rant 11 Jan 2007 05:39 pm
The Audience of Ten
Q: How does our relationship with our audience affect our media production?
To some, there is comfort in knowing that they have a huge audience. “20.000 people read my words, watch my video, and they give a shit! Yes!” To others, the big unknown audience becomes a grey mass, an intimidating grey mass. I belong to the latter group, and my relationship to the audience here at DLTQ has been mixed. Now, my circulation has never been big, and the last several months this site has had about 120 subscribers through the feedburner feed, so I cannot say that I have this big scary audience. d
However, on the one hand, I like to think of my audience in specifics. I write my post, or post my video, with Schlomo in mind, or Dooser, or Jan. These are people I consider friends, even though we may not communicate frequently, and I enjoy making things for them. Show them part of my life. My world, through my own coloured glasses. For them, I could do something like “5 AM Rant” without a flinch, or I could make doodles like this and not worry too much about “production value”. I could talk to the camera like to a friend.
Then there were the others. The unknowns. I haven’t spoken at all about this with people untill recently, and I haven’t mentioned it on this vlog before now, but at a certain point I started getting some really nasty personal e-mails where people referred to videos I had made and came with the most condescending remarks. Every email was from a different hotmail.com-address or similar, and every time it was signed by something like “your friend”. So at a certain point I stopped feeling good about it. Of course, the safe thing then would be to just turn to the exoteric, do shows, or focus on fixed themes. I could very well have done a lot more with political videoblogging, for instance. But at the time I wasn’t feeling good about that – I guess I was the disillusioned, cynical videoblogger. Feeling that videoblogging had become just another way for the old power structures to extend their influence. If you take a look at the iTunes Music Store today – well, it is becoming more and more difficult to see the individual videoblogger among all the ABC, NBC, Navy, Disney, Army, Nestle and whatnot video podcasts that are out there. Does this mean I am anti-business? Far from it. But I am very conscious of language, and the whole theme of symbolic violence has stuck on my mind the last weeks.
***
This autumn here in Denmark has been a huge strain on me, and particularly november/december were two downer months. But looking back at the two years of videoblogging was a helpful process; it helped me remember my questions – issues, and it helped me see part of the larger picture.
Today Erik Nelson pointed me to his last video, which I actually had not seen. It is called “This is food” and is part of the second Carp Caviar season. I felt immensely flattered by this homage; and also spurred to keep on with my experimenting, honing my message, and trying to find/expand my language.
With Erik’s permission, here is the video: Carp Caviar 025 This Is Food
Thank you, Erik. Watching this recontextualization really helped me to see again. I will do more sharing to my intended audience of ten again.
So, what else is new?
Well, during the autumn I realized that I need more income. I Really need more income, to pay for things like expensive dental bills (i have had this crippling fear of the dentist for almost a decade, and now finally I take care of things, which is costly), and other things from the past like student loans and other sins. So, apart from my consulting work for BlogSoft, I took on an offer in December to work full-time at the academic books department of one of the largest bookstores in Copenhagen. So, since December 1st, I have been responsible for the academic books at this bookstore, dealing with publishing houses, suppliers, and customers both individual and institutional. I have always loved books, and to me this is a great opportunity to explore that interest of mine further. This contract is only untill April 1st – and then we will see what happens. Who knows, maybe I will sell out even more, do more with blogging / videoblogging, and actually take more initiative in this space. At least, I feel much better about things now than I did mere months ago. (Leaving EV for now was probably good for me, too)
***
So, the audience of ten. You could of course say “If you feel uncomfortable about trolls, stay off the internet” – but that’s not a good way of looking at this. I will once more defy the beasts. We cannot let ze terrorists win.
Who are my intended audience?
Jan
Jen
Chris Weagel
Adam Quirk
Mica Scalin
Dooser
Schlomo Rabinowitz
Jay Dedman
Anders Clerwall
Andreas Haugstrup
Brittany
Ryanne
Madge
Lotta
Daniel Liss
Alberto
Markus Sandy
Lai Yiu
Marc
Daniel S.
Richard Hall
Verdi
Mmeiser
MissB
Duncan Speakman
Jeffrey
Steve Elbows
Joelart
Hail
Miguel
Juan Carlos
Erik Nelson
JD Lasica
Trine
… and so on and so on. Already, I guess my intended audience is at over 25 people.
I want to communicate to you. So I guess I should. Here is a video I shot today with Michael Meiser in mind. Architecture!
on 11 Jan 2007 at 6:01 pm 1.Casey said …
“And so on” includes me… but it’s a secret… Raymond doesn’t want anyone to know he actually thinks of me… especially not Chris Weagel
on 12 Jan 2007 at 2:43 am 2.randy said …
i know it must of been a typo but you ment to put me on that list right???
ill be watching and lurking
randy
on 12 Jan 2007 at 6:40 am 3.David said …
I assume that you dont know I watch your videos and read your words. Maybe that’s a good thing?
