoovie">Making Movies Social Again: The Entrepreneurs Behind Hoovie</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NowNext-S3E6-transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear; white-space: normal;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div>Dig Deeper:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>To learn about the screenings, film library, or how to host a Hoovie movie, go to <a href="https://hoovie.movie/" target="_blank">Hoovie</a>’s website</li><li>Read <a href="https://medium.com/ipg-media-lab/the-rise-of-virtual-co-viewing-1572375f162d" target="_blank">The Rise of Virtual Co-Viewing</a> on Medium</li><li>Read <a href="https://hnmag.ca/interview/hoovie-virtual-moviegoing-with-fiona-rayher-and-hilary-henegar/" target="_blank">HOOVIE: Virtual Moviegoing with Fiona Rayher and Hilary Henegar</a> on Hollywood North Magazine</li><li>Read <a href="https://www.frontfundr.com/BlogPost/Blog/meet-the-founder-hoovie" target="_blank">Meet The Founder: Fiona Rayher from Hoovie</a> on FrontFundr</li></ul></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-70292313282597593682020-11-18T19:18:00.008-05:002020-11-21T15:43:42.314-05:00Staying in the Game: Indie Video Game Studios During LockdownThere is no doubt that all sectors of the entertainment industry have been severely affected by the pandemic, and the game industry is no exception, as it has historically relied on networking at large annual in-person events. When you can’t just pack your bags and head to some of the industry’s biggest events like <a href="https://gdconf.com/" target="_blank">GDC </a>in San Francisco or<a href="https://e3expo.com/" target="_blank"> E3</a> in Los Angeles, you miss out on the opportunity for those happy encounters that sometimes happen by the sandwich tray or the coffee machine. <div><br /></div><div>And then there are the parties. All those parties. Where a good chunk of the fun seems to be talking your way in when you're not technically 'invited'.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YSp8YoEOeA8" width="320" youtube-src-id="YSp8YoEOeA8"></iframe></div><div><br />But because large in-person events are not an option in the current landscape, a number of online events for the video game industry have been emerging, like <a href="https://megamigs.com/en/" target="_blank">MEGA MIGS</a>, the virtual version of the gathering that usually takes place in Montreal. And created specifically for these locked down and working from home times, <a href="https://canadagamesonline.com/" target="_blank">Canada Games Online</a> recently came together as a collaboration between the provincial interactive media associations across the country. <div><br /></div><div>These virtual industry gatherings bring game developers together with publishers, investors, and other collaborators. And as with most B2B events, the goal is to find new partners in order to reach new audiences and markets around the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>On this episode of the Now & Next podcast, we check in with a handful of game development studios to find out how they’re adapting to changes in their day-to-day operations during Covid-19, including finding fresh ways to network and get their name and game out there to the world. <div><br />And I also talk to the head of one of Canada’s largest industry associations for game developers, <a href="https://www.laguilde.quebec/en/" target="_blank">La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec</a>, and learn about the initiatives happening at the industry level to help keep things moving along amidst the business challenges brought on by the pandemic.<br /><br />In this episode, you'll hear from/about:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Angela Mejia, the co-founder of <a href="http://www.clever-plays.com/" target="_blank">Clever Plays Studio</a>, on what the transition to working from home has been like for game developers (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges#t=01:24">01:24</a>);</li><li>Tony Walsh, founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.phantomcompass.com/" target="_blank">Phantom Compass</a>, and Rob Segal, co-founders of <a href="https://www.getsetgames.com/" target="_blank">Get Set Games</a>, on the ease of attending virtual events (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges#t=04:21">04:21</a>); </li><li>How the new Canada Games Online event came to be (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges#t=06:45">06:45</a>);</li><li>The gaming industry is a true ecosystem, meaning that the health of one part affects the health of the whole (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges#t=10:45">10:45</a>);</li><li>Nadine Gelly, CEO of Quebec’s LaGuilde, on Canadian game companies particular advantages in the new landscape (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges#t=12:25">12:25</a>)</li></ul></div><div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/930272329&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-in-the-game-how-indie-video-game-studios-are-rising-to-new-challenges" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Staying in the Game: How Indie Video Game Studios Are Rising to New Challenges">Staying in the Game: How Indie Video Game Studios Are Rising to New Challenges</a></div>
<a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NowNext-S3E5-transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></div><br />Dig Deeper:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Find out more about how Quebec-based <a href="https://www.laguilde.quebec/en/the-virtual-caravan-a-concept-from-quebec-that-is-spreading-across-the-country-with-canada-games-online/" target="_blank">La Caravane</a> inspired the creation of <a href="https://canadagamesonline.com/francais/" target="_blank">Canada Games Online</a> </li><li>To get a sense of how the gaming industry events were impacted in 2020, have a look at the <a href="https://videogamecons.com/calendar/calendar.php?year=2020" target="_blank">Video Game Convention Calendar</a></li><li>To find out more about Canada’s gaming ecosystem, read <a href="https://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CanadianVideoGameSector2019_EN.pdf" target="_blank">Essential Facts 2019</a>, ESAC’s annual publication which provides economic, demographic and public opinion data about the Canadian video game industry;</li><li>Read <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/16/21222465/coronavirus-game-developers-work-from-home-bungie-riot" target="_blank">In a Self-Isolated World, Developers Are Learning to Make Games From Home</a> on The Verge </li><li>Read Work From Quarantine: <a href="https://www.shacknews.com/article/118121/work-from-quarantine-how-covid-19-has-upended-game-development" target="_blank">How COVID-19 Has Upended Game Development</a> on ShackNews</li><li>Listen to an interview with five-time Counter-Strike World Champ <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/now-next-podcast-missharvey-stephanie-harvey-esports/" target="_blank">Stephanie Harvey</a> about the booming eSports industry and Canada’s place within it</li></ul></div></div></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-87350484342186752382020-11-13T20:02:00.006-05:002020-11-13T20:28:31.090-05:00Going from Broadcasting to Podcasting Thanks to<a href="https://www.vocalfrystudios.com" target="_blank"> Vocal Fry Studios</a> for<a href="https://www.vocalfrystudios.com/blog/2020/11/10/leora-kornfeld-looks-back-on-her-career" target="_blank"> this profile</a> that tells the story of my pretty accidental return to the microphone for <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">Now & Next</a>, the podcast I host that is now into its third season.<div><br /></div><div>You can read the piece <a href="https://www.vocalfrystudios.com/blog/2020/11/10/leora-kornfeld-looks-back-on-her-career" target="_blank">here</a>. In the meantime, below you'll find a related<i> Exhibit A</i> and <i>Exhibit B</i>.<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8EruZriIxelr-q7LvLPLM8Wwf7HnR5vQSuaMAI-ray412t84QeZP_wM5zBNXDpkduCkyH42LAwM1mOhuny9KdL9y1lT5movX_yhMJEjyFhrCauCEVKnKdgq1L872H2GbivZd1ooFNAVN/s688/Screen+Shot+2020-11-13+at+7.41.02+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="688" data-original-width="688" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8EruZriIxelr-q7LvLPLM8Wwf7HnR5vQSuaMAI-ray412t84QeZP_wM5zBNXDpkduCkyH42LAwM1mOhuny9KdL9y1lT5movX_yhMJEjyFhrCauCEVKnKdgq1L872H2GbivZd1ooFNAVN/w393-h393/Screen+Shot+2020-11-13+at+7.41.02+PM.png" width="393" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Exhibit A:</i> The 'couch studio' being used for the Covid-concurrent Season 3 of the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">podcast</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDlI5l8YLgMM4Duakho2Tz2bUhWsvzwbJLDFjCXFn2komermzOHci4eOxxMzwimdyeZAkBEfVtbOZm0cZaWzLXYxqhp7MRBVKIGvEpfk89Dx7wyorj-8bivudECwPRz6kOXCgZtZajbMnJ/s996/0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="996" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDlI5l8YLgMM4Duakho2Tz2bUhWsvzwbJLDFjCXFn2komermzOHci4eOxxMzwimdyeZAkBEfVtbOZm0cZaWzLXYxqhp7MRBVKIGvEpfk89Dx7wyorj-8bivudECwPRz6kOXCgZtZajbMnJ/w522-h342/0.png" width="522" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>Exhibit B</i>: Cue the confetti... </p><p style="text-align: center;">We made it as high as #3 on the charts in the "TV & Film" category on Apple Podcasts!</p></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-9025917539289825102020-11-03T11:46:00.004-05:002020-11-06T18:57:54.984-05:00Veggie Burgers & Clean Grid Power: Eco-conscious TV & Film Production At a time when fast food restaurants all over North America are serving veggie burgers and most retailers are charging extra for plastic bags, it seems reasonable to assume that the level of eco-consciousness is fairly high. And while that’s true to a large extent, there is still a long way to go. The film and TV industry is no exception, according to Clara George, my guest on this episode of the podcast.<br /><br />Based in Vancouver, Clara is the VP of Studios & Sustainable Production Services at <a href="https://www.siminternational.com/">Sim International</a>, a role she transitioned into after close to three decades working as a producer in film and TV. Clara has had a longstanding interest in environmental issues and has been active in a variety of sustainability initiatives over the years but it wasn’t until Covid-19 hit earlier this year that she made greening film and TV production her full time focus. While the Covid-19 restrictions might seem like a step back in terms of sustainability efforts, they’ve actually provided an opportunity for people to become more aware of unnecessary waste on set, and come up together with new solutions, as Clara explains in this episode.<br /><br />Among the strides Clara George has made in sustainable production practices: shifting a number of BC-based productions to clean grid power, making a fleet of close to 100 hybrid vehicles available for short term rentals for productions shooting in Vancouver, and finding workaround solutions to the high emissions diesel generators that have been a staple on film and TV sets for several decades. <br /><br />In this episode of the podcast Clara also shares some examples of how she’s been able to essentially ‘sneak’ more sustainable practices onto set, and explains that crew members and producers are learning to both think and behave differently when it comes to issues that have an environmental impact. And to top it all off , Clara says such initiatives either cost nothing to implement or, even better, end up saving the production money. <br /><br />In this episode, learn more about:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What can be done during COVID-19 in terms of sustainable production (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19/s-9WC3IETNO5X#t=01:28">01:28</a>)</li><li>What made Clara rethink her entire career during COVID-19 and how she is working to instigate change at the city of Vancouver level (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19/s-9WC3IETNO5X#t=03:50">03:50</a>)</li><li>How a few people can make a difference in terms of sustainability and a trick from Clara to encourage some initiatives on set (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19/s-9WC3IETNO5X#t=11:20">11:20</a>)</li><li>Making sustainability a common goal in front and behind the cameras (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19/s-9WC3IETNO5X#t=13:35">13:35</a>)</li><li>Clara’s pet peeve on set regarding waste in production (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19/s-9WC3IETNO5X#t=17:48">17:48</a>)</li></ul></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/922007473&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/staying-eco-conscious-on-set-during-covid-19" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Staying Eco-Conscious on Set During COVID-19">Staying Eco-Conscious on Set During COVID-19</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Now-and-Next-S3E4-transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear; white-space: normal;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a> </div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-21542908355699782422020-10-20T22:39:00.006-04:002020-12-07T21:41:24.158-05:00Fake it to make it: Virtual production for film & TVSpecial effects that create computer-generated characters and backgrounds are found everyday in the gaming world and they have been standard fare in higher end Hollywood productions for years. But now, using a combination of more affordable technologies and open source real time 3D game engines as a foundation, these techniques are starting to move closer to mainstream film and TV production. With networked laptops, game engines that can render high fidelity worlds, and a late model iPhone most everyone can experiment with these new technologies.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3QB6fvDXXqw" width="320" youtube-src-id="3QB6fvDXXqw"></iframe></div><div><br />The guests on this episode of the Now & Next podcast are producer <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2583428/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1" target="_blank">Andrew Scholotiuk</a> and director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2576729/" target="_blank">Dylan Pearce</a>. They have a sizable portfolio of feature films, TV shows, and games to their credit, along with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-3d-filmmakers-win-major-hollywood-award-1.3426029" target="_blank">a Lumiere Award </a>for advancements and innovation in digital filmmaking. </div><div><br /></div><div>According to Andrew, it’s not just the technologies involved in virtual production, but the completely new ways of approaching the work that are exciting. “It’s going to allow for new partnerships, new ways of working either within a region or to connect and produce and create without boundary. This isn’t just about transposing what we did in the past into this new technology, but what can we do with this new technology that we’ve never done before.” </div><div><br /></div><div>And while there are always costs and learning curves associated with new technologies, Dylan points out there is an indie way to approach virtual production, using green screens, game engines, inexpensive tracker systems, and even iPhones to obtain superior quality content that used to only be feasible with big studio budgets.<br /><div><br />In this episode, learn more about: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The role video game engines play in virtual production (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential/s-5y8F3k96e4Y">01:15</a>)</li><li>Andrew and Dylan’s current system for virtual production and how it works (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential/s-5y8F3k96e4Y">03:24</a>)</li><li>To what extent virtual production can help with rising costs under COVID-19 restrictions (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential/s-5y8F3k96e4Y">09:25</a>)</li><li>Indie ways to get into virtual production (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential/s-5y8F3k96e4Y">12:24</a>)</li><li>The skills needed to get into virtual production (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential/s-5y8F3k96e4Y">18:10</a>)</li></ul></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/913491754&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/virtual-production-techniques-for-film-tv-unlocking-the-potential" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Virtual production techniques for Film & TV: Unlocking the potential.">Virtual production techniques for Film & TV: Unlocking the potential.</a></div><div></div><div><br /></div><span face=""Open Sans", arial, sans-serif" style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NowNext-S3E3-transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 0.4s, 0.4s; transition-property: color, background-color; transition-timing-function: linear, linear; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></span><br /><br /></div><div>Dig Deeper:<div><br />Read <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-3d-filmmakers-win-major-hollywood-award-1.3426029" target="_blank">Edmonton 3D filmmakers win major Hollywood award</a> on CBC to find out more about Andrew and Dylan’s Lumiere Award for 3D film<br />Toronto will soon be home to <a href="https://informedsauce.com/news/news/toronto-gets-new-virtual-production-studio/" target="_blank">Pixomondo</a>’s virtual production studio. The new facility is said to be the largest of its type in the world<br />Discover <a href="https://nofilmschool.com/new-unreal-engine-5" target="_blank">the potential of Unreal Engine 5</a> in developing virtual sets that appear larger than life;<br />Read <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-05-28/virtual-filmmaking-takes-center-stage-in-reopening-hollywood" target="_blank">Virtual filmmaking takes center stage in reopening Hollywood</a> in the Los Angeles Times<br />Read <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/solrogers/2020/01/29/virtual-production-and-the-future-of-filmmakingan-interview-with-ben-grossman-magnopus/#2851cf3e75d4" target="_blank">Virtual Production And The Future Of Filmmaking—An Interview with Ben Grossmann, Magnopus</a> in Forbes<br />Read <a href="https://qz.com/1754288/disney-is-trying-to-revolutionize-filmmaking-with-the-mandalorian/">The filmmaking technology behind ‘The Mandalorian’ is straight out of the Star Wars universe</a> on Quartz<br />Read <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/tfo-is-using-a-video-game-engine-to-make-tv-and-its-working/" target="_blank">TFO Is Using A Video Game Engine to Make TV, And It’s Working</a> by Patrick Faller on CMF Trends<br />Watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYuBDkto2Vk" target="_blank">What Is The Uncanny Valley?</a> by Mashable Explains on YouTube</div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-77143909136968044082020-10-17T18:38:00.005-04:002020-11-03T14:04:55.291-05:00The podcast is back for Season 3!In the tradition of the rock radio double shot, <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/podcast-now-and-next/" target="_blank">Now & Next</a>, the podcast I host, just dropped 2 episodes for the launch of Season 3. (By the way, if you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, you can do that <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/now-next/id1438538614" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br /><br />In Episode 1, Toronto-based serial entrepreneur Alex Kolodkin joins me to talk about how to make production as safe as possible while still in the midst of a pandemic.<br /><br />After months of complete shutdown, film and TV production has now resumed in Canada’s major filming centres of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Not surprisingly, there is a ‘new normal’ in place.<br /><br />While there have always been health & safety consultants on set, Covid-19 safety requirements are a lot more specific and constraining. Hint: they are more than just a matter of frequent hand washing and mask wearing. For example, “sneeze etiquette” is now a thing. <br /><br />On top of physical distancing among actors and crew members, new guidelines now apply to everything from bathrooms and food to the number of consecutive hours spent on set or location. <br /><br />In BC the term <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/film-industry-covid-1.5610613" target="_blank">‘depopulating the set’</a> has been coined. It refers not just to limiting the number of people on set to the strict minimum, but also to new practices such as directors working remotely and following along on monitors as well as camera operators filming from cranes when possible.<br /><br />Meanwhile in Quebec, there are <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/tv-shoots-to-resume-but-with-no-lovey-dovey-or-fighting" target="_blank">new limitations</a> on shootings involving close physical contact between actors, be it love scenes or fight scenes.<br /><br />To help on-screen and off-screen talent adjust to such changes, Alex Kolodkin started the virtual company <a href="https://practicesafesets.co/" target="_blank">Safe Sets International</a>. Since June 2020, they've been providing education and delivering certification for on set safety.<div><div><br />In this episode, you'll hear about:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What it’s been like for actors Andrew Bee and Ethan Berkeley-Garcia to go back to work (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19/s-azIr0jTzgeM#t=2:20">02:20</a>)</li><li>The most high-risk situations and the new basic drill for people arriving on set (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19/s-azIr0jTzgeM#t=5:35">05:35</a>)</li><li>The biggest resistance points to safety protocols on set (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19/s-azIr0jTzgeM#t=11:02">11:02</a>) </li><li>What motivated Alex Kolodkin to create Safe Sets International (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19/s-azIr0jTzgeM#t=12:35">12:35</a>)</li><li>The flip side of COVID-19 safety protocols when it comes to production sustainability (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19/s-azIr0jTzgeM#t=15:06">15:06</a>) </li></ul></div>
