Catfish Analysis

Michael Hsu

5/5/11

Media Literacy

Catfish Documentary Analysis

            The documentary Catfish encompasses both the ideas of a democratized media and how Web 2.0 and social networking have changed the Internet. This documentary begins with the main character Nev who befriends an 8 –year old artist named Abby from Michigan. Abby sends Nev painted pictures of his photographs and they begin to build a friendly relationship. Upon their connection through the social network Facebook, Nev meets Abby’s older sister Megan who is an attractive woman about his age. They begin to talk and build a relationship over the Internet, and soon begin to exchange phone calls as well. Nev and Megan continue to talk and develop a somewhat serious connection over Facebook, and Nev decides that he really wants to meet her in person. Although he’s had doubts about this relationship he’s developed with Megan, Nev didn’t want to believe that she was actually a fake person. There have been many signs up to that point that Megan was a very shady character, but Nev truly wanted to believe that this connection he felt was true and authentic. After digging up more details, and making the trip to Michigan, he realized that the woman he had actually built a relationship was Angela (Abby’s mother) and not actually Megan. Angela created an entire network of imaginary people including Megan to gain the interest and friendship of Nev. She pretended that her daughter Abby was the artist when she herself was the one painting pictures of Nev’s work. In the end, it actually turned out to be a sad finish to what began as a promising relationship. You had to actually feel sorry for Angela who was this woman who married into a family of two mentally challenged children that she now has to take care of. As the viewer, you have to also feel bad for Nev who thought he had developed this real and true relationship with this beautiful woman, but turned out to be a fraud.

            This documentary definitely plays into the role of Web 2.0 and democratized media because you can’t always trust what you see in on the Internet. This woman convincingly created an entire network of people herself, and took the identity of a random person. Nev actually thought he had developed a true relationship with this woman, and actually cared for her. You could definitely see the pain in both their eyes in the end when they were looking at each other. This shows how in today’s Internet world, what you see can’t always be believed. This ties into what Andrew Keen believes that the new Internet has become a web where nothing is truly authentic anymore.

            Even though social networking has benefitted communication between people in so many ways, it also leaves room for deception as well. You can’t always trust the new people you meet, and as Keen stated, there are no fact checkers. There is no Internet authority to ensure that what you see and read is actually truthful information. Web 2.0 and social media has grown and developed to help our culture immensely, but this is evidence that social networking isn’t always perfect.

Exit Through The Gift Shop Essay

Michael Hsu

4/20/11

Media Literacy           

Exit Through the Gift Shop

            The film Exit Through The Gift Shop is a documentary that explores the world of a particular art culture that literally took the streets by storm. The documentary begins with a man named Terry Guetta who owns a local clothing store in Los Angeles, and has this unusual obsession with videotaping. This obsession of recording everything occurring in his life began after he started his family as a result of his missing childhood. What began as a hobby soon turned into Terry’s fantasy; leading him miles away from his family to embark on a journey that would forever change his life.

            Terry began to explore the world of street art, a cultural phenomenon where artists etched their mark on streets of major cities all over the world. Terry began to film every minute of his exploration while meeting many of the prominent street artists along the way. His journey first began by meeting the artist space invader who led him into the “hidden” culture of art graffiti. Terry became fascinated by the excitement and rush of this new trend, and soon began to put his camera to use. He began to document the works of all the street artists he met along the way including Sheppard Fairy as well as the infamous Banksy.

            Terry’s adventure took a dramatic turn when he first met Banksy, otherwise known as the most highly profiled street artist in the game. Banksy was a man of anonymity who usually kept his personal and street art life a secret from the public eye. Against his usual judgment, Banksy allowed Terry to follow and document his highly regarded work. The purpose was to create a street art documentary that would open the world to this new and exciting art culture. When the film was finally ready to be produced, Banksy took the reins of the project as a result of Terry’s amateur film production skills. Half joking, he encouraged Terry to embark on a new journey of street art while Banksy was busy creating the documentary. Little did he know, Terry took his advice to heart and began to create his own alias, calling himself Mr. Brainwash. This character took the streets of Los Angeles by storm, and Terry began to put together his own art exhibition around Mr. Brainwash. The exhibition blew up in popularity because of Terry’s connections and Mr. Brainwash began to pull in nearly $30,000 per piece of artwork. 