It’s your open conversations with the camera, and possibly to you viewers, that intrigue and fascinate me. I envy your ability to do that.
on 12 Jan 2007 at 8:54 pm 4.missb said …
Quite right! We cannot let the trolls win! This is easy for me to say because I have not (as yet) received any creepy or mean-spirited emails from a viewer. My inbox is already packed with spammail from randomly-generated folk such as Queasy T. Flotsam and Arbor J. Luminary.
It’s always in the back of my mind though, whenever I post: that mean-spirited email is just around the corner. I’d like to say that it wouldn’t affect my content…
…but I’m not sure.
on 13 Jan 2007 at 7:31 am 5.Steve Elbows said …
Unfortunately those emails sound like classic intimidation technique to me, although this is of course complete speculation and Ive not even seen any of the emails. One reason I rarely vlog is that my own imagination intimidates me out of doing it before anybody else has the chance!
on 16 Jan 2007 at 12:06 pm 6.Mica said …
That library is impressive. NYC has some great public library spaces with free wifi, of course. And then there is my personal favorite, the Library of Congress has an amazing public reading room, I spent many hours feeling smart there. I’ll have to look for some pics of it for you.
on 19 Jan 2007 at 11:26 am 7.schlomo said …
You may leave EV, but I still need you to show up on IM once in a while!!
We have planning to do:)
on 24 Jan 2007 at 1:43 pm 8.Michael Meiser said …
Been hard to keep up with you. But I’m still here same as I ever was, and I miss our extensive conversations. Somehow we must resume the skypecasts. I miss the “excuse” to chat regularly and the need to be poignant, focused, and on topic. And above all I missed the conversations with their unique and interesting topics.
We must continue to push out that boundry for collaboration… I miss that, not putting myself out there. In not doing so I feel like personally I’m not as in touch with the questions I find so fascinating nor the people that challenge me to ask those questions.
To me it’s not about big audiences at all. I just want to believe that beyond those whom I immediately have in mind that there may be ONE person given the nearly infinite time and findability on the web that will hear something or read something and it will change how they think about new media.
Indeed, my favorite podcast these days continues to be as always a tiny little podcast called whole wheat radio that is very anti-outsider, anti-large audience, and to whom I am absolutely an outsider. I never miss an episode though, I still find it infinitely fascinating, enjoyable and inciteful. Insightful because it keeps me in touch with the very simple, small scale value of new media. How can we keep that spirit alive and vital?
The only other thing I can say is I still love the luxury of leaving sometimes absurdly long comments on blogs. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m a true believer and I revel in the conversations in the long ends and hidden corners of the internet. I love the obscurity, the “hyper-local” culture and I still dream that maybe that spirit cannot only be sustained forever in our hearts, but worldwide. To me it’s to be awake, aware, alive, a member of something larger then oneself, a duty of citizenship. These spaces of passion are the anti-dote to passive media and passive cultures.
My biggest fear is forgetting that vitality, forgetting why it’s important, having that sense of vitality fade away because we did not nurture it. Digg, and Youtube, and all these social networks are disillusioning. They betray and disenfranchise. What happens when they’re no longer fashionable? I believe in the core vision of google, in technoratti, in delicious, co.mments.com, techmeme, and blip… the word is still out on flickr. In things that don’t try to greedily suck up the value, but which take a long hardd look at what’s there and try to simply add value to it… enhance it, make it work better. Those other services aren’t not all bad, but these are the services that pave new roads for all, they don’t try to subvert, but enhance.
It’s a deeper and subtler line these services have on culture then throwing up a youtube, or simply making a new TV show, or cranking another widget. But the message is still clear. They are distributing the future, not hoarding it. A fine line between and idealism, and our dog eat dog capitalist world.
Peace, out… we need more skypecasts.
on 17 Mar 2007 at 8:45 am 9.black girl stocking said …
black girl stocking…
abrikoskos 1753529 Catalogue of black girl stocking….
on 13 Jun 2007 at 3:52 am 10.amldulxlui said …
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ziduicbozvgg
on 13 Jun 2007 at 5:20 am 11.lzxucdymbf said …
mfznpkr
on 31 Aug 2007 at 11:42 am 12.Cheap tramadol cod buy cheap cod online tramadol. said …
Buy tramadol at a cheap price online….
Buy cheap tramadol mg tablets only in us online….
on 22 Sep 2007 at 12:57 am 13.Cheap viagra order online. said …
Cheap viagra order online….
Cheap viagra order online….