</div>
<div><br /></div><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/904901581&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/how-to-practice-safe-sets-tv-film-production-during-covid-19" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="How to practice ‘Safe Sets’: TV & film production during Covid-19">How to practice ‘Safe Sets’: TV & film production during Covid-19</a></div></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Now-Next-S3-E1-Transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></span></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div>In Episode 2, I'm joined by award-winning actor and founder of Reelworld Film Festival Tonya Williams to talk about ways to achieve meaningful and long-lasting racial representation in front of and behind the camera.<div><br /></div>Canada is among the world’s most culturally and racially diverse countries. But what we see on the streets is rarely reflected on our screens. That’s why <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0931845/" target="_blank">Tonya Williams</a>, best known for her two-decade role as Dr. Olivia Barber on the long running-soap The Young & The Restless, has made it her mission to bring increased racial and ethnic diversity to Canadian TV and film productions. <br /><br />Her first step toward this goal was founding the <a href="https://www.reelworld.ca/" target="_blank">Reelworld Film Festival</a> back in 2001. The initial objective of the festival was to showcase Black actors, writers, producers and directors in Canada. It has since expanded to include Indigenous, Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latinx talent. <br /><br />The festival’s 20th anniversary is coming up this October 2020 (14th-19th) and will be taking place online. Its newest feature, launched this summer, is an online database called <a href="https://www.accessreelworld.ca/" target="_blank">Access Reelworld</a>. It helps match racially diverse on-screen talent with writers, producers, and directors. Williams believes that now is the perfect moment for this kind of industry tool. The technology needed to build such a database has recently become much more affordable plus inclusion and equitable representation are top of mind priorities for producers, writers, directors, and networks. <br /><br />On this episode of Now & Next Tonya also discusses how she defines success for the various initiatives she is driving and what she sees as the important work that still needs to be done.<br /><br />In this episode, you'll learn more about:<div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Rachel Lui’s experience as an Asian actor (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=1:54">1:54</a>)</li><li>How Tonya Williams' goals for Reelworld have changed over the festival’s 20 years (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=2:54">2:54</a>)</li><li>Inspiring data collection and leadership hiring initiatives from the U.K. and the U.S. (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=5:52">5:52</a>)</li><li>How the Reelworld Producers Program intends to solve the lack of representation of Canadian Black, Indigenous, People of Colour producers (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=9:02">9:02</a>)</li><li>Why Tonya and many others are not fans of the acronym BIPoC (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=12:10">12:10</a>)</li><li>The story of how the Access Reelworld database came to be (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve/s-b02mGRsAUUJ#t=16:45">16:45</a>)</li></ul></div>
<div><br /></div><iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/904906138&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada">Canada Media Fund / Fonds des médias du Canada</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/access-reelworld-is-making-on-screen-diversity-easier-to-achieve" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Access Reelworld is Making On-Screen Diversity Easier to Achieve">Access Reelworld is Making On-Screen Diversity Easier to Achieve</a></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: "Open Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/Now-Next-S03-E02-Transcription.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.4s linear, background-color 0.4s linear;" target="_blank">Download a transcript of the episode</a></span></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-28420052549410387872020-10-02T20:47:00.021-04:002020-10-02T20:57:08.952-04:00Is the creative economy about the 1 percenters too?<p>This post is <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/08/curation-creation-2-sides-of-same-coin.html" target="_blank">a follow up to one from last month</a> that examined the overlaps between content creation and curation as new digital technologies take the place of the first generation of social platforms. </p><p>Below, is Part 2, co-authored with Jad Esber, one of the co-founders of <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/koodos" target="_blank">koodos</a>, a VC backed startup that's building tools to fill the gaps between consuming, creating, annotating, and categorizing online content.</p><p>And now, the hopefully awaited sequel to last month's post...</p><p>The internet has enabled us to pursue our passion and turn that into a financial reward of some kind, and that can be anything from making a bit of money on the side to making a decent living; see much-hyped <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUNtuwyAM_ZrytggoJeGBh73sNyIuTstKcARkU_b1c1rJOrZ8Oz4OrsMd62E3bJ3tDeqcohVaGW0Ui1ZFMd0mltq8VIDVpWx73YFtu88puJ6wnAOKT8KwhzWjNAK8k0EufNLgxyVq6UERjtpHdtLMbo8JSgALP1APLMCyffS-tcv18yK_yJzQf0PAlULJhSEnOAGfCDbXGtF-QMCC60EZlqzk1Me5JFRcDGIYv83tdi3fW1suiq93ObTdt-7C89zLqs2A1Q1PrGWBHKnnfqp7FUncTH7dS-rHDMX5DPGtu78f9ZLRjw1sgd-WoXeo7yQ9Q3M6WTLii0g7i30iRmz_MJF5fw" target="_blank">Passion Economy</a>. But -- it’s still a game for the 1%. </p>People creating physical products and selling on Etsy and Shopify are prime examples of the commercial side of the passion economy. What could previously only be done at the level of a craft market can now be done on a global scale, and that's the case for the millions of people around the world selling their wares on those sites.<br /><br />So when you look at creators using online tools to post creations to sell or monetize (whether, e.g. that's Etsy sellers or YouTubers or creators on Twitch etc.) the overall picture is another story of the top 1% of the 1%. A <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkEtuwyAQhk8TdkZAsBMvWFRVu-yiPYBFYOyQYECAY_n2HTsSmvfPwGd0hSnmTaVYKlkK5MFZxTvZd70kVknLr-2VuDKMGWDWzquaFyBpuXlndHUx7ALJrrwnd8WNFbJruTTdyFgH0I9cCNNqbUbWtajDNYNerINgQMEL8hYDEK_utaZyOn-cxDeedV1pBpMBn2ei9m5fRGOe9l5qTAwVQsVkST5qWzASjPfomEDzC5-HtMHipfmBtTly94LmC7Vx3pq_utiNJjsSpwTDOcYEWsk45fTy6Nv2HB6pjCfJ5knQstxK1eZJTZxJVh5i1vQZcxjBW5yZdjRHE8kM6OcluLoNEPTNg31Dq2_KB4O6JVAB1uKhVsjvIpLsGP5DENxnI94Z1DNGG8s_r0SQiw" target="_blank">study</a> done last year showed that there are about 17 million such creators in the US, with aggregate earnings of $7B, but fewer than 1% of those 17 million earn $10,000 or more per year.<br /><br />Of the 30 million+ YouTube channels only about 20,000 or so have a million subscribers or more, which is where one needs to be to be 'in the game', so to speak, and in that 20,000 figure are the broadcasters and media organizations and recording artists who are already major brands, with infrastructure and marketing budgets, so that's now a really challenging place to make one's mark.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSIt89LAU3OmO-yYN-PeCZAYTm9Jc6nOF9Me6zXuQBYqy1MEFIM9urYzfSgHuj60-q5jAS5J7z51BRWrwm1TRkABvyxVqgec3X0wI1qqS_ggW-5lsAbdvbTHuR_xwSQrFecSLpNXV1fVsG/s851/koodos+post.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="851" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSIt89LAU3OmO-yYN-PeCZAYTm9Jc6nOF9Me6zXuQBYqy1MEFIM9urYzfSgHuj60-q5jAS5J7z51BRWrwm1TRkABvyxVqgec3X0wI1qqS_ggW-5lsAbdvbTHuR_xwSQrFecSLpNXV1fVsG/w596-h296/koodos+post.png" width="596" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Above is an example of the distribution of views on YouTube for 2019, from Pex.com. I think people tend to think there are more YouTube stars or YouTube millionaires than there actually are, but the numbers show that close to 90% of videos posted get under 1000 views and not even 3% get between 10,000 and 100,000 views. And to get over a million views puts you in the 0.1%. I think people think there are a lot more PewDiePies out there than there actually are and these numbers back that up.<br /><br />The bright side of these stats is that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the US alone able to earn at least a nice 'side hustle' level of money, if not a living, doing things that were either not doable from a logistical point of view or not feasible in the sense that a broadcaster or publisher was probably never going to give them the go-ahead to do a show or write a column.<div><br /></div><div>Is there any good news? Yes there is. <span style="text-align: center;">The GDP of the creator economy is expanding. </span><div><br /><a href="https://themusicnetwork.com/few-artists-generate-most-streams/" target="_blank">1% of artists are getting 90% of streams</a>. But, <a href="https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2020/09/10/the-haves-and-the-have-nots-2/" target="_blank">the more important stat</a> is that that 1% is now 16,000 artists and the 99% represents about 160,000 artists. A huge uptick compared to the previous world. We’re seeing: <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>More & more consumers becoming creators and <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlkE2OhCAQhU_T7DCAaOuCxWzmGoaf0mYawUAxE28_2CakSL1K1Xv5rEbYUj7VkQqSWiAv3ik-ynmcJXFKOj4NE_FlWTPArn1QmCuQo5rgrUaf4rUg2cRn8lKjNpPQctLjzAAccBg1n-3Qc6ahHy25bBZdnYdoQcEv5DNFIEG9EI_y6L8e4ru9HZyve2fTfvWSbdqcWwrOQN6aYmvWmHKhOgPFF9AIf9RmuMVLMLX4CKXQPTkINK10S8lR1AWBDtMgnuLppBkk8UowwThjolXJeMe75888DH38OcravPdNdKWagtq-r0QkqwAp6-6dclwhuCvfReYzbGCW9u81ejwXiNoEcDczvCF_EOB5gGqpSwBEyLfYQI6M8VmQ5udSuxnVu8VO5R80FpFL" target="_blank">curators</a> (with greater incentives & easier to use tools)</li><li>Better methods to monetize creative output online </li><li>An increased willingness to pay online creators</li></ul></div><br />In terms of how these dollars will be distributed, we will likely see a flattening of the head, with wealth being distributed more equally across creators. However, only slightly. <br /><br />We’re seeing an obvious shift to a more creator-centric model. <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwtUMuOwyAM_JpyawSUvA4c9rK_EUFwUhqCIzC7yt8vaVeybHlsjz2eDcGK6dQHZmIlQ5q806JTYzcq5rRyYmgH5vO0JIDd-KApFWBHscHPhjzGa0DxQYzsqaXrlewM52oxg-o6s9ixX6xUSoE1yrFrzWSK8xBn0PAD6cQILOgn0ZFvj6-b_K5mA67NYSgBxmbGvUL_2b2e6CHf4W5ixFJZdojEvJZccsG5rF5x0Yimf41t-4ivIy83xfdVNrnYTGbeLkaWdABMptkwxQWCqz3rpe9drPKmGvcSPZ0TRGMDuI9y-rzqLYTOA3SE3xyACNIHrO_oOBejZHWfw8oZ9YboMP8BBxR-GQ" target="_blank">Patreon estimates</a> that their creators will be earning at least $1 billion a year. A <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMGugyAQ_Jpy04BiLQcO7_J-w6ywWiqCgbWN7-sf1oTshGV2hh0DhHNMh95iJrZnTIOzWtyluivJrJZWPLoHc3mYEuIKzmtKO7JtH70zQC6Gc0Dyh1DsqUeYJoB2UgqsUL0y0PFeTkaKTlprBDttBtitw2BQ4xvTEQMyr59EW761P7fmt5w3JId01Cau5dbwhhcY3V-pAT-5wBJH8FTBB3wlOF-qTAlhdWGuUpENO1aiaWUvedfJwmdOnzKF2pQquahF3b9U17XhteXpJvk6N3Xex0xgltOYJe0xJqiXmMKE3hbOfCbwfSwBDAXXPTg6BgwwerRXNnSF-V2Vjg31-WWPRJiuZgnszrlQDSt-NhbNoJcYbcz_FpCGbQ" target="_blank">story</a> about AWAL recently reported that somewhere between about 100 and 300 of the artists on AWAL earned over $100,000 last year and that AWAL's parent organization, Kobalt, believes there could be as many as 100,000 artists in this tier in the next five 5 years.<br /><br />Markets naturally pick winners and talent is distributed by a very skewed power law. Most people only want to see content from the best creators. And we generally have similar assessments of what the best is. <br />However, what constitutes content, talent, and even creation, has never been more voluminous or varied. And at the center of all of this is the question of taste. <br /><br />For the first time, possibly ever, we're seeing all tastes represented, expressed, distributed, and consumed. Wattpad is a good example with its (very) long tail of sub-genres. Everything from Christian zombies and vegan vampires to <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMuOhCAQ_JrhpgFFhQOHuexvmFYah1HB8FjXv1-cSTrdSfWjumqGhIsPlzp8TCRHDKPVivVc9pITrbhmohPExtEExB3splLISI48bXaGZL27FzgVTJKXGobJdLylLQhmDJOGw0Ql6zQ3g-hoT26aEbK26GZU-Ivh8g7Jpl4pHfHRPh_NT4nzPOsTCgS6nv1eENGIYeCMiSq9sAK3hKsyNla22hFcSWEvZYI1Lz5Xf1VA0BiIVQ1tKKO0KZlTVrN6eMuua937iObB6b40dcxTTDCvNxUJakMfoF59cAY3XWaWW_enWWSPpe7Z2XSN6GDaUH8dSV8LPwLTdaByeMYNUypffMBiU08pkw0pfNqXm06t3msf_wFG74RS" target="_blank">angry mermaids, and more recently angry mer-men</a>. <div><br /></div><div>TikTok is another great example. They’ve helped to keep a huge range of distinct subcultures, with their different tastes, separated. And in the words of <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMGuhCAM_JrltgYQXT1weJf3GwalKCuCgfqMf__qbtJ2ktJ2mJkMwpzypfdUkB0F8uCtFq3q214xq5UVXdMxXwaXATbjg8Z8ANuPMfjJoE_xXlC8Ez1btHO1AiFbZ9Q0Nsrxl1OGq567TtRypD2iGcxhPcQJNPxBvlIEFvSCuJdH_fOQvxTneVZwzBDhBF9NaaPeGNJMILnkBB1lTYl-xbQ-TbRPXOBZUkYf5-dikHl9zwrOJVXFRSWq17tvmjq-9-Ieim-zrMoxFjTTepOwrAOkbKo15eggWJqZb82fR5I8EG5H9HgNEM0YwH7dwK99H3F47aDp3yUAIuRvkyxqORe9ZMRnE92Mek3JpvIPEpCCag" target="_blank">Eugene Wei</a>: “one person’s cringe is another person’s pleasure, but figuring out which is which is no small feat”.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BzlMLdpu5QY" width="320" youtube-src-id="BzlMLdpu5QY"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>With platforms’ higher resolution of taste preference, creators have more opportunities and more choice between monetizing by earning a little off of each fan from mainstream content or earning a lot off of deeper connections with a smaller set of fans through niche content (see e.g. <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUMuOwyAM_Jpw2wgoeXDg0Mv-RkTApDQER0A2yt8vaSXLlsb2jGaMLrBgutSOuZAjQ5q8VawXspeCWCUsG7uR-Dy5BLBpH1RJB5D9mIM3uniM94OgI5PkpZzk3UBBAx2FBPkYnGPQ93wwXccF0-SWmfRhPUQDCv4gXRiBBPUqZc_N49nw31rnebbZL1EH5xO0BrcKzgGXOkwCXTD9gMGI21UR4hWnnDJKee2Cspa1w1t23SO-9-waQbeFt_mYc9FmvdlIUgEw6XbFFB0EW2-W291nWc1NdW5H9OWaIOo5gP36Lt-gPjbKtYOKcOYApUD6gjWMnlImOal6FitnVCuixfwP-u58BA" target="_blank">SignalFire’s recent report</a> on the economy of creators).<br /><br />In the end, it comes down to curation. Curation involves multiple vectors, and taste is the term for the component vectors of curator preference. As soon as taste enters the definition of talent, so does distribution and market segmentation. The idea that creation is for the 1% and the winner-takes-all dynamic relies on creators being judged simply by an excellence (or talent) standard. And curation only determines the size of the pot. But when creators are judged by a taste standard, curation and creation are intertwined. And we’re seeing more of that now than ever - and with that, we’ll see <a href="https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJwlUEmOxCAMfE04IiBk4cBhLvONiICTppsAYpkovx_SkSxbLi_lslYF9pAuGUMuqGZIizWSjlyMgiMjuaHzMCObly0BHMo6WVIFFOvqrFbFBn8PcDJTgV5S9PPABCVasG3QRGuhpm2iXHDFmCEc3TSLqsaC1yDhD9IVPCAnX6XE3PU_Hfttdp4n9iskHNLe0qgipHzjbKQ9R1YywgglhDXPCcUUT28xDL1_x7x1nBw7w7muuSj9wTocKEkHISn8Cclv4Ezr2W8132ITs7R4VG_LtYBXqwPz6CzPY75nlyuC9HBmB6VAesAmfiSECoYanwltp5efEEzI_0_FdP0" target="_blank">large welfare gains</a> and more opportunities for people to make money creating and curating online.</div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-52207094943762689762020-08-30T20:21:00.036-04:002020-10-02T20:59:29.724-04:00Curation & Creation: 2 sides of the same coin?<div><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;">On the menu of the </span><a href="https://www.leorakornfeld.com" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" target="_blank">various things</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"> I've been keeping myself busy with is serving as an advisor to a Boston-based startup called<a href="https://koodos.com" target="_blank"> </a></span><a href="https://koodos.com" target="_blank">koodos</a><a href="http://koodos.">.</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222;"> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">koodos</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: inherit;"> is a venture-backed startup out of Harvard and MIT that’s </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #37352f; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">building tools and incentives for people to curate on the internet. They’ve started with an experience that allows users to curate music and add commentary using emojis, and have reached thousands of users that actively do this every week. </span></div><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #37352f; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div dir="auto"><span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26);"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">In this week's edition of the </span>koodos <span style="color: #1a1a1a;">newsletter part 1 of a 2-part interview I did with</span></span></span> c<span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);">o-founder <a href="https://www.jad.me" target="_blank">Jad Esber </a>on the current state of content curation and creation, and how the two are overlapping more than ever.</span></span></span></div></div><div dir="auto"><span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><br /></span></span></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><b><i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">What does it mean to curate in 2020?</span></i></b></span></h4><div><span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a;"><b><i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></b></span></div>Things have changed dramatically since the top down, industrial strength days of content creation and content curation e.g. I worked in radio in the 1980s and 1990s (yes I'm that old but don't tell anyone, ok?). In those days — and I only think it's worth talking about the 'old days' to the extent that it informs what's going on currently — there was extremely limited access to the system, whether for artists, fans, or people who wanted to be in the industry. Only so many spots were available on charts, only so many jobs were available in the industry. A world of engineered scarcity you could say, but engineered that way because of the cost of taking something from inception to success took a lot of people, and a lot of connections, and cost a lot of money. In those high barrier to entry worlds, whether music, journalism, film, fashion, whatever, there were a relatively small number of what could be thought of as 'tastemakers' and generally broadcast media (whether radio or television or newspapers or magazines) were used to disseminate those tastes. Again, a lot of meetings, a lot of marketing, a lot of money.<br /><br />In the past 10 years or so things have flipped. No to low barriers to entry. Is that good news or bad news? It's both, because it means nobody can say no to your idea but it also means hugely increased competition. We see things like 50,000 tracks a day, yes each day, being uploaded to Spotify, 4+ million creators on Roblox, over 7 million Twitch streamers, over 30 million YouTube channels. And then there's the world of TikTok, which is harder to categorize as what exactly is a TikTok video in relation to the categories we generally use to think about these things. At any rate, all this is the inverse of the world of a handpicked 10 or 20 bands getting signed every year or TV shows getting greenlit or games getting made.<br /><br />So the new game is not about getting in the door, so to speak. The door is wide open. But damn that front hallway is packed. The new game is about doing something so new, so captivating, so must see/hear/do that hundreds then thousands and hopefully millions will come along with you. In theory it's a from the ground up system (and certainly was in the early days of online content creation) but in practice it's about building taste communities and fan communities but it's also about algorithms and discoverability and those things are complex and dynamic and therefore require strategies and know how and budgets in order to optimize them.<br /><br />In terms of technology's role in all of this, it has given us algorithms, it has given us recommender systems, it has given us machine learning and AI, and we need all those things because as the numbers cited above indicate, everything is happening at previously unthinkable scale. But can the technology alone be the curator? Is there a role for human touch in there? We're at the point now, about 10 years into this tremendous flurry of creative activity, that we're only now starting to see the strengths and also the limitations of the coming together of technology and curation. There are all sorts of new categories and new use cases for slicing and dicing things for recommendation and curation, new ways of thinking about end users, and how they may have many different personas at different points in time and therefore there are many different use cases for content for each individual.<h3 style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; line-height: 1.16em; margin: 1em 0px 0.625em;"><em><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Is there a living to be made from curating online?