Rowan's Room @rowans-room - Tumblr Blog

Quality of your reach vs number of views

Since the Intensive, I have been thinking about the quality of a view. How much the currency of that interaction is worth, both in terms of money and quality.

The accounts which accidental viral videos have come from, often have a minuscule number of views on their other videos. They aren’t building a community; they are a one-stop shop for a one off piece of entertainment.

This is a very different picture to the thousands of accounts who release regular content to a subscriber count of under 100. Those 100 people might watch every video, meaning the subscriber and viewer numbers are reasonably similar. In comparison to the account responsible for the old-school viral hit "Charlie Bit My Finger"- which has 2700 times more views on that single video than the channel has subscribers.

My own youtube channel, has videos which have racked up over 87,000 views, and yet I only have a subscriber count of just over 600. Where are these viewers coming from and where are they going? The video on my account with the least views has less than 100… why is their such a difference? As Josh Kolm has asked:

"How much is it up to a YouTuber to build, and then foster, that community? Can someone really promote themselves if no one knows who they are? Is it just a matter of making good stuff and hoping someone finds it? On the other side, do they have to keep that quality up to keep an audience? Will an audience accept anything from a YouTuber they already adore? Like, could Charlie McDonnell read the ingredients on a Mini Wheats box and not get un-subed?" I like to think of Youtube as a community- I have been on Youtube since its early days, through its various iteration, through monetization of accounts, and the start of Youtube Partners and the pantheon of idiocy that is Google+. But for the most part it isn't anymore, it can be, probably, with a lot of work and patience. But it feels as though there should be another network developed if we want to utilise these communities for artistic purposes- youtube no longer feels like the best place to share ideas and contribute to a collaborative atmosphere.

#blog #view count #youtube #viral video

Viral Videos?

Our Web Presence intensive was bought together with the question: why do videos go viral? What is it about the videos that “succeed” in the oversaturated mire that is YouTube that make them so universally watchable?

Our brainstorming came up with some ideas…

They might be funny i.e. How Animals Eat Their Food

Humour is easier said than done. You often need, the internet tells us, cats failing to jump onto things, or children acting like drunk adults. Those things were not abundantly open to us.

They might be whimsical i.e. Kid Snippets

A sort of verbatim vibe in which adults mime out a scene that has been improvised by a pair of children so it appears as thought they are speaking with children’s voices, complete with mispronunciation and long pauses. Cute, a little bit funny, but hard to get right, without seeming like a strange Wes Anderson knock-off, or a try too hard comedy sketch.

They might be political. I.e. Kony 2012

These often seemed to lose their punch pretty quickly and professional internet cynics inevitably out the dirty truth behind the polished façade. The less than spotless “Invisible Children” charity and its members for example. Or the insipid advertising campaigns for Dove, which photoshopped models within the very advertisement they were selling as promoting natural and diverse ideas of beauty.

We quickly realized when you set yourself up in a strictly serious way, the internet can get annoyed very quickly that you are too intense, preachy or moralistic.

It might even be that the popularity in itself begets more popularity, like a blackhole of views collapsing on itself. Ie The Harlem Shake.

These trends seemingly for trend's sake. like twerking or the Harlem Shake, seem to be about creating a format that people can recreate an contribute to, rather than a well executed idea which is unique to the original video. Eventually we settled on a sort of funny video with a light-hearted message of in-person interaction, which tried to refrain from demonising the web by exaggerating the situation.

#blog

national-theatre

Pronoun by Evan Placey Playwriting is a bit like childbirth. (And no, I’ve never given birth to a child so of course I can’t really know.) But you have this thing growing inside you, carry the weight of it around – fragments, ideas, bits of matter – that eventually come out into this living...

helloyoucreatives

rowans-room

Shot with the new 4K Panasonic LUMIX GH4, OK Go’s latest visual clip is yet another feat of ingenuity from the band that perfected viral music videos.

In a world of ever-present technology, of Facetime, instant messaging and conference calls, two girls decide to meet an actual actual person for the first time. #actualactualperson

Does the ever present and overwhelming vastness of the space of the online world ensure identity is lost in the crowd? Is it a case that we have lost the idea of a human settlement where everyone knows everyone else’s business, and old ladies can threaten to tell your mother to stop you from doing something wrong, like playing knock down ginger, or hacking into someone’s online banking account? Or does this incredible web of human communication expand the amount of people who could know your mother, or you for that matter?

With the endless selfies, and yes, even the blogs, it is easy to label this era as one of unparalleled narcissism. The idea that we have accomplished all the levels in Maslow’s famous “Hierarchy of Needs” and have now transcended into a strange parody of self-actualisation.

This poses two questions; is this behavior narcissism and is it truly some new phenomenon?

Narcissism?

