Finding Arts Place (Paley) - pp. 66-112 discussion topics/questions

Nothing highlights the radical social and cultural changes of digital technology quite like this chapter on the work of Sadie Benning. Rather than cringe at the datedness of Paley's book, I think we should approach this as an opportunity to examine how new communication technologies impact our lives and especially the lives of young people. Of course, digital technologies were immediately adopted by artists to create whole new genres of creative production, much of it interactive and highly innovative. Rhizome is the major organization that presents, discusses and archives net art. See http://rhizome.org/  for examples of recent and classic works of digital media.

However, this chapter in Paley's text is about an artist who emerged on the eve of the digital revolution. Ironically, a relatively low-tech instrument - a toy Pixelvision camera - was used to create a look that became the defining feature of her art. The bedroom studio and diaristic format revealing intimate details of her life, including her sexual orientation, were novel for the time. Her struggle to survive as a lesbian teen in a world that is hard enough for a heterosexual woman/girl to navigate made for perfect '80s-style identity art. (Caveat - the modern LGBTQ movement has always been closely linked with identity politics. This particular form of identity politics, which required LGBTQ individuals to embrace their sexual identities, was necessary to put LGBTQ issues on the national political agenda - issues such as discrimination in the workplace, gay bashing/sexual harassment and hate crimes.) 

Bennings' work is not available on Youtube, perhaps because she is an established art star whose work should not be confused with, or compared to, the pedestrian bedroom-studio teenage video diaries of today. Even though we haven't seen Bennings' work, it's clear that aesthetically it bears no resemblance to those Youtube productions. So we do not confuse this with that. However, we will compare because many of us work closely with teenagers. Some of these teens may be social media queens or kings with hundreds or even thousands of fans. Sadie Benning is relevant to us because her work could be relevant to them.

The authenticity of Sadie Bennings' video personae was never in doubt. Today, however, some of the biggest Youtube celebrities in the teenage diary category have been accused of faking their entire identity. The most famous case I can think of right now is lonelygirl15 - see
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyqnJLFiriE&feature=fvwrel
but you may know others. For teenagers this may be old hat. But you can shed new light on it by exploring the topic of "exhibiting the self as screen and secret" (Paley, 105), or, in plain language, examining the relationship between performance and identity.

Topic - How does presenting yourself as "yourself" to a public audience become a performance? To understand this phenomenon, it really helps to have firsthand experience. Make a short video of yourself talking about your life as if you were talking into a mirror. Then watch yourself and look for subtle changes in your self-presentation as you video yourself doing the same thing several days in a row. Make sure to watch your own videos. It's important that others watch them too, because their comments will affect your performance in your next video. It's human nature to want to please other people, even if they are strangers. Younger people have an easier time with this concept than Gen X or Baby Boomers. Older people tend to ask that annoying question, "who cares?" 

I am interested in exploring with you the strange drift that occurs when we speak to a camera in front of an audience. We know this drift occurs with Hollywood stars and other famous people. We criticize them when they "start to believe their own b.s.," i.e., lose the ability to distinguish between their on and off-screen personas. 

The distance between movie stars and fans is much greater than that of bedroom video diarists, whose popularity depends on their ability to close the gap between self and viewer. That is why authenticity matters. But you can see how easy it would be for a creative person to be gradually transformed by this process.  

Ideally we'd all make video diaries and share them in a closed discussion group. Realistically I cannot and will not ask students to divulge personal information for a class assignment.

A more reasonable assignment might entail videoing (or photographing) ourselves in different interior settings, using different lighting techniques, vantage points, etc. It helps if you know how to do it, but don't worry if you don't. If you do, then you know you can manipulate settings to make yourself look younger or older than you actually are. So you could try to pass yourself off as a much younger or much older person. But would it pass the authenticity smell test? 

People believed Sadie Benning. Would they believe you? For a second let's suspend disbelief and pretend someone cares (!) The point - the main point - is that teenagers believe people care, and maybe people of that generation really do care as long as they think you are real. But what is "real" and how do we recognize it? What are the parameters of the "real," the "real you?" At what point do you stop being you? 

Play around with this assignment. See what emerges. You can respond entirely in writing, as we have in previous weeks, or you can respond visually. If you choose the latter, have something ready to share by this Sunday at midnight, our usual deadline. 

Be mindful of the fact that we don't know what you look like. How you represent yourself visually is a performance by you as the "real you." With slight tweaking, you become less you. I'd like to see the "real you," the "slightly less you," the "noticeably less you" and the "really not real you" you. 

So what is this assignment "really" about? You guessed it - the identity politics of the digital age and our social immersion in digital communication technologies. Have fun!