</span></em></h3><br />I think we're already seeing that in various places and ways. The playlist makers at Spotify are effectively curators. When there are 50,000 tracks uploaded daily and something like 50 million in total we need that layer of curation. This is what radio used to do, what music magazines used to do, what the front rack of the record store used to do (for those that remember record stores). Now, the playlist makers that are making a living are generally employees at Spotify, as opposed to independent music curators online, but we also see people like Anthony Fantano and his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/theneedledrop" target="_blank">Needledrop channel on YouTube</a>, which has over 2 million subscribers and about 640 million views and he's one guy sitting at home reviewing albums...he also does live events on Twitch (and used to do live events in person in pre Covid times). Here's a guy who created his own niche, on his own, and it was different enough from what either legacy media or other digital media outlets were doing that he now pretty much owns this space of album reviews. And the new crop of Substack writers is another example. Many are both creating and curating. Adding opinion and expertise to the world of over abundant content and adding enough value that people are willing to pay.<br /><br />Patreon has been a great enabler of similar activities too. They've paid out over a billion dollars to creators ince their inception and half of that was in the last year or so. I'm also very impressed with what <a href="https://www.patreon.com/waterandmusic" target="_blank">Cherie Hu</a> has been able to build there, as a kind of curator of market intelligence, and generator of insights, about the new, technology-driven music industry. Another example of someone, working as just 1 person, who has been able to build what appears to be a nice cottage industry online, in a space where there was no shortage of 'noise' or conventional (whether legacy or digital) covering the sector but there was a shortage of smart commentary and insights, and people are willing to pay for this. And then in the broader sense there's influencer marketing, which is now a $10B industry, and it could be argued that many of the influencers are performing a curatorial function, of fashion or travel or sports or makeup or whatever their area of interest may be.<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(26, 26, 26); color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Spectral, serif;"><i>Read Part 2 <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/10/is-creative-economy-about-1-percenters.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></p>Oh, and if you're interested in more musings on digital communities and internet culture in 2020 there's more to dig into on the koodos newsletter, that can be found <a href="https://koodos.substack.com" target="_blank">here.</a>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-3062126171119609712020-07-15T21:22:00.010-04:002020-07-24T12:41:57.615-04:00Some concluding thoughts on the media prankster<p style="text-align: left;">And here we are at Chapter 5, aka the final part of the paper, with some concluding thoughts about what has been examined and explored in these preceding chapters:</p><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html">Chapter 1: Putting the prankster in context</a><br /><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html">Chapter 2: Carnival pleasures: The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacular</a><br /><div><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/normalization-neutralization-vs.html">Chapter 3: Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistance</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/suffering-fools.html" target="_blank">Chapter 4: Suffering The Fools</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;"><span><span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: right;"><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="text-align: right;"><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">“Traditionalists are the endangered species and iconoclasm is orthodoxy.”</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px; text-align: left;"><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;"><i> </i><a href="https://www.uel.ac.uk/staff/c/andrew-calcutt" target="_blank">Andrew Calcutt,</a> in<i> Blueprint, </i>May 2000<br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 32px;"><i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> <span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></i></div>
In an era of widespread and arguably predictable iconoclasm, the media prankster’s concurrent habitation of the worlds of work and play locates him in an interesting paradox. His <i>(Ed. Note:</i> There were no female media pranksters known to the author at the time this paper was submitted, i.e. Fall 2000) popularity gives him sufficient power to impact significantly upon popular culture, while his reputation as a self-parodying clown makes him seem harmless to the status quo. In reality, however, what the prankster brings to media discourse is a new logic, a rationale of the reflexive and the ironic. If we conceptualise the conventional media model of decorum, curiousity, and logic as signifying the reasonable and the temperate, then the prankster-initiated model of unfettered inquisitiveness and dismissed boundaries should read as chaos and illogic. Increasingly this is not the case. <div><br /></div><div>The proliferation of niche groups, or microcultures, with a deep understanding of alternate approaches to cultural production and reproduction, has greatly enhanced the intelligibility of the media prankster. In addition, the mocking of both media personality and media protocol by the indisputably popular media prankster weakens the sovereignty of the conventional media. What we are left to ponder, then, is what is more genuine: the openly derisive media model presented by the prankster, or the rigidly self-conscious version put forward by the majority of conventional media? Additionally, popular acceptance of the prankster’s techniques and sensibilities indicate a move away from the stigmatisation usually accorded to rule-breakers and mavericks, and a move toward mainstream permeation. For a style of discourse rooted in such avant-garde and openly dissenting traditions as Dada, Situationism, and punk, this represents a remarkable achievement. <br /><br /> It also bears reiterating that such cultural incorporation positions the media prankster as something apart from the binary opposite of conventional media professionalism and protocol. He must therefore be considered as a manifestation of a larger cultural moment and a point on the curve of highly vernacular, (and after<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/erving-goffman-3026489" target="_blank"> Goffman</a>) ‘backstage’ and ‘informal’ strands of broadcast talk. The prankster’s <i>modus operandi</i> thus conducive to the production of a media metadiscourse, a constantly evolving language of broadcasting that references broadcast culture and repositions media personality and audience in the process. </div><div><br /></div><div>The media prankster, unlike previous figures of media authority and/or celebrity, is neither expert nor imagined companion to the viewer, but co-conspirator. By dislocating the power relations and boundaries of broadcast discourse, the entire media environment becomes destabilized. Information flow becomes a continuous loop rather than a one way transmission, notions of authenticity and authority are undermined, formulaic broadcast talk becomes a laughable, if not highly suspect, form of public discourse, and consequently the model for what constitutes broadcast talk, in both nature and actual utterance, expands. <br /><br /> As the hoax becomes a more commonplace activity in a culture that celebrates irreverence and heterodoxy, it also becomes a less deviant activity. The prankster figure is no longer relegated to the sidelines of society. By incorporating the prank into his grammar of broadcast discourse, he offers an antidote to soundbite culture and media-trained celebrities and spokespeople. Recent media developments such as the syndicated American radio program <i>The Phil Hendrie Show</i>, in which the host of the program cunningly plays the role of presenter, guest, and callers, suggest that the high moment of media prankstering is upon us. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fjTXK4e925w" width="320" youtube-src-id="fjTXK4e925w"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>Such an extension of the synthetic into all aspects of the media experience, combined with the proliferation and popularity of the media prank discussed in this dissertation, indicate a need for further research into audience readings of pranksters and synthetic narratives as everyday components of broadcast discourse.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span> <span> <span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>**********</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>(Ed. Note:</i> And to tie things up with a nice Mobius strip of a bow may I refer back to the <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-finds-some-serious-thinking.html" target="_blank">original post </a>in this series, and its reference to a more recent crop of media pranksters, in particular Stephen Colbert's 'Stephen Colbert' of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeV6XmPat85Ap7Mu6dryvDsiPgcrPK2Zp" target="_blank">The Colbert Report</a>. Here we find the either/or of <a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/vladimir_nabokov_380780" target="_blank">satire is a lesson, and parody is a game</a> may be too crisp a distinction. Much food for thought. </div><div><br /></div><div>And then there are the armies of YouTubers and Instagrammers and TikTokers and the like; gatekeeper-free environments that are open to anyone with a phone. Millions of daily uploads, billions of daily views, and, of course, a high rate of turnover in this world of <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/07/9914977/reality-tv-shows-social-media-instagram" target="_blank">influencers</a> and microstars and '<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Bu-Kkq4Tvr4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&ots=vfrPdD4ra1&sig=7w1fZuRM9t7Gd044llx3ShKbqpM#v=onepage&q&f=false" target="_blank">ordinary celebrity'</a>. (Turner, 2010)</div><div><br /></div><div>Give me another 20 years?</div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-73533970436916103192020-07-14T22:42:00.025-04:002020-07-21T21:40:44.929-04:00Suffering The Fools?Welcome to Chapter 4 of the paper. In case you missed any of the previous chapters, you can dig into them here:<br />
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<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html">Chapter 1: Putting the prankster in context</a><br />
<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html">Chapter 2: Carnival pleasures: The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacular</a><br />
<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/normalization-neutralization-vs.html">Chapter 3: Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistance</a></div>
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<i>“Pranks challenge all aspects of the social contract which have ossified.”</i></div>
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<i>“The territory signposted by pranks may represent our single supremely tangible freedom.”</i></div>
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<i>“…things are never what they seem…”</i></div>
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- From <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pranks-RE-Search-No-11/dp/0965046982">Re/Search #11: Pranks! </a></div>
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This chapter will be devoted to an analysis of the work of the media pranksters. Methods will include textual analysis as well as a discussion of the way the media have reported upon the phenomenon. The analysis will also include the relationship of aspects of the media prankster phenomenon to existing academic theories which have not yet been touched upon in this essay. In attempting to understand this style of broadcast talk, the literature review section of this dissertation pointed to cultural theories of the liminal, the ludic, the spectacular/narcissistic, and the carnivalesque as relevant to the theoretical positioning of the media prankster. What became clear is that the mission of the media prankster is to test the boundaries of appropriateness, and create room in media discourse for a point of view that contravenes conventional notions of truth, integrity, and consistency. Goffman’s work on identity, interaction, and styles of talk proves to be of particular value in this analysis, as does Tolson’s work in the area of synthetic personalities and its larger implications for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere" target="_blank">public sphere</a> of broadcasting. <br />
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While it is tempting to accept the idea of the inversion of values of the carnival world and transpose it wholesale to the world of the media prankster, additional considerations should be factored in to the equation. The media prankster defies neat categorisation as he does not simply negate or oppose the status quo. Instead, he continually surprises, craftily switching gears and keeping us guessing. He plays against expectations, but it is not always clear when he is being sincere, sarcastic, or sardonic. Often his methods yield more interesting, and arguably superior results to those of his ‘professional’ media colleagues. <br />
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To further complicate matters, the media prankster exists both inside and outside the world of the media. By incorporating certain aspects of media and interaction protocol and blatantly ignoring others, the media prankster draws attention to the artificiality and arbitrariness of not just the media encounter, but to notions of media personality, authority, and celebrity as well. Yet, however awkward or uncomfortable it may be to observe the resulting style of communication, it makes for indisputably compelling viewing. Barnes’ (1980) and Bakhtin’s (1968) respective theories of subversion through <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=Gk8bgt8yM9oC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=grotesque+parody+richard+barnes&source=bl&ots=WKgG4GtZhO&sig=ACfU3U1-sSVDUZVDt-QHP5O5yJX-x0eRoQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi72prcxfrpAhXKKM0KHdreAzYQ6AEwA3oECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=grotesque%20parody%20richard%20barnes&f=false" target="_blank">‘grotesque parody’</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grotesque_body" target="_blank">'grotesque realism’ </a>provide us with insight into the strategies of the media prankster. It is through the manipulation and satirical overstating of those elements of everyday media presentation that are predictable and unremarkable in themselves that the prankster creates spectacle from the ordinary.</div>
<br /><i> Meet Prankster #1: Ali G</i><div><br /><div>
In many ways the Ali G character represents a media manifestation of <a href="https://cla.purdue.edu/academic/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html" target="_blank">Baudrillard’s simulacrum</a>. Of the pranksters analyzed in this dissertation, Ali G is probably the most seamless, and therefore the most successful at hoodwinking officialdom and creating intelligent, entertaining satire. Ali G creator Sacha Baron-Cohen has created a comprehensive universe for his character, complete with its own distinctive look, language, taste, sensibilities, and values. The Ali G persona has become so entrenched in British popular culture in 2000 that if we see a 'yellow Fubu track suit, wraparound shades, chunky jewellery, and Hilfiger hat', we automatically conjure up images of the skilled. Ali G’s heart is with the ‘Berkshire massive’, a fictional association based out of a well-to-do suburban London neighbourhood. It is from the untenable point of view of a ghetto boy from Berkshire that the world of Ali G originates. With this alter ego established, Ali’s strategy is to feign ignorance and gain social immunity by virtue of exotic ethnic and subcultural affiliations. In this guise he asks the most fundamental questions of the most respected figures. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fknOJlGHsSc" width="320" youtube-src-id="fknOJlGHsSc"></iframe></div> </div><div>Ali G guilefully positions himself as the voice of youth, the host of a television program said to speak to the young people in the ghetto, hence his impressive track record in securing interviews with assorted spokespersons and officials, e.g.:<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 29px;"><br /></div>Ali G to High Court Judge Pickles:<br /> <br /><i> “Is I allowed to kill a man who calls me Mum a slag?”</i> </div><div><br />
Ali G to noted scientist and Professor Heinz Wolff: </div><div><br /></div>
<i>“What is the smallest thing in the universe? Is it smaller than a sand?”</i></div>
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Ali G to Major General Ken Perkins (Britain’s most highly decorated soldier): <div><br /><div><i>“</i><i>Ain’t the army just full of thick blokes? Would it help getting in the army if you’ve already killed someone?”</i> <div><br />
Ali G creates a protective wall around himself with intentionally bad grammar, naive questions, malapropisms, historical inaccuracies, and vernacular slang. Allegedly serious exchanges, such as the above noted and the following, between Ali G and Lindsey Owen, the Bishop of Horsham, are thus able to take place within the context of what appears to be a straightforward media interaction.<br />
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Ali G: <i>What does God look like?</i>
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<i><br /></i>Bishop: <i>He is sort of Jesus-shaped.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>A: <i>What has God ever done?</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>B: <i>Well he made the world. He created.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>A: <i>(incredulously) He made the world?</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>B: <i>Of course.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>A: <i>(sounding surprised) Did he?</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>B: <i>I can only tell you what I believe.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i>A:<i> So you’re saying God made the world. (pause) And since then he’s just chilled?</i></div><div><i><br /></i>
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In the world of the media prankster the embarrassing questions are asked, the social codes that govern interactions are tossed aside, and the usual cues and norms are ignored; in other words, a significantly different set of rules than those that apply to the world of the media professional. What we have here, to use <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/frame-analysis" target="_blank">Goffman's terminology</a>, is the prankster deftly playing with the guidelines of 'in frame' and 'out of frame' interaction, the latter representing a form of communication that would be scrupulously avoided by the average person for fear of embarrassment or social retribution. Yet, for a reason difficult to pinpoint, ‘out of frame’ communications do not hold this threat for the seemingly humiliation-immune media prankster. Goffman’s work in the area of <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/goffmans-front-stage-and-back-stage-behavior-4087971" target="_blank">‘backstage language’</a>, or the type of speech usually reserved for subordinate spaces or areas without surveillance, is also applicable to the world of the media prankster. Whereas clear distinctions once existed between the backstage world and the onstage world, the dividing line has become increasingly difficult to ascertain, particularly now, and particularly in media culture.<br />
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After establishing the Ali G character on Channel 4’s <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/goffmans-front-stage-and-back-stage-behavior-4087971" target="_blank"><i>The 11 O’Clock Show</i> </a>with the short interview segments cited above, Ali G creator Sacha Baron-Cohen was commissioned to create his own six-part series for Channel 4, and added the character of ‘Borat’ to his repertoire. Posing as a television reporter from Kazakhstan assigned to a story on ‘how to be real English gentleman’, Borat sought out British manners expert Lady Chelsea.</div>
<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xasw1jPpq7o" width="320" youtube-src-id="xasw1jPpq7o"></iframe></div><div><br />Once inside Lady Chelsea’s home, site of her respected etiquette classes, Borat carefully violated almost every norm of British behaviour, even broaching such taboo topics as sex, death, and bathroom habits at the dinner table. After the Borat segment featuring Lady Chelsea was broadcast in March 2000, the well-mannered Lady was said to be ‘mortified’, and was even considering closing down her etiquette classes altogether.Such anecdotes speak volumes about the circumstances under which norms can be contravened with relative impunity; namely in the face of implicit, societally shared ideas about media integrity and political correctness. The diffusion of the media prankster phenomenon, however, detracts from the public’s faith in the media as an institution. Not too long ago the popularly held assumption was that media presentation in the western world reflected the values inherent in a democratic society: reality, truth, balance, and reason. In the intervening years we have seen a shift away from communication at face value, and movement towards the manipulation and reconfiguration of both media object and subject. By the early 1990s Scannell and Tolson viewed this proliferation of synthesis and simulation in the media as a threat to Habermas’ (1974)<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere" target="_blank"> conception of the public sphere</a>. While Scannell emphasises the importance of maintaining rationality as a core value in the public sphere, Tolson acknowledges the paradox of a public sphere so diverse and so fragmented that it represents everyone and thus, in essence, no one.