I would argue no, not necessarily. The online self, that which is a persona portrayed online, whether actively fictional or not, is complex. It’s a new vocabulary of human interactions. Reading online voice in a space where you cannot use bodily social cues is a new way of learning to be a community member.

Issues of self- affirmation and acceptance based on an interactions online is a extrapolated version of these same principles in “real life” encounters... a trusted friend doesn’t “like” the photo you posted of your new haircut? Just as telling as a frown and a pause if she’d have seen it for the first time in person. It is not narcissism, quite the contrary, it is a fundamental uncertainty of self, a seeking of reassurance. This reassurance might even be sought from strangers. Teenagers posting “Am I cute or ugly” videos, or youtube channels set up and running without anyone from their social circle even knowing they exist. Friends are like the audience from a WIP theatre showing; carefully chosen and more often than not kind and affirming. Safe. Online offerings allow, metaphorical, for theatre critics. People you do not know, but in whose hands you place a judgement of your value.

Why should it matter if someone posts a picture of themselves looking great? Or of the awesome looking cake they just whipped up? Or their latest pool-lounging holiday which mainly involved them taking pictures of themselves in swim wear and drinking colourful alcohol? If it makes people feel gratified, excited, engaged, passionate, accomplished, sexy, interesting, connected, collected, intelligent, talented, or important, what is the harm? At least you can ignore their photo albums... you can’t walk out of a friends hour long slideshow of their latest holiday when you’re in their living room.

Is it truly about ego, or about seeking a crowd-,a human connection, being part of something and sharing ideas? Online communities are only growing, and there have been such communities since mainstream use of the web began. Nerdfighteria, based around the vlogs of brother John and Hank Green has raised incredible amounts for charity, loaned over $1 million to third world entrepreneurs, engaged in science and the arts, build support networks and created an online space that feels comprised of people that may never have met in the physical world, but who are so likeminded it feels like a crime that there was ever a time when they wouldn’t have been able to find each other. And yes, as individuals they still take selfies, write blogs, make videos about their lives, but that isn’t some inherently negative, or an inherently narcissistic thing.

Old News

Back further than Elizabeth I (whose portrait painters were infamous for being lying liars who lied, by making her look like the Renaissance equivalent of Megan Fox instead of the Susan Boyle that she really was) people have equated status with external appearances and behaviours.

Autobiographical theatre might be seen as the ultimate theatrical equivalent; an onstage self-indulgence that’s inherently inward looking and, let’s be honest, a bit wanky. Yet it’s a hugely popular artform, not just when it’s explicitly dealing with current affairs or controversial issues tied in with that individual story. It’s hard... it’s giving something of yourself away, it’s trust and it’s reciprocal, or at least it can be. Maybe it’s the liveness of the space- the intimacy and immediacy that that fosters- which makes it “better” than online alternatives. The obvious craft which has gone into the performance, as opposed to the streamlined editing of popular vlogs or blogs. Both have involved a huge amount of preparation, scripting, editing, lighting etc, but with theatre this is a highlighted artifice.

#blog #elizabeth i #online community #nerdfighters #selfies #nerdfighteria

andrewmaxedon

Ai Weiwei, “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,” 1995

An astonishingly irreverent piece of work. This triptych features the artist dropping a Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) in three photographs.

When questioned about the work, he suggested that the piece was about industry: “[The urn] was industry then and is industry now.” His statement, therefore, was that the urn was just a cheap pot two thousand years ago, and the reverence we feel toward it is artificial. One critic wrote: “In other words, for all the aura of preciousness acquired by the accretion of time (and skillful marketing), this vessel is the Iron Age equivalent of a flower pot from K-Mart and if one were to smash the latter a few millennia from now, would it be an occasion for tears?”

However, the not-so-subtle political undertone is clear. This piece was about destroying the notion that everything that is old is good…including the traditions and cultures of China. For Ai Weiwei, this triptych represents a moment in which culture suddenly shifts (sometimes violently), shattering the old and outdated to make room for the new.

sidnugget

like a month ago this lady came into my health class and talked about internet safety and she said the government has access to all of our snapchats we send and i was really happy because the government owns probably over 500 pictures of my double chin i dont know what else she said because i fell asleep

helloyoucreatives

Are you over sharing online? We did an experiment to see if we could trick complete strangers that we knew them by using their online info.

helloyoucreatives

A new video about the dangers of putting too much information out there.

**Editors Note** This is a campaign that was made by myself. It was shared to the blog via email, so I think that’s okay to post now an external source sent it in.

helloyoucreatives

Sharpies, Tippex and a low fi way of doing augmented reality.

helloyoucreatives

Smile, laugh and walk on by. What would you do when confronted with violence?

Fear of Technology?

It was infinitely surprising during our last seminar, how ready and willing people were to condemn a mother based on one photo of her riding on a train with her child, who was playing with an ipad, while she herself was on her phone.