            Many street artists found Terry’s artwork to be a fraud because it lacked originality, and could be considered a mix of various ideas. Many thought he simply took bits and pieces of art styles along the way and created a work that lacked personal innovation. Even Terry’s close friends such as Sheppard Fairy and Bansky were not thrilled at the explosion in Mr. Brainwash’s popularity. There is an overarching meaning that comes from this documentary, and Terry’s adventure illustrates a lot of that. Art is something that should come from the heart and there should be a personal connection between an artist and his/her work. In Terry’s situation, many thought he only cared about the money and fame, whereas his works took a backseat. Many of the times, he was not focused on his work or his exhibit allowing his employees to simply put them in any order for the exhibition. Many of the times his art really didn’t have any deeper meaning or message to send to society making him very different from all the street artists.

            When you compare and contrast Terry’s work to that of Sheppard Fairy or Banksy, you can clearly see the difference. Sheppard Fairy and Banksy created their own styles that were original and most of all important to them. It was a change in culture where these artists wanted to send the people a message by putting up their work in the streets. On top of that, these artists created works from their own imagination and it was something that came from the heart. In Terry’s case, a lot of his work was simply a knockoff of other artists and he did not necessarily have a deep connection to those pieces. 

            Many of Terry’s acquaintances that he met along the way were very unhappy with him such as Space Invader who no longer keeps in contact with Terry. Many of those artists were unhappy because street art was supposed to be about something much more than just fame and money. These artists feel like they were undermined, and it was as if Terry had taken the shortcut to success and damaging the art culture.

            In conclusion, this turned out to be a very interesting documentary that had many overarching meanings to it. The film really opened the world to not only street art, but also the culture that these artists bring to the world. Many of these artists spill their souls into their artwork hoping to change the world in different ways. It was definitely more than a documentary just on street art, but shows the world the culture that comes with it.

           

         

Status Report (Grade) - Hsu

Vector - Live Trace - Illustrator

The image I chose to recreate / live trace was a picture of Vince Carter doing an under the legs dunk in the NBA Dunk Contest - I altered the image to include some purple and red because those were his team colors when he was a member of the Toronto Raptors. Image is below:

Vector Graphic - Illustrator Project

The image I chose for my vector graphic was the New York Jets logo because they are my favorite sports team. Using Adobe Illustrator, I recreated the logo that the Jets use as the face of their franchise - representing their team. The recreation as well as the original logo are pictured below:

Vector Image

Here are a few images I have chosen for the illustrator project as my vector logo:

Keen / Rushkoff Two Questions

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

-       Andrew Keen’s definition of Democratized media is that new innovations brought along with Web 2.0 such as new knowledge and information may be misleading on the basis of amateur content. According to Keen, Web 2.0 was supposed to enhance our abilities to learn and improve our knowledge as a result of new technologies in the computer science field. Instead, Keen views this modern day innovation as a setback for society, and its ability to learn and enhance itself. Andrew Keen goes as far as saying that Democratized media is undermining the truths in society, and is destroying the professional fields in modern day media. His basic explanation to this is that amateur content being posted on the Internet may be very unreliable sources to trust. These misleading sources are ubiquitous in today’s modern media as a result of all the search engines such as Google, and it’s very hard to determine what is a true source in comparison to untruthful information. Its difficult to define the education level of these people posting on the Internet, where as professionals are truly trained in the field that they are speaking or educating about. This new revolution to Keen known as Democratized media has destroyed and setback the information and knowledge in today’s media.

2.     Compare and Contrast Keens take on Social Media with Douglas Rushkoff's. What are these differences in opinion? Which one speaks to you and your own experiences and why? You may include the ideas of such utopian technophiles as Larry Lessig, Chris Anderson, and Jimmy Wales (who are these guys!?)

-       In my personal opinion, Douglas Rushkoff’s take on social media definitely speaks to me more than Andrew Keens. While I do understand Keen’s take on how Democratized media is hurting the information and knowledge we get from today’s Internet sources, I feel like Web 2.0 has done much more to benefit us rather than hurt us. In comparison, Rushkoff and Keen have somewhat of conflicting yet different views on modern day social media While Rushkoff believes that it has enhanced our abilities to extend ourselves, Keen believe that social media today is purely hurting society and its ability to move forward with knowledge/information. I think parts of Web 2.0 that far succeeds any setbacks that modern day media has presented us, has to be the development of social networks. It has transformed the way people communicate and utilize the Internet, and although certain misleading information comes along with Web 2.0, the good far outweighs the bad.