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">Meet Prankster #2: Tom Green</span></i></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><i>This is the Tom Green Show<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><i>It’s not the Green Tom Show<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><i>This is my favourite show<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><i>Because it is my show</i></span><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 28px;"><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 28px;"><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rdq7BwXD3ec" width="320" youtube-src-id="rdq7BwXD3ec"></iframe></div></span></div><br />So go the intentionally nonsensical lyrics from the theme song of MTV’s The Tom Green Show, a contemporary media phenomenon posing even more of a threat to a broadcasting sphere assumed to be truthful, decent, and reasonable. Various critics have labelled the show using terms such as 'sick, offensive, amateurish, and infantile', and Green himself admits that he does not always know where the line of acceptable prankstering lies. On the weekly television program Green partakes in such activities as surprising his parents in bed at 3 a.m. with the bloody skull of a dead animal, sucking milk from a cow’s udder, and impersonating an injured, blind, or otherwise disabled person, taking repeated pratfalls and causing physical damage to public property and/or himself. All of these events take place with cameras rolling, making a point to emphasise the uncomfortable, awkward moments usually relegated to the cutting room floor. Not unlike the performers in carnival and festive rituals referred to earlier in this essay, Green does not believe in separating the audience from the spectacle, even subjecting himself to violence, scorn, and humiliation along the way.
<br /><br /> Clearly, Green’s interest is in creating extreme situations and provoking reactions. MTV executive John Miller sums up the appeal of Tom Green as “a live action hero <a href="https://youtu.be/VCmYfJQ0j4Y" target="_blank">for the Beavis and Butthead crowd"</a>, referring to the irremediable MTV cartoon duo whose public sphere was limited to heavy metal videos and random acts of neighbourhood vandalism. Proving MTV’s Miller right in an episode from the second season of The Tom Green Show, Green took his camera crew to several New York City electronics stores. The alleged object of the exercise was the investigation of product warranties. If an item claimed to have a one-year warranty, Green took that to mean the article was covered for a full year, regardless of the circumstances surrounding its damage. With that logic employed, Green proceeded to demolish clock radios, watches, and even a guitar, in full view of the shopkeepers, and then walk out without paying for the articles, arguing they were covered by warranties. By creating this extreme situation Green provoked extreme reactions, in spite of the presence of video cameras. Whereas some people would defer to the camera’s presence and be more lenient and accommodating under its gaze, the shopkeepers in this segment were uniformly enraged by Green’s behaviour, one even threatening to ‘kick his [expletive] [expletive]’, regardless of whether the camera was on or off. This incident suggests that an unwavering faith and belief in anyone with a camera no longer holds true, and adds fuel to the aforementioned Scannell/Tolson debate on the status of broadcasting in the public sphere in an era of synthetic media personalities and unclear rules. But there are also differences between Tom Green and the uncivilised Beavis and Butthead. Green, for example, invariably attempts to overcompensate for his wrongdoings, often asking for forgiveness or hugs from those he has trespassed against. In the exchange below between Green and a cinema security guard, note Green’s use of manipulative, childlike techniques, in this case asking for friendship from the authority figure he knows he has pushed too far.</div><div><br />
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom and cameraman brazenly walk in to cinema without buying tickets, with camera rolling.</span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom (to camera, while walking)<i>: We're going to sneak in to the movie now...we've slipped around the side...(he whistles to himself nonchalantly)</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom <i>(upon encountering the security guard): You're tall! You're fantastically tall.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Guard: <i> I'm not taller than you. Now I'm asking you to leave or I'm going to throw you out.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom:<i> You've got good security here.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"> (TG to camera)<i>: Of course they're a business and if everyone snuck in they wouldn't make any money.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"> (TG to guard):<i> So we're friends again?</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Guard: <i>We were never friends to begin with. I have no stake in what you're doing; you have no stake in what I'm doing.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom<i>: We talked a long time though. That's the beginning of a friendship, possibly. (Guard begins to break a slight smile)</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Tom:<i> Unfortunately I live on the other side of the country so it would be a long distance relationship. (pause) Maybe we just better part company now before we get too attached.</i></span></div>
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Unlike routines that rely on choreographed set-ups and punchlines, Green’s act succeeds regardless of his subjects’ reactions. The mere staging of extreme situations provides viewers with the opportunity to observe the equivalent of a car crash in slow motion, all within a context sanctioned by the masses: the media environment. Despite its many negations of broadcast protocol, The Tom Green Show succeeds in its communicative intentions, making the case for the existence of a new media language, one in which the unspoken is spoken, the off-camera becomes the on-camera, and the repugnant is the norm.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EFNrz8goEhs" width="320" youtube-src-id="EFNrz8goEhs"></iframe></div><div><br />
In addition to forging a distinct broadcast discourse in these ways, Green plays with conventional notions of media personality by sending out mixed messages about his identity via his appearance. Of the media pranksters studied in this essay, Green is the only one not to use what amounts to a costume to transmit signals about his persona. On the set of his television show he usually wears a suit and tie, an improbable wardrobe choice for the iconoclastic Green, but the outfit does add an aura of seriousness to the otherwise lawless goings on. And although Green comports himself like most other 20-somethings during his ‘on the street’ segments, there is something slightly suspicious and menacing about his mundane self-presentation. At a time when piercing, tattooing, and unusual hairstyles and hair colours have been adopted and co-opted by the masses, one of the few remaining ways to be different is to be inconspicuous. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=eDhPbH9roU4C&pg=PA158&lpg=PA158&dq=dave+laing+mods&source=bl&ots=4KbweTrAeU&sig=ACfU3U0DV1_H95NARvW567zhdLVHEkdf2w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis3JKUyPrpAhUOG80KHXP2B_4Q6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=dave%20laing%20mods&f=false" target="_blank">Dave Laing observed </a>a similar tendency amongst the Mods in the 1960s, and <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=T-NJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT336&lpg=PT336&dq=caroline+evans+rave&source=bl&ots=G8bftnXHHy&sig=ACfU3U1p0KEIa4PXILfaoThSpgyCAaMsHw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj98I7FyPrpAhXZUs0KHaJuAvkQ6AEwDHoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=caroline%20evans%20rave&f=false" target="_blank">Caroline Evans noticed</a> the affinity for such ‘disappearing tactics’ amongst the rave generation of the 1990s. For Tom Green this has meant the adoption of a very ordinary physical appearance, thus casting himself as less overtly freakish than fellow pranksters such as Dennis Pennis and <a href="https://www.canadalandshow.com/oral-history-of-nardwuar-the-human-serviette/" target="_blank">Nardwuar the Human Serviette</a>, whom we will encounter next.<br />
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">Meet Prankster #3: Dennis Pennis</span></i></h1><div><br /></div>
If the media prankster is a practitioner of the punk equivalent of journalism, then Paul Kaye, creator of the Dennis Pennis character, would be happy to be considered a card-carrying member of the trade. Kaye <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04ks3gk" target="_blank">admits</a> that “…as a kid, I was big on John Lydon/Rotten…I guess that’s evident from the orange hair. I used to be a bedroom punk. Ruffing (sic) up my tie on the way home from school. There’s a lot of that in Pennis.” Coincidentally (or perhaps not), a quote from John Lydon/Rotten used to synopsise the punk movement, proves illustrative in an examination of the media pranksters. Lydon dubbed the efforts of the punks the 'achievements of the deformed. Like their punk brethren, the media pranksters are imbued with the rebellious spirit of the disenfranchised. Not pretty or mellifluous enough for the straight media world, the pranksters, like the punks, cultivate and capitalise on a grotesqueness, or negative charisma. They simultaneously captivate and repel. <br /><br /> With his fluorescent orange hair, tasteless suits, nerdglasses, and a boisterous American accent and manner (oddly, he introduces himself as representing the BBC), Dennis Pennis communicates contempt for conventional media practice and its unwritten rules about appearance, appropriateness, and journalistic decorum. Operating from this dual base as member and mocker of the media, Pennis exploits techniques Goffman (1974) termed<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/frame-analysis" target="_blank"> ‘deceptive frame’</a>. When Pennis unabashedly insults the celebrities he is ‘interviewing’, and does so in the first few seconds of the encounter, it is clear that what ‘appears’ to be going on, is not really going on at all. Rather than a balanced media encounter, this is an outright attack, a communicative bait and switch.<br /><br /></div><div>It is significant that Pennis, unlike fellow media pranksters Ali G, Tom Green, and Nardwuar, deals exclusively with superstar celebrities. By accosting the likes of Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, Cindy Crawford, Mel Gibson, and Cher at awards ceremonies and other superstar meeting places, Pennis stages assaults on the most highly media-trained personnel. His technique is the surprise attack, essentially carpet-bombing the stars with insulting one-liners. With an arsenal filled with corny wordplay and bad puns, there is little room for interviewee rebuttal or redemption. Pennis’ pranksterism is primarily about his performance, with a large part of the appeal being celebrity schadenfreude.<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/v654Jh5Z9uI" target="_blank">Examples</a> of Pennis’ ‘hit and run’ interviewing technique include:<br />
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<i>Demi Moore, if it was done tastefully and they paid you enough, would you ever consider keeping your clothes on in a film?<br /><br />Pierce Brosnan, I was glued to my seat during your last movie. Otherwise I would have left.<br /><br />Elton John, do you know what they call you in Germany? Herr Piece!<br /><br />Mel Gibson, your film did wonders for my sex life. When I went to the cinema, I slept with the whole audience.<br /><br />Tom Hanks, I loved your new film “Apollo 13”… but it was completely lacking in atmosphere!</i><br />
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A feature unique to Pennis as media prankster is the inversion of the focus of attention in media encounters. Whereas the conventional model usually features a brief question from the interviewer, followed by an explanatory and/or anecdotal response from the interviewee, Pennis rejects this mode of interaction in favour of one which shamelessly focuses the attention on the interviewer. This scenario would be one result of the violation of broadcast protocol initiated by the media pranksters. Part of what Pennis’s act is about, then, is the repositioning of the celebrity spotlight. By brazenly disrespecting those usually surrounded by sycophants and disproportionate praise, he invokes a pleasure Fiske (1987) associates with the spectacle of wrestling, namely the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Television-Culture-Communication-published-Routledge/dp/B00EKYH0UU" target="_blank">“exaggeration of the pleasure of looking.” </a><br />
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Exaggerated pleasures notwithstanding, even Kaye tired of his celebrity-assaulting alter ego, laying the pesky Pennis to rest in 1998. “I was bored [expletive] of the whole [expletive] thing”, admitted Kaye, “…Dennis…was becoming a fat, bloated, parody of himself…falling into every cliché in the book…Killing him was important to me.” Ali G creator Sacha Baron-Cohen is reported to have similarly hung up the trademark yellow track suit earlier this year, and rumours are circulating in North America that it’s only a matter of time before everyone in North America will be able to recognise Tom Green, effectively nullifying his act. For the media prankster there is an inverse relationship between success and efficacy, and he therefore must be viewed as having a ‘best before’ date. With these parameters for the media prankster established, we are poised to meet the final protocol-defying character under consideration in this essay. It should come as no surprise that he breaks the rules set out above.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 29.333335876464844px;">Meet Prankster #4: Nardwuar The Human Serviette</span></i></div>
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The longest surviving of the media pranksters examined in this dissertation, the quizzically named Nardwuar the Human Serviette has been performing feats of media trickery since 1987. In the early days he was armed only with a tape recorder on loan from the college radio station with which he was affiliated. Soon the help of friends with parents who owned video cameras was enlisted, and confrontations between Nardwuar and television personalities, pop stars, and heads of state were documented on both audio and video formats. The resulting footage ended up broadcast on CITR, the University of British Columbia radio station, or on occasional specials on the local cable television channel. Alternately, transcriptions of the notorious exchanges ended up in such publications as Discorder (Vancouver), Chart (Toronto), Roctober (Chicago), The Rocket (Seattle), and Flipside and Popsmear (Los Angeles). As tales of his adventures have been confined to small circulation publications and broadcasts with limited zones of transmission, Nardwuar has been able to keep a relatively low profile (especially compared to the other pranksters discussed in this essay) and not have to worry about becoming a household name or face. (<i>Ed. Note</i>: As of the mid 2000s this is no longer the case as Nardwuar has become one of the most popular celebrity interviewers on YouTube, where his channel boasts over 228 millions views and 1.68 million subscribers as of mid July 2020.)</div>
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That it is Nardwuar’s habit to use the title ‘Nardwuar versus _____’ in his descriptions and transcriptions of interviews, indicates his framing of the interaction as oppositional and provocative as opposed to promotional and co-operative (the usual tone of the media encounter). Not entirely dissimilar to the style forged by Dennis Pennis, Nardwuar works with a model of the media encounter as obstacle course, the major difference between the two being that the assault is over much more quickly with Pennis. On a note of convergent evolution, also observe the physical similarities between Nardwuar and Pennis, two media pranksters operating concurrently and unbeknownst to each other, on opposite sides of the Atlantic. But in stark contrast to Pennis and his stinging one-liners, Nardwuar torments interviewees with a seemingly endless string of questions, testing both mettle and patience. Often times Nardwuar finds himself under attack from the interviewee. The result of this anomalous method is an upsetting of commonly held ideas about the temper of broadcast discourse and the related role of the media personality.<br />
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The following<a href="https://nardwuar.com/vs/rob_zombie/index.html" target="_blank"> barrage of questions posed to rock musician Rob Zombie</a><a href="https://nardwuar.com/vs/rob_zombie/index.html"> </a>typifies Nardwuar’s interviewing style. For the most part, the incessant questions elicited either a non-verbal or monosyllabic response from Zombie. The non-verbal responses ranged from nervous laughter to sighs of frustration, silence, and even yawns. The overt yawn, meant to be read as a cue of the interviewee’s diminishing patience and increasing agitation, is superficially addressed by Nardwuar with “you seem a bit tired, Rob”, but ultimately ignored as social cue. <br />
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Are you a fan of those true-life crime books that are put out by Time-Life Books? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Have you ever tried absinthe? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Do you know exactly where in Los Angeles that Alfalfa from the Little Rascals was shot in the head over a bad drug deal? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Have you been to a graveyard at midnight? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">What do you know about human sacrifices, Rob Zombie? The Aztecs were into human sacrifices. </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Have you ever been to a mortuary? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Are you into necrophilia at all, studying the history of it? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Do you own any shrunken heads? </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">What kind of lenses do you use to get that effect in your eyes?</span></i><br />
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The interview continued for quite some time, complete with Nardwuar’s inexplicably formal, perhaps grotesquely parodic, use of the interviewee’s full name in almost every question. In addition, note a politeness that defies reason (statements such as ‘thanks for the interview’, and ‘really appreciate your time’ repeatedly appear in the full transcript), considering the fact that Zombie has been subjected to a line of questioning resembling a mutant form of cross-examination more than an interview. As Zombie grew increasingly weary with the proceedings and it was clear the interview was drawing to a close, Nardwuar’s method takes a Dadaesque turn, as he attempts to cajole the interviewee into participating in a childlike call and response (‘doot doola doot doo’) which has become the customary grand finale of his interviews.<br />
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N:<i> Well, thanks very much for your time, Rob. I really do appreciate it. Keep on rockin' in the free world. And doot doola doot doo... <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> Okay. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>Rob Zombie? Doot doola doot doo…<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> (silence) </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>Hello Rob Zombie? Just to end the interview? Goodbye, thanks for your time, Rob, and doot doola doot doo... <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> See you later. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>Thanks again for your time. Would you be able to finish off with that at all? Could I ask you please? Please? <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ: <i>A couple more times. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>A couple more times? Okay. Doot doola doot doo... <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> I almost got it down. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N:<i> Okay. Doot doola doot doo... <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> Keep going, it's almost funny. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>Rob Zombie! Doot doola doot doo... Are you there on the speaker phone? Are you still there? <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> I'm still here. </i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>Thanks very much for the interview. I do appreciate it. And doot doola doot doo... <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">RZ:<i> (Silence)</i></span><br />
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<span lang="" style="line-height: 22px;">(After an extended silence, it is clear Mr. Zombie has left the premises. He did not utter the meaningless linguistic units ‘doo doo’ and consummate the interaction as desired.)</span></div>
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Exchanges such as the above violate many tenets of media and communications theory, thus prompting questions related to sense-making and the media prankster encounter. Insight into the decoding of multiply inflected interactions may be obtained from Hartley’s (1999) work on ‘DIY’ (i.e.do-it-yourself) citizenship, a thesis informed by <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIY-Culture-Protest-Nineties-Britain/dp/1859848788" target="_blank">McKay’s (1998) definition of ‘DIY’</a> as a distinctive cultural force. Because of mutual ‘DIY’ cultural affiliations and bases of knowledge, there are those who implicitly know how to translate the unique language of the media prankster. In addressing the burgeoning of microcultures and the associated plethora of reinscribed meanings, Hartley identifies ’DIY’ as a fifth possible form of citizenship, following civic, political, social and cultural. In so doing, Hartley validates the efforts and activities of those operating outside and/or around the usual centres of power, such as the pranksters considered here. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=qZmJAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hartley+DIY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9mcO7xPrpAhX1knIEHUqNBUwQ6AEIXTAG#v=onepage&q=citizenship&f=false" target="_blank">According to Hartley</a>, “while cultural identity has classically been perceived as proceeding from natural or territorial authenticity…more recent identities arise from the private…world of individual lifestyle, choice, and preference…and subcultural identities based on youth, taste, or fanship of various kinds. Now we are moving…towards…citizenship based not on an authenticist notion of cultural identity, but on a radically deontextualised network of meanings which locate identity in the mediasphere, not in the public sphere.”<br />