There were claims it was antisocial or lazy parenting, to not engage with your child. But under the surface there was an element of judgement based on the presence of technology, seen as a somehow dumbed down form of media.

The same comments would not, I expect, have come from a picture where the mother and child had both been reading paperbacks, even though they would also, in that scenario, have not been directly engaged with each other. This would have been an appropriately traditionally educational way of passing time together. So why the deep-seated concern for a tech-savvy youngster?

Is there a fear there, of some sort of dystopian future where we only communicate via screens, reminiscent of Pixar’s “Wall-e”?

My niece is not quite two years old, and she is able to understand how to use the touchscreen and swipe mechanisms on the family ipad. Before she was capable of holding a pen, let alone writing, she was able to express a form of controlled dexterity that would not have been possible for youngsters ten years ago. She is living a life that means typing and interacting with technology will be as easy and natural as reading and writing from paper. To see this as some sort of fundamental issue or eroding of education, is to side with people who opposed ballpoint pens because they preferred to use fountain pens… or those who opposed paper when a chalk and slate would do. The world moves on.

The rise and expansion of technology, particularly computer and microtechnology has been rapid and wide-reaching, and that overwhelming wave of progress is inevitably intimidating, and for many something to be wary of. It is a wave which is interacting with a wider society which is being forced to change alongside it.

It’s what made “Pacific Rim” such an unprecedented sci-fi smash; for del Toro, technology wasn’t our downfall, it was our saviour. Not only that, but technology was involved in creating the most intimate human connections stronger through the drift compatibility. The two things weren’t mutually exclusive.

#fear of technology #pacific rim #wall-e #blog

Time and Web Presence in Prague

I think it is particularly ironic that during the first Web Presence class for the Options Unit of my MA, I was, in fact, not present at all, via the web or otherwise. I was in Prague producing a play for a theatre festival. And yet the topic of discussion taking place in that room of Central was addressing a strikingly similar topic to the key themes in that performance I had helped create, occurring at the much the same time. Time. Duration. Space.

I know for a fact that at 11am that Friday for those in London, noon for me and Prague, students were learning about this relationship between time and theatre, as I was watching the iconic procession of the Twelve Apostles play out on the Astronomical Clock in the Old Town Square. Wondering at the hundreds of people who were gathered, suspended for a few minutes in a bubble of time and space, literally and figuratively watching time pass, as they waited to watch time pass in a particularly famous way. Then, in a matter of seconds, it is over, a durational piece in direct opposition to Forced Entertainment’s 12 hour epic. A performance that is exact and timely, and fleeting.

This preoccupation is time in artistic endevour is of course not a matter solely bound to the 21st Century; Universal laws of absolute scientific certainty were demolished by the publishing of Albert Einstein’s “Theory of Relativity” in the early 1900s. Far from being a singularly scientific discovery, with implications reserved only for other physicists, Einstein’s theory indirectly created a vacuum of uncertainty in all aspects of society, which was then filled with the relativist progression of art, literature and morality. The period of 1900-1918 can be seen as an age of positivity and progress, especially when viewed in the wider historical context of being situation between an economic depression on one side and the devastation of the First World War on the other. Then perhaps it is the “web” element, which adds the rapid change is space and its certainty, which creates a similar effect in the modern era? This would be successful merging of C.P. Snow’s damning Two Culture Debate, where technological knowledge is commonplace, and its manipulation within the arts benefits both supposed “sides” of the system.

So if I had been able to access wifi in the midst of this strange, both historic and transient, tourist trap, and skype or facetime with the group in London, would I have in fact been present? To my mind it seems to be a matter of Physical Body vs Human Mind- the personality and memories which are of course in constant interaction with the body, without descending too much into dualism, but are ultimately more vital in the creation of a “you”. Of course I would have been- even the pixel-made image of my face and body would have allowed some part of the Physical Body to transfer over into the classroom as well. And as long as the students could see me and be seen, they would also simultaneously be both present in London and in Prague.

#prague #web presence #london #time #blog

Anxiety and Self Confidence

I'm at a point where this course is making me feel more and more self-conscious, inadequate and awkward.

I feel like any group I'm in, especially my proto-company group, I don't have anything useful to contribute, but that when other people contribute things I feel so self-conscious to join in with that, especially because pretty much everything they do is performance based....which is shitty, because I really wanted this course to make me more confident in terms of performance and it's just squashed any confidence I had. I don't even know at this point; my self esteem about the way I look has always been a serious problem, but I think it's combining with my anxiety about performing in a not so good way.

I have near constant low level anxiety, I can feel it all the time, and I can see how frustrated it's making everyone else I'm working with. It's being in this place between wanting to help and contribute to a group, but feeling like if you do, what you contribute won't be right or good or interesting or useful.

I really don't know what to do at this point?

#anxiety #self confidence #depression #practices