Monday, March 15, 2010

March 2nd: YouTube and Ideas of Amateurism

Excuse the fact that my computer ran out of batteries and thus, the notes get sparse and are mostly quotes or concepts that made a strong impression. Maybe this is what notes should always be done? ...

80% of youtube videos have under 100 views
(interesting because ones we tend to know about are the more popular ones)

(Sidenote: can you sort by viewcount? Least relevant?)

We also don’t know how the ones that are there on the opening page, how they come to be there.

Rules of youtube?
Interest when amateur performance line is blurred with professional performance.
Idea of context collapse (when you remove home video status there becomes moral question – like cute kids in rural towns driving becomes front page stories)

What were the rules that emerged when watching videos of teenagers dancing in their basements?
- they all have to be crappy quality (she missed it when an editor brightened it up)
- they last as long as the song

She was excited by the new palate in the world (naturalistic)
Took videos of teenagers dancing off youtube, made something else with it, set it to new song, etc.
On the day she displayed it at Harbourfront, she posted it on Youtube and contacted all the participants.

Interesting intersection with Rogoff article – by pulling them together, it becomes about “collectivity”
Loves idea that all over the world teenagers were dancing in their basement in a similar way (not about monoculture … but what is that similarity about?)
Some people seem to think it’s a bad thing. Some don't.

Are you hopeful that there is some kind of universality? Is that what part of your joy in people doing things in the similar ways?

Yes. Growing up, moving around, Margeaux always thought “wow, we could do things in so many ways, why do we all build houses in the same way, all over the world. Oh, wait, it’s because we all innately start to do things the same way.” Relief in the idea that we all bring a certain internal order to the way we organize things.

Steven Pinker.

Even when kids are being made fun of, it is not one kid. It is in groups.

What does this kind of amateur culture and dance in public space, do to the “legitimate” field?

Used to be “filter then publish” … now it’s “publish then filter”

“I make art that is accessible in medium, not necessarily in message”.

Is the body as a medium inaccessible? (compared to internet)

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