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The exchange between Nardwuar and Graham Coxon of the British pop band Blur that follows serves as an excellent example of the media prankster as DiY culturalist and of the implicit, successful interpretation of the prankster’s cultural activity by someone inhabiting a similar universe of sensibility, taste, and information. Coxon shows his ability to recontextualise the decontextualised meanings (as referenced above by Hartley), indicating a successful transmission of meaning from the mediasphere. In this case the meaning came from Coxon’s exposure to the already discussed British media prankster Dennis Pennis. Able to read the appearance and combative style of Nardwuar as a media prankster in the Pennis tradition, Coxon implicitly understands the context of the tete a tete, and does not get flustered. He is therefore able to turn the exchange with the media prankster into an amusing volley. Those who do not understand the cheekiness, sarcasm, and simultaneously self-mocking and media-mocking nature of the prankster are unable to do so.<br />
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Nardwuar:<i> Everybody thinks, ‘oh Blur are Mods’. You guys are not mods, are you?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">Graham Coxon:<i> No.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N: <i>‘Cause I always think of Mods like '65 Who, R&B, all that stuff. Mods wouldn't wear Converse. You're not Mods, are you?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">GC:<i> No, we're not Mods.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N:<i> Like you're not Mod. You're not Mod. Like Blur are not Mod! You guys have effects pedals. What are all those effects pedals you have Graham?<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">GC:<i> They're Mod pedals.</i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">N:<i> Yeah, ‘Mod’-ulation pedals, but I mean...<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">GC:<i> (interrupting) You press one of them and a parka suddenly appears.</i></span></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 28px;"><i><span lang="" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lyjDrYsPtuo" width="320" youtube-src-id="lyjDrYsPtuo"></iframe></div>
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Tolson’s (1991) account of the <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=86kZKhuAjlAC&pg=PA302&lpg=PA302&dq=tolson+dialogic+improvisation&source=bl&ots=C2uunwqDCq&sig=ACfU3U2RpOZ0YaUboMmPqLZ8In0wtReTyw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifhrvYw_rpAhXDWc0KHdyWCHcQ6AEwAnoECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=tolson%20dialogic%20improvisation&f=false" target="_blank">‘dialogic improvisation’</a> characteristic of television chat show talk is also helpful in this analysis. He likens this type of broadcast talk to a “…jazz performance, not only because it is apparently unrehearsed, but also in so far as it involves a play of thematic repetition and variation…A form of wit is demonstrated by interweaving these various topics, so that each is inflected in terms of the other…Two or three topics in the air at once and the skill of the participants consists in their ability to manipulate the dialogue to ensure that the verbal juggling act continues.”<br />
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To conclude the methods and analysis chapter, I would like to recap some of the main points. The media prankster is creating a new form of media discourse by parodying aspects of broadcast talk and mixing in elements of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Forms-Conduct-Communication-Erving-Goffman/dp/081221112X" target="_blank">what Goffman has termed “informal talk”</a>, the site where shifts in identity and topic are allowed. As opposed to being a straight inversion of the institutional language of broadcasting, this new form of discourse mixes genres in jest and in seriousness, turning media communication into a puzzle for which clues may be found in theshared networks of meaning of ‘DIY’ citizenship. In these ways the language of the media prankster demonstrates its ludic playfulness, its carnivalesque unpredictability, its punkish rebelliousness, and its ‘betwixt and between’ liminality.</div>
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/05/chapter-5-traditionalists-are.html" target="_blank">Next Chapter: Some concluding thoughts on the media prankster</a></i></div>
</div></div></div>Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-81141634236374473342020-07-13T22:18:00.001-04:002020-07-15T16:52:36.458-04:00Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistanceThis third chapter of <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-finds-some-serious-thinking.html" target="_blank">the paper</a> (1999-2000) puts forward theories on how a combination of an ever-fragmenting media industry and a new tolerance of the edgy and offensive created a welcoming site for the media prankster at the turn of the millennium.<br />
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And if you're just joining us, here are direct links to the previous chapters:</div>
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<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html" target="_blank">Chapter 1: Putting the prankster in context</a></div>
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<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html" target="_blank">Chapter 2: Carnival pleasures: The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacular</a></div>
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In this third chapter the case of the media prankster will be looked at from the wider perspective of cultural forces implicated in what is rapidly becoming the zeitgeist of the early 21st century, the mainstreaming of the irreverent. While speculation persists as to why this is the cultural condition of the moment -- increased media fragmentation opening up both space and demand for more extreme viewpoints -- what does seem certain is that the conventional ways of thinking about transgression no longer suffice. The majority of subcultural theories, be they of <a href="https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/29411_6.pdf" target="_blank">Chicago School </a>or <a href="https://ddbuckingham.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/youth-culture.pdf" target="_blank">Birmingham School</a> origin, map out an ‘us versus them’ scenario. The literally subordinate subculture is portrayed as disadvantaged and disenfranchised, acting out against a clearly dominant group for whom power and advantage are givens. The mere fact that a rule-breaking media personality can be embraced by the masses suggests that the way has been cleared for a new, more incorporative form of subversion. <br />
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To better understand this claim it is helpful to take a broader look at popular culture in the year 2000. Part of the argument I would like to make is that from the early 1990s onward, popular culture has acted as a neutralizing/normalising agent. Elements which were once considered shocking or outrageous no longer seem so, having been funnelled into mainstream discourse by a perpetually present media. The soundbites and information morsels constantly transmitted to us via old and new media seem to make it possible for anything to be palatable for a time span of twenty seconds. As a result, we see the extremes rearing their heads. At one end of the spectrum we find prefabricated boy bands and teen sensations like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Though their messages and appearance may overflow with subtext they are nonetheless sanctioned as family entertainment. At the other end of the spectrum we find the rawness and vulgarity of, for example, South Park and Farrelly Brothers movies.<br />
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A consequence of this stretching of the boundaries of the mainstream is the inclusion in media discourse of that which was previously perceived as countercultural, subcultural, alternative, or fringe, and therefore excluded from traditional media narratives. In this way, popular culture may be seen as much less resistant to difference. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-Sense-Place-Electronic-Behavior-ebook/dp/B004TW1ZHW" target="_blank">Meyrowitz (1985)</a> explains it this way: “By merging discrete communities of discourse, television has made nearly every topic and issue a valid subject of interest and concern for virtually every member of the public. Further, many formerly private and isolated behaviours have been brought out into the…public arena.” To relate this reconfigured arena of popular culture more specifically to the case of the media prankster I will now introduce theories of rock and roll as a distinctive and all-encompassing lifestyle and ‘structure of feeling’.<br />
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<i>Rock, rebel, and reconstitute</i><br />
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The intention of this segment is to position the media prankster as one who has effectively harnessed the power commonly associated with rock and punk traditions -- rebellion, opposition, provocation -- and placed them in the arsenal of the prankstering media personality. Just as so much of the extreme and the seminal has come to the fore in popular music, style, and lifestyle, so too is the case with media culture. Although the way in which media culture impacts upon the construction of identity and the production of pleasure has not been adequately studied useful theoretical work from the parallel world of rock and punk culture exists, providing potential insights to an analysis of the media prankster. <br />
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<a href="https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/35855597/Grossberg_-_Another_Boring_Day_in_Paradise_-_Rock_and_Roll_and_the_Empowerment_of_Everyday_Life.pdf?1417952893=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DAnother_boring_day_in_paradise_rock_and.pdf&Expires=1594694699&Signature=Rd8rVL8tcV1NjxR7JIqdJxWcEmrSYwCAwj9Oe8OTnhHGUweAfMHEH-xXtAOsKnIMgEdRaXE1lDozp2O2QBEo2HW6gUNql0t4tH32E254zgjgMlKKb0eJ4Cx~0cyNBghb3JlTzEK16ppgBYmnRZeGiCl55dhEGq070oeZ~WSMxxenb3toF2jWh9~fcC7QLn43Rkr49UbrHOvYeelfnud1X6ULpZYFxPDTqJtMSJS3yDOHdTg53UXGQ~FrMklyH3Dmr43dRPpU3Yh0eA959216W3-F5EXndhkkfRjo5YvfdN3BysDEgJ4~PRJ9UhoGGwasOSNebfQvecb70S7KOWUzZw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA" target="_blank">Grossberg (1984)</a> wrote of the ‘strategic empowerment’ of rock and roll practice, but the main shortcoming here is rock culture referred to as the disenfranchised ‘other’, as located outside the forces of hegemony. While this may have been the case at the time of publication of Grossberg’s article, it is certainly not the case now. Today rock discourses are big business, infiltrating mainstream taste, fashion, and attitude with unprecedented speed and ease. And once the ‘hipness’ or the ‘otherness’ of rock discourse can be successfully packaged and marketed, all claims of rock and roll as counter-hegemonic lose their legitimacy.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lipstick-Traces-History-Twentieth-Century/dp/0674535812" target="_blank">Greil Marcus (1989)</a> adds a new dimension to the idea of rock and punk as sites of empowerment by formulating connections between the one-time subterranean musical movements and the antiestablishment traditions of Dadaism and Situationism.<br />
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That the methods used by the Dadaists and the Situationists (some have argued their methods were identical) bear a remarkable resemblance to those used by the pioneers of the punk movement in the latter part of the 1970s, is more than coincidence, contends Marcus. According to him, cultural history would be better considered from the point of view of the rebels, as opposed to that of the victors. Marcus sees a timeline of counter-hegemony stretching from one end of the 20th century to the other, creating the net effect of a ‘secret history’ revealed by the beliefs and actions of those who opposed the dominant power structures. When, in the second decade of the twentieth century, Dadaist Tristan Tzara defined the logic of the revolutionary artistic movement as “…sucking in all the trivia, the rubbish, and the cast-offs of the world and then stamping a new meaning on the assemblage” how much closer could the philosophy be to the bricolage of the punks in the late 1970s, or the intentional violation and subsequent recontextualisation of practices enacted by the contemporary media pranksters? It is therefore productive to think about the spirit of inversion and resistance associated with Dada, Situationism, and rock/punk as a distinctive way of thinking, being, and reacting; in other words as a renovation of Raymond Williams’ 1961 definition of culture as a <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100538488" target="_blank">‘structure of feeling’</a>. <br />
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The possibility that the discourses of popular music are complete enough to symbolize a whole way of life has been suggested primarily by two cultural theorists, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Century-Party-Cultural-Politics/dp/0719028272" target="_blank">Steve Redhead (1990)</a> and <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/6563445/living-in-the-rock-n-roll-mystery-reading-context" target="_blank">H.L. Goodall Jr. (1991)</a>. Redhead wrote: “rock and pop discourses have produced…a range of individual positions [styles, poses, identities, narratives, desires] which youth culture can occupy…as a collective subject.” Goodall extends the proposition, designating rock and roll as a “new form of life itself’”, complete with its own lore, customs, and sensibilities. What we have, then, is collective identity construction on the one hand and unique life form on the other, both spawned by the influence of rock and roll as not just style, but as lifestyle. How people come to understand and organize the communication presented by a species such as the media prankster may therefore be attributable to this new life form enjoying influence outside its usual jurisdiction of sound and fashion. Goodall continues by pitting the puckish disorder of the rock and roll world view against the rational order of the scientific world view: “…rock and roll as playing the fool to technology’s genius…[but] this time around… the king is not a nation, but a dominant ideology of technological capitalism and formula-driven research reports that is the currency of the mixed media of the side-by-side modern and postmodern eras.” Extending the metaphor from rock and roll as the fool, to the media prankster as bothrock and roll andthe fool, serves us well in our attempts to theoretically situate the jester of the electronic age.<br />
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An article in the prominent British pop/rock music publication the NME, or New Musical Express, addresses this metaphor. Against the background of a blown up frame grab from a television set, the NME cover story of April 29, 2000 proclaims, “Why Ali G is the most rock ‘n’ roll show on TV”. The article inside goes on to mourn the bland portrayal of rock and roll on television. In the mind of writer Stephen Dalton, it turns out rock on television it isn’t very rock and roll at all. An executive at Britain’s Channel 4, broadcast home to The Ali G Show, praises the Ali G character for “...talking about drugs and things that pop stars really wouldn't do now. It seems like pop stars in the Spice Girls sense, who have a media personality, are quite safe. There isn't a Sex Pistols or a Rolling Stones out there to have a laugh about taking drugs or being in a porn film. Although there's lots of good, edgy alternative music, things seem to be either co-opted into the mainstream or they tend to be underground and faceless." It is worth noting that these comments are more relevant to the British pop music scene than its American counterpart, in which rapper Eminem and hip hop-metal hybridists Limp Bizkit top the charts with lyrics about pornography, rape, murder, homophobia, misogyny, drugs, and vandalism, and seem only too happy to broach the taboo topics during interviews. But differences between the popular culture climates of North America and Great Britain aside, the universally acceptable face of the ‘bad boy’ of the moment, and the one most likely to leave a lasting imprint on popular culture is the media prankster. <br />
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When considering the location of borders and boundaries in official media practice, it is important to note the ground already gained by characters who could be referred to as borderline media pranksters. Falling into this category would be envelope pushing American media personalities such as David Letterman and Howard Stern, and animated series such as The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead,and South Park. The irreverent style characteristic of these personalities and programmes flies in the face of everything network broadcasting has come to be known for. With fact, fiction, sincerity, and satire in constant collision with each other in this new broadcast discourse, the “communicative ethos” of broadcasting becomes an endangered species. Furthermore, this new brand of discourse is being stylistically reproduced in advertising and the day-to-day language of fans and viewers.<br />
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This trickle-down effect aside, the media prankster seems less intent on discrediting the media as institution than in the degree to which s/he can play with media protocol and manipulate the public’s faith and belief in the media. The substantive question with regard to media culture is no longer the political economy-based ‘is the media too powerful?’ but, rather, to what extent is media authority taken at face value? That is to say, if someone has a camera and a microphone and is asking a set of questions, are they assumed to be part of something called the ‘legitimate’ media, and if so, is the behaviour of the ‘interviewee’ adjusted accordingly? The net result with the media pranksters analysed in this dissertation is that most of the time, disbelief is suspended, even though what we’re being confronted with is clearly not the media encounter as it once existed. <br />
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It may also be useful to think about the prankster phenomenon as a result of a media-saturated society of the 1990s, and how (particularly in the 2000 summer of the ever popular reality TV programs, this enduring trust and acceptance of a ubiquitous media presence may be on the brink of change. A recent article on the current ratings-topping ‘reality TV’ shows, which have lately become nothing short of obsessions in North America and Europe, addresses the impact of a pervasive media. Statistics presented in the article include: 10,000+ live cameras continuously transmitting signals from various locales around the world, and another 250,000 personal webcams broadcasting the minutiae of life on a part-time basis. The idea that events that were previously thought to be inappropriate for broadcast are now netting record numbers of viewers, is germane to the discussion of the allure of the media prankster.<br />
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The aim of this chapter has been to establish some personal theories with regard to the case of the media prankster, in particular his/her role in what appears to be the larger cultural process of a neutralization of the iconoclastic. What this means to media culture is that what used to be thought of as amateur, irreverent, and inappropriate must now be reconsidered. In the place of old ideas about media integrity, balance, and professionalism come new ideas about the opening up of broadcast discourse and the media environment as a playground, not just workplace. Inarguably, conventional media superstructures continue to wield a great deal of power, but the runaway popularity of the media prankster would suggest that certain voices of opposition, once kept outside media discourse, are no longer relegated to a position of disadvantage. Just as those who were at one located outside the music industry, then given a voice as a result of the upheavals of the punk movement, the media prankster phenomenon mixes up the rules of work and play, rendering the old rules about professionalism and protocol obsolete. Exactly how the prankster does this will be considered in the next chapter on methods and analysis, where we will be observing and analyzing specific media pranksters.<br />
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/suffering-fools.html" target="_blank">Next chapter: Suffering the fools</a></i></div>
Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-28609921328523598162020-07-11T17:47:00.001-04:002020-07-14T21:35:19.295-04:00Carnival pleasures: The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacularThis second chapter of <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-finds-some-serious-thinking.html" target="_blank">the paper</a> examines various strands of theory, such as play, satire, and spectacle, in the context of what were at the time of its writing (1999-2000) contemporary manifestations of media products. So be prepared for a heavy dose of theory but with reference points ranging from Shakespearean fools to Beavis & Butthead and Howard Stern.<br />
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And if you missed Chapter 1, you can find it <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html" target="_blank">here.</a><br />
