Blog #2: Reflection On The Project

The concept for our Media & Society project, which analyzes social networking, reality TV and their roles in pop culture, came about in a rather interesting way. At first, we really had no idea what we were up to, but all of us had split up into groups. I approached my team with a crude idea for a parody/fake reality show, which would be a supplement to the project. The idea was to burst in on teachers while in class to gauge their reactions—admittedly this is very silly. That didn’t stick, but the reality show idea did; soon more than half the class got on board with it and the train ride began. Lorien, David and I, that same day, went off to shoot what became “The REAL Life of David.” The idea behind this was to have a mundane and long piece of footage just showing David being normal (perhaps some influence came from Andy Warhol’s “Sleep”), which would be a stark contrast to our fake reality show. When filming the latter, there was a bit more direction, but all the lines were off the cuff and many of the scene ideas were made up on the spot in a “wouldn’t it be cool if we did this” kind of way. It was great how the project came together in a unified fashion even though there was little centralized direction. Also, it is brilliant to see how the supplemental idea of a comment on reality TV (originating in a plan of bursting in on teachers) was morphed and built upon to create the main project.

This was all aided by social networking, which allowed us to communicate and became the medium by which we would present our project. Our facebook page has logged many of our discussions and notes telling one another what to bring to the next shoot or ideas for the next shoot. The social networking aspect is not as organic or intuitive as one might think. It is a great way to get in touch with people and plan events, but it is a difficult way to present art. Indeed, communicating about what to shoot and when to shoot was easy, but it is difficult to be imaginative with something like facebook, which appears to be a utilitarian communication device. That is why we are using social networking for its intended purpose: a way to present and distribute our art.