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.  

Web 2.0 Comments

I commented on Corey March and Mike Florio's Web 2.0 responses, and supported both their arguments that social networking and how Web 2.0 is definitely an extension of our identity, and it creates new opportunities for communication.

Web 2.0 and Digital Nation Essay Question #2

Michael Hsu

Professor Jacobsen

Media Literacy

2/28/11

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

(You may want to re-watch "bubbie" and "warcraft" sections of digital nation)

           

As social networks have become increasingly popular, it has redefined communication and social interaction between people all over the world. Ever since its foundation in 2004, Facebook has taken rapid control over social networking and changed the way people use the Internet. Websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have reinvented the way people view the Internet, and the way people utilize it. This phenomenon has become known as Web 2.0 or an extension of the Internet where people come together and share information with each other as a means of communication or as a “medium”. Many of these Web 2.0 sites rely on use-generated content to fill its sites, but it’s the information on those sites that have produced so much popularity. Using Facebook as the primary example, the information each person chooses to have on his profile becomes that person’s identity on Facebook. Although many argue that many of these websites make people conform to the profiles demanded by the interface, and creates a loss of personal space, I personally disagree with that notion. I definitely would argue that a websites like Facebook has become an extension or expansion of our Identity, and is a means of reaching out to others in an easier form of communication. I think it brings people together, and allows for people to express themselves with updates and photos and show who they are. On a website like Facebook, you are not necessarily creating a new identity, but more so branching out and extending yourself to socialize and communicate with your friends. All of these social networking sites have become social software for those that interact and share information over the Internet. Viral videos on Youtube, Tweets on Twitter, and Facebook posts have all become a part of the way society views the World Wide Web (2.0).

            Although I am quick to defend the fact that site like Facebook and Twitter are a means of extending your personal identity, I have a different stance on whether Warcraft and Second Life would be an expansion of personal identity. As described in the documentary Digital Nation, people use Second Life and Warcraft as a means of escaping reality and creating a new world to live in. These particular examples to me, would not count as extending your own identity, but more so creating an entirely new one. It does not necessarily mean you are conforming to the cookie-cutter profiles demanded nor does it mean you are giving up your personal space, but you are essentially escaping the realm of reality. Referring again to Rushkoff and Dreztin’s Digital Nation, some individuals play these virtual games such as Warcraft relentlessly for hours upon hours. They create a new identity on these sites, and essentially spend as much time in the “real world” as they do lost in this “virtual world”. At that point, I would absolutely not consider it an extension of your true identity, but in turn an escape to a virtual reality with an entirely new identity. The popularity of games such as Warcraft and Second Life do however draw similarities to those social networking sites like Facebook. It relies on a mass collaboration of people on a certain site or computer generated game for it to be able to create this enormous world where people communicate and gather.

            In one particular section of Digital Nation where “Bubbie” was introduced, I saw that as a great way of extending identity via the Internet and viral video. This portion of the documentary was centered on a grandma who had not much to do but stay home and cook food etc.; yet she ultimately transformed herself into a web star. By posting videos of doing things a typical grandma did, she became known virally as “Bubbie”, the grandma people looked up to and admired.

            In this day and age, the Internet is a phenomenal tool of expanding yourself and extending your identity, but it is not to be taken for granted. Websites such as Facebook and Youtube have done so much for communication, and expanding who we are over the Internet; yet Internet games such as Warcraft have diminished that idea of keeping your identity. The Internet can be a great way of expanding yourself, but it can also hinder people from facing reality in a digital realm. 

 

Web 2.0 - Social Media - Transparency

1. Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY? 

I believe its just a strategy used by production companies on purpose to get the effect that you are on your computer or you are looking at a computer screen. I don't think that this "homegrown" or amateur look is going to continue or be used by all TV shows and ad companies. I think that professional production values will only get better and I don't see this amateur user-generated content to continue (but if it does I think that only has more room to improve as well.

2. What social media sites do you find yourself using the most, and why? In your opinion why is Facebook so much more successful than MySpace, and do you think Facebook is "here to stay" for the long term.

I definitely find myself on Facebook much more than any social media site on the web. I feel like Facebook has absolutely taken over the world of social networking, and because of it's ability to sustain itself with constant upgrades and improvements, I do not see Facebook dropping off the map like Myspace did. What Myspace lacked was the professional feel that targets older audiences such as the college level student, and I feel like as a result it did not stay for the long term.

before answering question #3 please read the Transparency in Social Media Blog Article

3. Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?


I feel like transparency is such an important concept in the Social Media world because everything you post or tweet on a social media site has substance to it and its there in writing. You are essentially accountable for what you write and the factor of communication between you and your peers adds that binding to your words. I think transparency is less important in the offline world because you are not necessarily bound to everything you say or do whereas in the online world, everything is there in your words and your writing.

McLuhan Photoshop Final Post

For my McLuhan Final Project, I chose to create a photo shop image that depicted the use of Skype in today's world. The globe above the Skype icon is meant to symbolize a diverse world in which Skype brings together different countries and cultures to form a network for communication. Based on McLuhan's ideas and how technology and innovation has changed the world we live in, Skype is definitely a key example of his views. Skype as a medium, creates this "Global Village" that McLuhan noted in his work, and it does it in a way that allows people all over the world to communicate. The message that this medium sends is that it widens the restrictive gap of communication between several different nations. It increases the speed in which people can talk to each other whether its over the phone or by way of skype via the computer. I feel strongly that my photo shop image does a good job of illustrating skype and supporting McLuhan's views on the "medium". The four different people I chose for this image are meant to illustrate the diverse world that Skype allows for, and the continuous flow of communication over seas. Skype can very much be considered an extension of ourselves in the sense that people used to barely be able to communicate over close distances, and now those barriers have been broken. McLuhan would have absolutely seen this as a "break-through" technology that allows people to broaden their ways of communication.

Modern Mediums

1.Skype

 Skype serves as a new medium that allows for people to communicate with each other verbally and visually through the computer. Its a fast form of communication that lets people see and talk to each other through a webcam attached to the computer. This new technology lets people communicate across the world through the internet, and offers the experience of a face-to-face encounter.

2.Youtube

Youtube is a new medium sensation that allows people to post videos onto the internet, and share them with each other over this website. It has enhanced the way people use the web, and has been a foundation for music and entertainment over the internet. It has brought people together to share  a laugh over a video, or find a new song that's recently been released.


3. Facebook 

Probably considered the most innovative of all modern mediums, Facebook has transformed the way people communicate and share information with each other. It's a social network that allows for people all over the world to keep in touch and message one another. This medium serves as a tool for people to talk, share photos, and chat over the internet.