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From the ancient world’s <a href="https://medium.com/@MuseumHack/remembering-saturnalia-the-badass-ancient-roman-precursor-to-christmas-c7a84b7737bc" target="_blank">Saturnalia</a> to the <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2016/09/shakespeare-clowns-fools-infographic/" target="_blank">fool of Shakespearean drama</a> the prankster figure occupies an important place in what may be thought of as a secret cultural history. This history is one viewed through the lens of <a href="https://youtu.be/RW1ChiWyiZQ" target="_blank">cultural trickery</a> and pranksters. The parallel universe of the prankster has indeed travelled an interesting route: from the parodic twin of the official in ancient times, to the temporary of carnival time, to an increasingly subordinate position in the industrialized, modernized world. Today’s ultrafragmented culture, however, has provided a space for the voice of the prankster alongside the conventionally sanctioned voices of expression. The media prankster of today may be seen as transgressive, but not in the same way as his prankster predecessors.<br />
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Using <a href="http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2011/07/mikhail-bakhtin-carnival-and.html" target="_blank">Bakhtin’s framework </a>as a base, along with that of such culturally subversive movements as <a href="https://louderthanwar.com/situationism-explained-affect-punk-pop-culture/" target="_blank">Dadaism, Situationism, and punk,</a> a central objective of this essay is to illustrate how the media prankster, not unlike the historical fool or jester figure, hides behind a façade of feigned ignorance and naivete to illuminate the comical and contradictory in official discourses.<br />
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I. Carnival<br />
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Though the media prankster is certainly a media phenomenon, the most relevant theoretical work appears to reside in the notion of the carnivalesque, a term derived from the field of literary criticism, and coined by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin theorises the carnivalesque as a way of understanding ceremonies of transgression, opposition, reversal, and renewal, all of which are intended to lift societal constraints and upset norms and power relations. All notions of absolute truth, authority, and dogma are put into suspension when viewed from the standpoint of Bakhtinian carnival.<br />
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Moving Bakhtin’s ideas from the literary world to a larger cultural studies grid, postmodern theorist <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=n8cmPNEJk98C&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=figures+who+parody+conventionality+at+the+same+time+as+they+parody+themselves+and+their+own+claims+to+truth&source=bl&ots=tFuAFI4gDl&sig=ACfU3U07wKMLCjaKSIdSpWiFje2qiBI5vw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0gbasisHqAhWTYDUKHaytCc4Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=figures%20who%20parody%20conventionality%20at%20the%20same%20time%20as%20they%20parody%20themselves%20and%20their%20own%20claims%20to%20truth&f=false" target="_blank">John Docker </a>has correlated such characters of carnival culture as the rogue, the clown, the fool, and the crank to “…figures who parody conventionality at the same time as they parody themselves and their own claims to truth.” Here we find a direct link to the current crop of media pranksters, whose work challenges what previously was an implicit trust between television viewer and television audience, and is now a multiply-inflected, highly subtextual form of communication. Indeed, as John Fiske has stated in a chapter entitled ‘Carnival and Style’ (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/John-Fiske-Collection-Television-Routledge/dp/0415596475/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=fiske+television+culture&qid=1594329787&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Fiske, 1987</a>), “allowing the viewer to be ‘in the know’ and to participate in the joke reverses the power relations involved in watching normal television…” The inversion of power relations is certainly one of the key issues under consideration when correlating the carnivalesque to the contemporary media prankster. It is therefore worth considering the characterisation of carnival as inimical to the existing power structures, as has been done by Bakhtin biographers <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mikhail-Bakhtin-Katerina-Clark/dp/0674574176/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=clark+holquist&qid=1594329854&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Clark and Holquist</a>. “Carnival is a gap in the fabric of society, and since the dominant ideology seeks to author the social order as a unified text, fixed, complete, and forever, carnival is a threat.”<br />
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This tradition of carnivalesque trickery provides a useful analogy for the phenomenon of the media prankster. As an inhabitant of the <i>mundus inversus </i>-- the upside down dimension of a right side up world -- the carnivalesque character stakes out his territory by opposing and defying the norms and standards of the day. Fast forward several centuries and we find a character who is clearly closely related to carnivalesque characters, but not as easy to situate theoretically. While we find many of the traits of his carnivalesque ancestors in the media prankster, the softness of boundaries currently existing between the mainstream and the oppositional makes it difficult to ascertain if the media prankster represents inversion from within, or inversion from without.<br />
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On this critical point of inversion, I turn to the work of anthropologist <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reversible-World-Symbolic-Inversion-Society/dp/0801411122/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&keywords=barbara+babcock&qid=1594329903&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-12" target="_blank">Barbara Babcock (1978)</a>. Several years before the notion of the carnivalesque became fashionable in cultural studies circles, she displayed interest in acts of ‘symbolic inversion’, defining them as<br />
“…expressive behaviour which inverts, contradicts, abrogates, or in some fashion represents an alternative to commonly held cultural codes, values, and norms”. Babcock urges us not to make the mistake of conceiving of such inversions as activities taking place on the subcultural sidelines, affecting only the select few. “What is socially peripheral is often symbolically central”, writes Babcock, and it is in this spirit that the significance of a genus of media personality born on the symbolic sidelines of mainstream media discourse and now influencing its broader language is being considered.<br />
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The socially liberating properties of symbolic inversions, as well as their facilitation of reflexive points of view with regard to a society’s culture and practices, are at the core of their ability to exert influence. Whereas functional anthropologists have tended to view the symbolic inversions of carnival time as a site for the venting of accumulated tensions, Abrahams and Bauman (in Babcock, 1978): propose a different role: “far from constituting events that have hostility and conflict as their organising principle, carnival…appear[s] to…draw together opposing elements”. By proposing this more integrative model of carnival, the theories of Babcock, Abrahams, and Bauman encourage the conceptualisation of carnival as a constructive social and cultural activity, thus opening the door to the possibility that carnival possesses a value beyond its status as an occasional cultural event.<br />
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Suppose for a moment we frame our analysis of the media prankster within the context of carnival not as relegated to ceremonies that occur only on specified days of the year, but as a kind of constant carnival. While such a designation may just be another way of expressing the omnipresence of such features of postmodern existence as irony, irreverence, fragmentation, and reflexivity, an interesting question is raised with regard to the media prankster’s routine practice of iconoclastic, carnivalesque behaviour. This question of subversion built into the mainstream will be more closely considered in the forthcoming Methods and Analysis chapter, where issues of the shaping of mainstream broadcast discourse by traditions once considered voices of opposition and inversion will be examined in greater detail.<br />
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II. The liminal<br />
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Another helpful way of framing the phenomenon of the media prankster is by applying to it the concept of ‘liminality’. The idea derives from the work of anthropologists <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rites-Passage-Second-Arnold-Gennep/dp/022662949X" target="_blank">Arnold van Gennep </a>and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dramas-Fields-Metaphors-Symbolic-Society/dp/0801491517/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&qid=1594494002&refinements=p_27%3AVictor+Turner&s=books&sr=1-7&text=Victor+Turner" target="_blank">Victor Turner,</a> who shared a scholarly interest in the developmental stages of mankind and ‘rites of passage’ (a term of van Gennep’s coinage). The term ‘liminal’ refers to the staking out of a ‘betwixt and between’ space in which the subject has one foot in the world of childhood, foolishness and uncertainty, and the other in the world of adulthood, seriousness, and the accepted conventions of society. That media coverage of the media pranksters has invariably made allusions to their juvenile behaviour, infantile humour, and general immaturity, all paradoxically stemming from the body of a grown man, provides a case in point for life in the limen, or margin.<br />
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In this way liminality provides a very useful way of thinking about the media prankster. The space he occupies is ‘betwixt and between’ in a number of ways: between the amateur and the professional, between the ridiculous and the rational, between the childlike and the mature, between the artistic and the aberrant. Moving away from the structuralist grid of binary oppositions, Turner emphasises that the liminal character is not merely exhibiting binary differences, but is an intentionally ambiguous character, leaving it to us to determine whether his intentions are to negate, agitate, or simply play.<br />
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In the chapter ‘Betwixt and Between’ in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Symbols-Aspects-Cornell-Paperbacks/dp/0801491010/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+forest+of+symbols&qid=1594494077&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">The Forest of Symbols </a>(1967), Turner elaborates on van Gennep’s designation of the tripartite structure of rites of passage. These three stages are separation, margin, and aggregation. Turner writes of “…the intervening liminal period [in which] the state of the ritual subject (the ‘passenger’) is ambiguous; he passes through a realm that has few or none of the attributes of the past or coming state.” Arguably, the liminal character has attributes from both states, past and forthcoming, though perhaps unbeknownst to him. Not unlike the impetuous teenager testing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour, the media prankster has one foot positioned in the world of media structure and privilege while keeping the other in the world of free association and childhood whimsy.<br />
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III. The ludic<br />
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A third and related way of classifying the literature applicable to the study of cultural trickery is to conceive of the prank as a ludic interlude. Deriving from the Latin <i>ludere</i>, meaning to play, ludic activity is a key feature of carnival as well as of subcultural theory, particularly that which deals with sharply contrasting notions of work and play. Interestingly, the term ‘ludicrous’, which we now take to mean ridiculous, is directly etymologically related to <i>ludere</i>, indicating a clear evolution of a cultural value judgement related to purely pleasurable activities.<br />
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Subcultural theorist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_Young" target="_blank">Jock Young</a> (1971) has conducted some of the most significant work to date on the subterranean values of work and play. He characterises work and play as inhabiting two discrete worlds which symbolize binary oppositions; i.e. that which is work is defined by its ‘unplayfulness’, and that which is play is defined by its ‘unworklike’ quality. While the notions of work and play are central in a consideration of the media prankster, it is important to note an inherent weakness in Young’s theory. Specifically, he does not account for a situation in which work and play may commingle, complement each other, and create a new route to subversion from within. The fused work/play of the media prankster is a prime example of such commingling, with subterranean values brought into the workaday world, and elements of work structure imposed on the activity of play. Young defines the subterranean behaviour of play as that which is a hedonistic, cathartic expression of ego identity, as an end in itself. While it could be argued that the prank for prank’s sake is occasionally what the media prankster’s ‘work’ is about, thinking about the product created by the media prankster simply as play is problematic. By creating a pastiche of the media personality convincing enough to fool most onlookers, the media prankster’s ludic performances successfully encroach on the world of work, redefining both work and play in the process.<br />
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Young also references the Freudian distinction between the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasure_principle_(psychology)" target="_blank">pleasure principle</a> and the reality principle, and how the deferred gratification of the latter suggests a necessary stage of maturation, where one leaves behind the selfishness and indulgence of pleasure and play for social responsibility. These theories, too, are interesting to consider in light of the media prankster and his amalgamation of the principles of pleasure, reality, work, and play. What is pleasurable for the prankster, providing gratification and ego-expression, is being encased in the identity of a media professional’s ‘work’, and as such is being read as work by those duped by the skilled prankster.<br />
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Consider also <a href="https://www.amazon.com/The-Practice-of-Everyday-Life/dp/B0079UL9P4" target="_blank">de Certeau</a>’s (1984) contribution to the conceptualisation of work and play. He calls our attention to <i>la perruque</i>, an apparently widespread practice in the workplace in modern day France. de Certeau defines <i>la perruque </i>as “…the worker’s own work disguised as work for his employer”. Creative time-wasting, or creative time-poaching is what de Certeau alludes to, and in so doing expands our interpretation of the boundaries of work and work time. Thus the private is merged with the public, and the serious with the playful. In this way <i>la perruque</i> informs the sphere-colliding, protocol-defying actions of the media prankster, presenting a way to think about simultaneous work and play that structuralist (and much subcultural) theory does not. The problematic area is no longer the distinction between work and play or the melding of the two, but whether or not an everyday action can be viewed as resistant, by the very virtue of its ‘everydayness’.<br />
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IV. The synthetic<br />
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The single most valuable piece of writing from media studies relevant to the consideration of construction of the media personality is Andrew Tolson’s essay “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=86kZKhuAjlAC&pg=PA297&lpg=PA297&dq=tolson+televised+chat&source=bl&ots=C2uxiFqCBo&sig=ACfU3U0oEgm0c3wlziJqBCwXyhBWWQWWLg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLt4zj88XqAhUll3IEHVoACVwQ6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=tolson%20televised%20chat&f=false" target="_blank">Televised Chat and the Synthetic Personality</a>” (in Scannell, 1991). Tolson focuses in on a phenomenon he calls ‘synthetic personality’ as a new site of subversion. Tolson uses the concept of synthetic personality to describe increasingly artificially-constituted media personalities. In his article he points to such 1980s media curiousities as <a href="https://www.dame-edna.com/" target="_blank">Dame Edna Everage </a> -- a gaudy, over-the-top, theatrical ‘dame’ of the stage played by Australian comic actor Barry Humphries -- but synthetic personality is a term that applies equally well to the contemporary media prankster. Any time there is an interplay of multiple identities and premises, it is safe to say a synthetic media personality exists. Tolson sees the synthetic media personality as emblematic of the ‘postpopulist’turn in the public sphere of broadcasting. What was once a linear, authority-based transmitter of messages has shifted toward a mode of plurality, artifice, and subtext.<br />
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It is therefore worthwhile to consider the challenges inherent in the reading of the synthetic media personality, specifically the sophisticated decoding mechanisms required to read seemingly contradictory layers of text. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/No-Sense-Place-Electronic-Behavior-ebook/dp/B004TW1ZHW" target="_blank">Meyrowitz' (1985) </a>work on the overlapping of previously discrete spheres and the subsequent emergence of new identities proves helpful in this regard. Of particular interest to one considering synthetic aspects of today’s media personalities are Meyrowitz’s observations on the blending and blurring of the public and the private, and of childhood and adulthood. Of the media pranksters being analysed in this dissertation, all four exhibit ‘man-child’ characteristics, whether in style of dress, speech, attitude, or mannerism, as well as a blending of private and public spheres through the interweaving of fictitious and factual narratives.<br />
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Although further empirical investigation is required into how synthetic media personalities are being read (and if/how these readings are changing over time), it should be noted that as recently as January 2000, seriously discrepant readings of the synthetic media personality were being made. In this particular case the debate was over the racial and ethnic ambiguities present in the Ali G character, an admittedly tricky pastiche of Black, Asian, and White youth culture. Ten years earlier, and without the weight of considerations of ethnicity and race, Scannell (1991) observed that a group American exchange students, upon first viewing The Dame Edna Experience on British television, were unable to make any sense whatsoever of the proceedings. The juxtaposition of fact and fiction, of satire and truth, combined with the significantly divergent comic sensibilities of the Americans and the Australians, led to a completely confused reading. Where at one time uncertainty or instability of identity would have been viewed as a communicative failure, it now seems that the more intricate the personality construction, the more compelling the communicative message, regardless of any controversy or misunderstandings that may accompany the situation. That the reading of the synthetic media personality is not singularly-inflected is likely to be considered a feature, not a flaw, by its creators.<br />
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To conclude, there are a number of valuable points to consider from Tolson’s work, some which point to similarities, others which point to major differences, between the synthetic personality and the media prankster. Of particular importance is Tolson’s reference to the appearance of a ‘highly self-reflexive metadiscourse about television as a cultural institution’ evidenced by the awareness on the part of both interviewer and interviewee that what they are participating in and creating is in fact a performance. While this may have been the case with synthetic personalities of the 1980s such as Dame Edna and Max Headroom whose interviewees were in on the joke, it is usually not the case with the current lot of media pranksters.<br />
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In addition to concocting a synthetic media personality, their modus operandusis to badger interviewees with almost painfully ignorant and/or transgressive questions, then watch the interviewees squirm, joust, or attack. Still, Tolson’s point about the reflexivity of the metadiscourse evidenced in television talk is well taken, though to update his observation it should be added that the emergence of a more complex synthetic personality in the media prankster has called for the creation and circulation of a more refractory metadiscourse. Such a shift is evidenced in the move away from the generally good-natured but innuendo-laden verbal banter that typified the language of the television chat show in the 1980s, to the more adversarial, celebrity-mocking form of broadcast talk used by the media pranksters. <br />
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V. Where the narcissistic and the spectacular meet the prankster<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Media-Culture-Cultural-Identity-Post-modern/dp/0415105706/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=douglas+kellner&qid=1594500625&sr=8-4" target="_blank">Douglas Kellner (1995) </a>foresaw a major turn in popular culture with his writing on the incorporation of the irreverent and transgressive into established orders of media meaning. His discussion of the early 1990s broadcast talk/media discourse exemplified by Beavis and Butthead and American radio ‘shock jock’ Howard Stern points to an interesting correlation between these figures and the media prankster. Kellner refers to the ‘narcissism and sociopathic behaviour’ of the aforementioned cartoon world characters and the real world Mr. Stern and offers the following analysis. “It is indeed curious that many of the most popular media culture figures could easily be clinically diagnosed and analysed as narcissistic: Rush Limbaugh, Andrew Dice Clay, Howard Stern, and other[s]…[they] resort to extreme behaviour and assertions to call attention to themselves…These figures are basically buffoons, sometimes entertaining and often offensive.”<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006IJJIGY/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i2" target="_blank">Susan J. Douglas </a>(1999) proffers further insight into the embryonic stages of the narcissistic media personality. Referring to the genre of American radio helmed by radio announcers with extreme social and political views, Douglas writes: “Growing at first out of the bitterness of political and economic alienation of the late 1970s and 1980s, some talk radio – especially the versions offered by [Howard] Stern and [Don] Imus – was a rebellion against civilisation…against bourgeois codes of decorum that have sought to silence and tame the iconoclastic, delinquent, and defiant impulses in which adolescent boys especially seem to revel and delight...There was a place – an important place – for disobedience, hedonism, disrespect, and bad taste.” At the same moment vulgarity and insolence were being championed on American radio, ‘trash TV’ -- sensationalistic, tabloidesque, and crude – was also increasing in popularity. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Carnival-Culture-Trashing-Twitchell-1992-04-15/dp/B01FIWLPHQ" target="_blank">Twitchell (1992)</a> offers the following explanation for the phenomena: “As the economics of mass production give greater access to those previously excluded…the young, the unsophisticated, and the aggressive…the stories demanded and produced become progressively more crude and vulgar…Carnival time starts.”<br />
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Picking up on the widespread carnival spirit in media narratives, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Audiences-Nick-Abercrombie-ebook/dp/B00KSF74QA/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=abercrombie+and+longhurst&qid=1594500821&s=digital-text&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Abercrombie and Longhurst</a> (1998) introduce their concept of ‘spectacle & narcissism’. To them, the media and everyday life have become so closely interwoven that they are almost inseparable, making contemporary society an essentially performative society. Moreover, Abercrombie and Longhurst import the Debordian notion of spectacle as “…capital accumulated to the point where it becomes image" and merge it with such postmodern preoccupations as style over substance, fragmentation of subject and object, and the instability of identities. In so doing, the two provide another vantage point from which we can ponder issues of cultural production and reproduction as they pertain to the media prankster. By partnering spectacle with narcissism, Abercrombie and Longhurst present a complete circuit that offers a reasonable explanation for today’s protocol-defying, boundary-insensitive prankster figures. <br />
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Furthermore, if narcissism is to be seen more as a widely diffused cultural condition and not a personality disorder, then the behaviour and performances of the media prankster make sense as expressions of this cultural condition. In turn, the sideshow-like atmosphere which had became commonplace in the North American media during the 1980s and 1990s assists us in positioning the media prankster along a trajectory of ‘boys behaving badly’. The media prankster is unique for bringing to broadcast discourse elements of the evolving genre of synthetic personality chat identified by Tolson (1991), aspects of the happily juvenile and abrasive media personalities of the 1980s and 1990s alluded to by Kellner (1995) and Douglas (1999), and manifestations of the spectacle and narcissism described by Abercrombie and Longhurst (1998). Now into the third decade of living in an atmosphere in which defiant and disobedient media personalities are embedded, few resistant forms of broadcast talk remain. Perhaps this would explain why counter-hegemonic forces within popular culture no longer seem able to hijack the hegemonic, but instead intermingle with it, thus carving out a high profile space for oppositional voices such as that of the transgressive media personality. The next chapter of this dissertation will pay closer attention to the subject of popular culture’s co-optation of elements once considered resistant, and assess the impact of this cultural turn on conceptualizations of media personality and broadcast protocol.<br />
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/normalization-neutralization-vs.html" target="_blank">Next chapter: Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistance</a></i></div>
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Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-13163265342928014622020-07-07T15:51:00.004-04:002020-07-23T17:04:30.992-04:00Putting the prankster in contextAnd as promised in <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-finds-some-serious-thinking.html" target="_blank">this introductory post</a> it's now time to take a trip back to a <a href="https://youtu.be/qE-B_XkoAgQ" target="_blank">media studies</a> view of the world from 1999-2000, with Chapter 1 of the M.A. dissertation I wrote 20 years ago called 'Deride & Conquer: Situating the contemporary protocol-transgressing media personality, or media prankster'.<br />
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Of course this was a very different time and pretty much everything about the media landscape has changed in the intervening years. However -- I think there are still some thought provoking chunks here, particularly in the context of phenomena that live on the inside of 'the system' vs. those that live on the outside of 'the system' and how no gatekeeper platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and SoundCloud erased those divisions at first, and over time (as often happens) have become integrated into the commercial backbone of the media and advertising industries. Let's get this vintage media studies party started then.<br />
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<i>Chapter 1 / Introduction</i></div>
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“With…the face and personality of a psychotic nerd, the interviewer from hell pops up once again above the paparazzi parapet to confront, confound, and confuse the rich and pampered world of the stars. No question is too intimate, revealing, or…downright bloody rude. From London to Venice and Cannes to L.A., with the sensibility of an alien and the charisma of a punkoid Woody Allen, Pennis has coaxed unique responses from a galaxy of stars.”<br />
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<span lang="" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 11pt;">-<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Taken from the box of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/veryimportantpennis/" target="_blank">Very Important Pennis: Uncut</a>, featuring celebrity ego assassin Dennis Pennis<br />
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Dennis Pennis doesn't exist anymore. In a way he never did. He was the construct of British comic actor<a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0443373/" target="_blank"> Paul Kaye</a>, a character Kaye created, through which he merged a new hybrid of journalism, comedy, and rebellious attitude. As of yet this confluent form has gone unnamed, but with the emergence of a number of these characters in various locales around the world, it appears we are witnessing the emergence of a distinct genre of media personality and broadcast discourse. This phenomenon will hereinafter be referred to as the 'media prankster'.<br />
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Though the media pranksters examined in this dissertation differ from one another in several critical ways, part of the argument I wish to make with this work is that particular characteristics common to all of them point to the emergence of a new species of media personality, one which has not yet received academic attention. What binds these characters together is a collective skepticism toward notions of media authority, professionalism, and authenticity. Whereas media personalities once exhibited role-modelling behaviour and spoke a language of limited discourse, the media prankster represents a rejection of the rule-governed world of officialdom and a move toward the incorporation of the counter-hegemonic and the vernacular into the general stream of broadcast discourse.<br />
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So what constitutes the media prankster? What sets him apart from other irreverent media personalities or even media ‘troublemakers’ or activists? Before the constituent parts of the media prankster can be more closely considered, it is important to clarify what the media prankster is not, as pranks involving the media take many forms, and the focus of this dissertation is on a particular character operating in a particular environment at a particular cultural moment. It is important, therefore, to emphasise that the agenda of the media prankster considered in this essay skews far more toward the comical and entertaining than the social or political. The distinction between pranksters and tricksters who use the media as a medium, but do so with a much more political message and activist agenda, and the media pranksters as referred to in this essay, is therefore key to establish at this juncture.<br />
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When considering the distinguishing features of this picaresque new breed of media personality, issues of media grammar and power come into play. Broadly speaking, the media prankster assumes a persona and appearance that, while inarguably peculiar and incongruous, possesses enough of the requisite features to be read as legitimate media personality. He presents himself as a media personality in the sense that most of us have come to understand and trust the media personality. This implied trust is predicated on media norms and conventions being read as significations of authority and truth. The question at hand thus becomes: what happens when this trust is betrayed, when the media encounter is inverted and subverted, with the foolish masquerading as the serious, the interviewee forced into the role of interviewer, and the implicit social contract of the situation is disavowed?<br />
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The borders of the relationship between the media personality and the subject have been repositioned by the appearance of this genus of character, calling for a new way of thinking about media personality and media discourse. To this end, the key research question being asked in this dissertation is: using which theoretical frameworks may we better understand the media prankster? The secondary research questions to be dealt with are: how is the protocol of communication and the media encounter being stretched and ultimately transgressed by the media prankster, and what are the effects of this violation? This essay seeks to illustrate the general broadening of media discourse initiated by the media prankster’s disruptive tactics, and to point to a new model of subversion. Rather than aim to undermine the existing authoritarian framework of the media, the media pranksters seem more intent on re-setting the parameters of what constitutes legitimate media, and placing their own celebrity and media-lampooning slant in the reshaped discourse.<br />
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Research into this topic revealed a significant number of examples of this yet- to-be-defined genre of media personality. It turned out that several countries boast variations on the media prankster theme. Whether it is Australia, Norway, or North America, it is possible locate a media personality variously playing the innocent, the jester, and the provocateur, wrapping himself in the sheath of media culture, while contravening its very rules. However, owing to the relative newness of the prankster phenomenon, and the fact that the object of most of media studies has been issues of reader and text, political economy, audience research, and more recently fan studies and celebrity culture, the field of inquiry known as media studies is not on its own particularly helpful in a consideration of the topic. Therefore, in this research I will be turning to such areas as anthropology, literary criticism, and various aspects of cultural studies theory in an attempt to better situate and understand this newly emerging persona.<br />
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This dissertation will present four case studies of the media prankster to illustrate these points, two from North America and two from the U.K. While these characters share a number of characteristics, the finer features of their respective styles suggest variations on a theme, which in turn suggests a certain depth to this cultural phenomenon. The prankster cannot be so simply understood that a single set of criteria suffice as an explanation. We need instead to consider the larger cultural circumstances surrounding the emergence of the media prankster, a creature (probably not coincidentally) spawned by a saturated media environment and a highly-ordered, technology-driven world. To this climate of control, organisation, and predictability the media prankster brings his own ideas, undoubtedly informed by such postmodern markers as irony, pastiche, parody, self-referentiality, simulation, and contradiction.<br />
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In North America we see this new breed of prankstering personality manifested in Tom Green of MTV’s <i><a href="https://youtu.be/k465sdQX_ao" target="_blank">The Tom Green Show</a></i>. Green’s show, which has been airing on MTV since 1997 (prior to that for two years on Canada’s Comedy Network, preceded by two years <a href="https://youtu.be/d63NcBt0DI4" target="_blank">on a local cable channel</a> in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), has quickly become one of the most popular programs on the network. Also hailing from Canada, a less commercially successful but no less notorious practitioner of this strange new hybrid of journalism, comedy, and performance art is cable access/campus radio anti-star Nardwuar the Human Serviette. Breaking most of the rules of journalism, personal comportment, and basic human interaction, Nardwuar’s run as media prankster (1987-2000) is by far the longest of any of the characters examined in this essay. <span>(</span><span><i>Ed. Note</i>: Nardwuar is now the happy beneficiary of a second life <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/NardwuarServiette/" target="_blank">on YouTube</a>, where, at the time of this post, he has 1.68 million subscribers and over 228 million views, placing him in the top 3% of all YouTube channels.</span><span>)</span><br />
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In the U.K. the most high profile examples of the contemporary media prankster are Dennis Pennis (BBC 2, 1995-1997) and Ali G (Channel 4, 1999-2000). Pennis is best known for such television programmes as: <i>VIP: Very Important Pennis, Pennis Uncut, Dennis Pennis RIP: Too Rude To Live</i>, and <i>Dennis Pennis’ Enormous Election</i>, the latter being Mr. Pennis’ lateral move from the ridiculing of larger than life celebrities to the skewering of larger than life politicians. Ali G, the newest of the media pranksters, rose to prominence with the two minute segments he submitted to <a href="https://youtu.be/QfAeWJikaIY" target="_blank">Channel 4’s <i>11 O’Clock Show</i></a>, which featured the self-proclaimed ‘voice of yoof’ (sic) engaging in rapspeak-laced debates with spokespeople from law, medicine, the military, and assorted academic and political fields. In addition to regaling us with Ali G, the hip hop hero of indeterminate ethnic/racial background, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056187/" target="_blank">Sacha Baron-Cohen</a>, the comic actor who plays Ali G, has also created Borat, a Kazakhstani reporter on assignment in Great Britain. Both the Ali G and Borat characters will receive consideration in the methods and analysis segment of this essay, appearing in Chapter 4.<br />
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While an initial tendency may be to think about the media prankster as one who seeks to reveal the hypocrisy of polite society, serving as a kind of safety valve for societal constraints and providing binary oppositions to the accepted code of conduct, such a viewpoint would be selling the phenomenon short. With the boundaries of the mainstream constantly shifting to accommodate a multitude of cultural products and practices, to situate the now widely embraced media prankster in a subterranean zone of resistance would be inaccurate. </div>
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The aim of this essay, instead, is to place the media prankster in a theoretical framework that correlates his behaviour to a lineage of cultural tricksters as well as to new, more inclusive approaches to subcultural traditions of resistance and <a href="https://youtu.be/ncH0-q9OXco?t=295" target="_blank">detournement</a>. The literature review appearing in the next chapter will seek to accomplish this positioning by bringing together various strands of anthropological, subcultural, and cultural studies theory to formulate a rational universe for the media prankster.</div>
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html" target="_blank">Next Chapter: Carnival Pleasures:</a></i><br />
<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html" target="_blank">The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacular</a></i><br />
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Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-22716900675947468922020-07-06T17:31:00.016-04:002020-07-23T15:37:27.748-04:00Pandemic finds & some serious thinking about pranksI've been away from the blog for several months. You know how it is when a global pandemic hits. Your world gets thrown into disarray. Many activities are curtailed, many new activities emerge, like a distaste for wearing things without elastic waistbands and the idea that a shower 'every few days' is sort of kind of acceptable. And there's also the finally getting to the junk draw drawer and the opening up of long ignored boxes. My junk drawer is as junky as ever but I did manage to get to piles of university papers I've written over the years, from both undergrad and grad school days, which in my case were separated by 20 years. Among other papers, some dating back to the 1980s, I came across the dissertation I wrote in 1999/2000 in the M.A. Program in Media & Communications at <a href="https://www.gold.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of London, Goldsmiths College</a>, located in <a href="https://youtu.be/Yj4bCKbOG00" target="_blank">convivial New Cross</a>, SE London.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Also found in the box: My students card, a 1999 Tube map,<br />
and an attractive plastic wallet to hold the pass and the map</td></tr></tbody></table>
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The paper carries the somewhat unwieldy academic title "Deride and Conquer: Situating the contemporary protocol-transgressing media personality or 'media prankster". In plain English that roughly translates to: "What happens, and why, when the vocabulary of pranks collide with the world of media?". And remember, this question was being mulled over 20+ years ago. What was the world like then? Well, Amazon was but a money-losing online bookseller, Google was a year-old startup founded by a couple of grad students, and in the mainstream media sphere the $182 billion <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-flashback-time-warner-aol-entered-a-doomed-182-billion-alliance-20-years-1267322" target="_blank">Time Warner/AOL merger</a> looked like a great idea.<br />
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I think we need to remind ourselves what this thing called media looked like at the time. It was largely conventional terrain, made up of a small number of large broadcast networks, the cable universe, a bit of community and campus TV and radio, photocopied zines, and a small number of activist organizations, of which the <a href="http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/9/7/an-interview-with-moritz-fink-and-marilyn-delaurie-part-one" target="_blank">culture jamming</a> <a href="https://www.adbusters.org/" target="_blank">Adbusters</a> was probably the most high profile. Anyone interested in 'hacking' media norms had to do so either outside the landscape of conventional media or by using comedy or an acceptable level of weirdness as a kind of 'back door' into these structures. The Internet was dial up only and therefore limited in what it could carry in terms of audio and video and mobile phones were costly devices that could do little more than place calls. A different world indeed.</div>
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But back to the topic at hand. I've had a longstanding interest in if, how, and when the rational and the ridiculous run head first into each other. Sometimes by design, sometimes by accident, and usually with great comic effect. Anyone who's alive in 2020, however, knows that we're now on the other side of that cliff, with the post-fact world being the norm, and affordable, ubiquitous technologies enabling the billions around the world with smartphones to operate as content creators, distributors, and even outright propagandists. We now know that the super spreading behaviour that gave us viral videos has also given us today's couldn't-be-more-highly-polarized political landscape.</div>
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As for the dissertation, there are 5 chapters in all, each of a few thousand words, and I believe the desired word count for the whole dissertation was 20,000. This was one of I think 6 papers we had to write for the M.A., the others being 5-6000 word papers on a combination of required and elective courses.<br />
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Chapters of the dissertation will appear here on the blog as I work through the old word doc I found. I'll add links and videos, fix any 20 year old typos I happen to find and, as much as my patience permits, deal with wonky formatting issues that originated in 1999 when this paper was embarked upon.</div>
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Here's the table of contents, and as the chapters go live I will add the links to the numbered chapters below. As you can see there's a bunch of theory that has been brought to bear on the topic, because, as I have learned, being serious about the seemingly un-serious is serious business.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
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<li><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html" style="font-size: medium;" target="_blank">Chapter 1</a>: Introduction: Putting the prankster in context </li>
<li style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html" target="_blank">Chapter 2:</a> Literature Review: <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095550811" target="_blank">Carnival</a> pleasures: The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liminality" target="_blank">limina</a>l, the <a href="https://www.lexico.com/definition/ludic" target="_blank">ludic</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_personality" target="_blank">synthetic</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectacle_(critical_theory)" target="_blank">spectacular </a></li>
<li style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/normalization-neutralization-vs.html" target="_blank">Chapter 3:</a> Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistance </li>
<li style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/suffering-fools.html">Chapter 4:</a> Methods & Analysis: Suffering the fools? The cases of media pranksters <a href="https://youtu.be/xx5t5ps-bwc" target="_blank">Ali G</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/EFNrz8goEhs" target="_blank">Tom Green</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/aflOmcK3N-I" target="_blank">Dennis Pennis</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/NardwuarServiette/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid" target="_blank">Nardwuar the Human Serviette</a></li>
<li style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/05/chapter-5-traditionalists-are.html" target="_blank">Chapter 5:</a> Some concluding thoughts on the media prankster</li>
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And to get you into the appropriate headspace, a few clips to get you started. First, a clip of a young Sacha Baron-Cohen, appearing on a Channel 4 (UK) show called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_11_O%27Clock_Show" target="_blank">The 11 O'Clock Show</a> in 1998. It was seeing this show that led me down the path of doing a serious academic examination of 'counterfeit' media personalities. As you'll see below, the Ali G character was still in its formative stages, not yet the confounding blend of multi-ethnic suburban rapper that the world would come to know a few years later.</div>
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It's worth thinking about how a handful of years later, in 2005, comedian Stephen Colbert became satirical conservative pundit Stephen Colbert and ended up doing more than just crack wise and entertain us nightly for close to 10 years.</div>
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And more recently Eric Andre has taken the plunge into similar waters, setting out to make what he calls 'the world's worst talk show'. In such a scenario failure is the ultimate success, and success, defined in conventional terms, is the ultimate failure.</div>
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Now you've got the picture. And of course want to know more, so here you go: </div>
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<a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/putting-prankster-in-context.html" target="_blank"><i>Chapter 1: Introduction: Putting the prankster in context</i></a></div>
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/carnival-pleasures-liminal-ludic.html" target="_blank">Chapter 2: Carnival Pleasures: The liminal, the ludic, the synthetic, and the spectacular</a></i></div>
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<i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/normalization-neutralization-vs.html" target="_blank">Chapter 3: Normalization & neutralization vs. rebellion & resistance</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/07/suffering-fools.html">Chapter 4: Suffering the fools</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: center;"><a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2020/05/chapter-5-traditionalists-are.html" target="_blank"><i>Chapter 5: Some concluding thoughts on the media prankster</i></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: medium; text-align: left;"><br /></div>
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Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-20342554727345667202020-02-29T21:55:00.000-05:002020-03-03T12:32:53.860-05:00A YouTube Button on a Remote Control & An Oral History of NardwuarA little over a month ago I was in a hotel where I found this remote. Never before had I seen a remote control with these kind of 'hard coded' buttons for YouTube and Netflix.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnn0DdsAlWRfMHdtKOl9fRWwpR6j-ytvFgBK3G1skFBp5VbV6xHeONK29HpBQBGOUptv-Fg8Af5Qs40ldfxZ7ClS_DaYt8Br-gN0YddlT7v5G6OvkswkZX0pBbwwMz10xzZmofPRWbjBvi/s1600/0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnn0DdsAlWRfMHdtKOl9fRWwpR6j-ytvFgBK3G1skFBp5VbV6xHeONK29HpBQBGOUptv-Fg8Af5Qs40ldfxZ7ClS_DaYt8Br-gN0YddlT7v5G6OvkswkZX0pBbwwMz10xzZmofPRWbjBvi/s320/0.jpeg" width="228" /></a></div>
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The YouTube button in particular got me thinking. And not only because a little over a week ago an Oral History of Nardwuar <a href="https://www.canadalandshow.com/oral-history-of-nardwuar-the-human-serviette/" target="_blank">podcast</a> went live, put together by the <a href="https://www.canadalandshow.com/" target="_blank">Canadaland </a>network. I was one of the many long time Nardwuar associates interviewed for what turned out to be a thorough look beneath the trademark tam.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxJEIKkvIzWD8e84aQKVVGWfMjysdIqhAu405V9Cm0WRHuW04Zwqgfjy8qLp28Og_NkX32bIfnjk6WDqrZDOMtrW4F7n07B2uP790IYV9dw5s5a1GVkdzxiwpZsMqGA556_aOP-qzYtcC/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-02-26+at+12.40.45+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="925" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxJEIKkvIzWD8e84aQKVVGWfMjysdIqhAu405V9Cm0WRHuW04Zwqgfjy8qLp28Og_NkX32bIfnjk6WDqrZDOMtrW4F7n07B2uP790IYV9dw5s5a1GVkdzxiwpZsMqGA556_aOP-qzYtcC/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-02-26+at+12.40.45+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you're new to Nardwuar, the 200 words or less brief on him is that he's the exact opposite of an overnight success. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8h8NJG9gacZ5lAJJvhD0fQ" target="_blank">Today he's a YouTube phenomenon,</a> in the top 3 or so percent of all YouTube channels in terms of both subscribers and views. But he's not your typical YouTuber. He started decades ago, and worked his way to YouTube by way of campus radio*, then the occasional appearance on public access cable, then 2 minute pieces on MuchMusic, the MTV of Canada. <br />
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Around the time that the MuchMusic gig came to an end this new thing called YouTube appeared. And as you'll probably remember for its first few years it was full of the most random material, as well as pirated material, and far too many videos of people's kids' talent shows and of course the cats that later become the backbone of entertainment on the Internet.<br />
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And though it wasn't part of the plan -- as there really was no plan when Nardwuar starting posting videos on YouTube in late 2006 -- the inherent randomness and disorder of YouTube turned out to be the perfect home for this unconventional <a href="https://demassed.blogspot.com/2013/08/anyone-who-knows-me-that-i-have-had.html" target="_blank">interviewer </a>of everyone from pop, rock, punk, and rap stars to comedians, politicians, and even luminaries from the worlds of infomercials and <a href="http://nardwuar.com/rad/alien-invasion/" target="_blank">conspiracy theories</a>.<br />
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That YouTube was specifically not TV was what created a whole new space of possibility for people making online content. The idea was that anyone can make and post videos, and anyone in the world can see them, and comment on them, and share links to them. And we ought not forget that such a notion was <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21145506/youtube-without-internet-fiction-alternate-history?curator=MusicREDEF" target="_blank">truly radical </a>15 years ago, when YouTube started, and it still kind of is even now. The definitions of what an interview is, what an interviewer is, what a show is, what quality is...all those things were put into the hands of the people choosing to watch. And now, on some remote controls at least, those choices can be made right alongside the ones for network TV, cable TV, and streaming services.<br />
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If you're interested in the story of how a person whom for years received rejection letters, was told he didn't have enough commercial appeal, or was categorized as being 'off brand' for most broadcasters and network TV, ends up finding the perfect workaround to the gatekeeper-controlled world of media (and igniting a coming up on 20 year <a href="https://youtu.be/_hNevbnMHWk?t=78" target="_blank">bromance with Snoop Dogg </a>along the way), then the <a href="https://www.canadalandshow.com/oral-history-of-nardwuar-the-human-serviette/" target="_blank">Oral History of Nardwuar podcast</a> is for you.<br />
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And just one more thing...<br />
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<i>*Oh and 33 years later he's still doing the damn<a href="https://www.citr.ca/radio/nardwuar-the-human-serviette-presents/" target="_blank"> campus radio show</a></i></div>
Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-50589055426500348262020-01-28T12:20:00.005-05:002020-01-28T12:26:10.096-05:00Creative robots? Machines and the creation of music, art, and moviesA computer science professor, a new media curator and critic, and an AI entrepreneur building audience demand analysis software (no, this isn't the beginning of one of those 'walk into a bar' jokes) recently got together to think about, and talk about, artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative industries.<br />
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It all happened when the Canada Media Fund recently hosted <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/analog-a-new-conference-series-presented-by-the-cmf-and-telefilm-canada/">Analog</a>, a conference that showcased a handful of AI experts in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The events offered an in-depth, nuanced look at the implications of AI in artistic endeavours. In Toronto, the CMF’s director of industry and market trends, Catherine Mathys, along with a <a href="http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sengels/">computer science professor</a>, a <a href="https://www.shaunajeandoherty.com/">new media curator and critic</a>, and an AI entrepreneur building <a href="https://www.glessentials.com/">audience demand analysis software</a> took on the many facets of the debate around AI and the arts.<br />
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Creativity (Re)Considered</h3>
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To think through the role of technology in creative practices, we first need a working definition of what creativity is. Does it refer to creating something out of nothing? Is it an ability to see invisible rules and bend — if not break — them? Is it remixing and recontextualizing ideas that are already known or in circulation? And whatever the answers to these questions may be, we need to ponder if there’s a net positive role for artificial intelligence in the creative process.<br />
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Defining creativity used to be fairly straightforward. Visual arts, music, and inventions were things made by people, using physical tools and artistic techniques. Similarly, defining ownership used to be more or less routine. With creativity melded with machines, however, it’s a different story. Once cut-and-dry issues such as copyright and authorship find themselves pondered by <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40319-019-00879-w">legal scholars and practitioners</a> as a result.<br />
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The Computer Scientist’s Point of View</h3>
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Are we using our creative brains on patterns we’ve seen before? Is our creativity anchored on things we’ve done and liked before? These are just a few of the questions University of Toronto Computer Science Professor Steve Engels asks. His work with AI finds its applications in such projects as games for the blind or to improve the cognition of seniors, and programs that generate music.</div>
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As an academic, Engels’ interest lies in the deployment of AI as a cognitive tool — something that supports human processes. One of the challenges, he says, is to figure out where the boundaries are between what’s best made by a human and what’s best made by a machine.<br />
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As a concrete example, he points to his work with the video game design community in Toronto, which has been experimenting with ‘authorless music.’ As the name suggests, that is music generated by a computer trained on algorithms. For game companies with limited music budgets, Engels says it can provide a “good enough” and affordable solution. He does, though, acknowledge what he calls “the Britney problem” — if an AI is trained on Britney Spears songs, there’s a non-zero chance that its output will sound like Britney Spears.<br />
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“It can produce Bach or it can produce Britney,” notes Engels. “It’s based on the dataset it’s trained on. It has a space it plays in, and when it goes outside of that space it tends to create things that are off the rails and don’t even sound like music.”<br />
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The Curator’s Point of View</h3>
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The role of humans in creativity is critical. It is only by expressing aspects of the human condition that art ‘speaks’ to people, stressed new media curator and art critic Shauna Jean Doherty. She is therefore optimistic about a future in which AI intersects with art, but understands there are scenarios on the edge of both that represent real challenges.<br />
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She shared the example of the French art collective <a href="http://obvious-art.com/">Obvious</a>, creator of the first AI-based artwork that sold at auction. <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/A-collaboration-between-two-artists-one-human-one-a-machine-9332-1.aspx">In the words of Hugo Caselles-Dupré</a>, of Obvious, “we fed the system with a dataset of 15,000 portraits painted between the 14th and the 20th centuries. The ‘Generator’ makes a new image based on the set, then the ‘Discriminator’ tries to spot the difference between a human-made image and one created by the ‘Generator.’ The aim is to fool the ‘Discriminator’ into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits. Then we have a result.” The resulting piece sold at auction in 2018, and did so with a $400,000-plus price tag — over 40 times the most optimistic estimates.</div>
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Doherty’s concern is that AI can “fetishize” the creative process. “By human standards it’s not great artwork, but by machine standards it might be okay. [But] It’s not enough for me as a critic and curator to say ‘it’s made with AI.’ A lot of it really looks the same.”<br />
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The AI Entrepreneur’s Point of View</h3>
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In 2016, University of Waterloo grad Jack Zhang developed an AI-based system that could weigh a plotline against some 40,000 attributes to predict ― and optimize ― the resulting movies’ chances of success. As Zhang <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/jack-zhang-impossible-things-computer-writes-film-script-1.3768965">explained</a> at that time “before a single word was written, we used a computer program to analyze a massive amount of data to see what kind of plot elements in the film were driving audiences. So we correlated that with audience taste and behaviour data and see what type of plot would draw in what type of audience, and then feed that information to screenwriters who would closely work with our computer program to create that screenplay.”<br />
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A trailer for the movie, in this case a horror movie, was created for $30. Not knowing what to expect, the trailer was posted on Facebook. The result: 2.7 million views for a movie that didn’t exist. In other words, there was demand the supply did not meet. Zhang saw a market opportunity, something he recently explained in detail in an <a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/now-next-podcast-s2e1-hamilton-based-entrepreneur-jack-zhang-is-paving-the-way-for-filmmakings-ai-driven-future/">episode</a> of the CMF’s Now & Next podcast.<br />
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The <a href="https://www.glessentials.com/">software</a> he has since built out goes beyond AI assisting with the creative process. It is also capable of what he calls “audience demand analysis,” which can begin with the creative process and go all the way through to marketing and distribution.<br />
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Zhang looks at the creative process in film and TV as two-pronged problem. There’s the systematic and the random — the former being what is known, and the latter being what is unpredictable and often unexplainable. As he explained at Analog, his software seeks to combine these two domains. This does not mean it’s a replacement for creativity. But it provides the ability to run probabilities in a business known for being largely unknowable.<br />
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Incidentally, Zhang’s film, based on a trailer and some AI-fuelled instinct, began as a<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/970954017/impossible-things-worlds-first-ai-co-written-featu"> crowdfunded Kickstarter project</a>, and is now financed with a $3.5 million budget, with production scheduled to begin in Q2 2020.</div>
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Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3965570990054067927.post-2791329706317169832019-11-26T17:06:00.003-05:002019-11-26T17:26:57.570-05:00How Viacom made the shift from MTV to digital video for a global audienceOn this episode of the podcast I've been hosting we explore how a major legacy media company is navigating the shift from the 'lean back' experience of linear television to the short and on demand mode of viewing on phones, tablets, and other screens large and small.<br />
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We’ll look at this paradigm shift in the context of Viacom, one of the world’s largest media conglomerates. Viacom is best known for creating some of the coolest, edgiest, youth-oriented programming ever seen on TV. Think <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p5kOFlTEPs" target="_blank">Beavis & Butthead</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io6wi8DVZ3o" target="_blank">Comedy Central Roasts</a>, for example.<br />
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But all the cool in the world wasn’t enough to defend Viacom from the array of content options people had once the internet became the dominant mode of content distribution.<br />
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How has Viacom found its way back to millions, if not billions, of viewers around the world? How is it defending its turf against the likes of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube?<br />
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In this episode we’ll dig into these questions with Brendan Yam, Vice President and General Manager of Viacom Digital Studios International, or VDSI. He's been with the company since 2005, and for the past year and a half has led the company’s short-form digital content output and its expansion into global markets.<br />
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<a href="https://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/wp-content/uploads/NNS2E6_Transcript_EN_PDF.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d76bb; font-family: "open sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.4s linear, 0.4s linear;">Download a transcript of the episode</a><br />
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<i>Jump to some highlights:</i></div>
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What led to Viacom experimenting with short-form digital video content (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/the-battle-for-attention-how-viacom-uses-short-form-video/s-xr7Qw#t=2:24">2:24</a>)<br />
What works and what doesn’t in this format (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/the-battle-for-attention-how-viacom-uses-short-form-video/s-xr7Qw#t=8:39">8:39</a>)<br />
Viacom’s short-form strategy and its successes around the world (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/the-battle-for-attention-how-viacom-uses-short-form-video/s-xr7Qw#t=10:43">10:43</a>)<br />
Business models in digital video (<a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-445933780/the-battle-for-attention-how-viacom-uses-short-form-video/s-xr7Qw#t=16:34">16:34</a>)</div>
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<i>Related Links:</i></div>
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<li>During the interview I reference an article on Viacom by Matthew Ball and Jason Hirschhorn. The full title of that article is “Why Viacom Fell (And Why It Can Come Back).” Read it here <a href="https://redef.com/original/archive-update-why-viacom-fell-and-why-it-can-come-back" target="_blank">on REDEF</a>.</li>
<li>“Viacom Sets Up International Hubs to Pump Out Short-Form Content” <a href="https://digiday.com/media/viacom-sets-international-hubs-pump-short-form-content/" target="_blank">on Digiday</a></li>
<li>“Viacom Digital, Facebook Watch Cut Four-Continent Deal for Short-Form Shows” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dbloom/2019/10/29/viacom-digital-cuts-four-continent-short-form-show-deal-with-facebook-watch/#7d7a996b2a9d" target="_blank">on Forbes</a></li>
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Leora Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01032437424989762382noreply@blogger.com1