Sven Goyvaerts’s One Year Life Performance 2.0 and Glenn Weatherson’s Sixty-Days: Using social media as a vessel for their art

Artist Sven Goyvaerts presented his social media experiment One Year Life Performance 2.0 at the University of Nevada, Reno on November 12, 2009. He began recording everything he does during the day on June 16, 2009, and sharing it through social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, vimeo, YouTube, and yes, even World of WarCraft.

This is an experiment that tests the ability of social media and whether it truly does work. Goyvaerts likes to say that his experiment is like a “reality show, coming to you, on each day, for one whole year, for free.” However, do people really pay attention to what is going on? Do you need to have a personal connection with somebody who is blogging, tweeting, or updating statuses to truly care about what someone is saying or doing? Is social media a form of art?

To answer the last question first, social media is not a form of art. However, social media is a vessel for Goyvaerts’s art. It is just like how a canvas alone isn’t art, but what the artist puts on the canvas is art.

His project reminds me of Glenn Weatherson’s project called Sixty-Days. Weatherson created a video series on vimeo sharing his days while being stuck in an apartment on house arrest. He also shared his experiences on his portfolio, Flickr and Twitter. This can be considered art, but Weatherson had no intention to make it art. He started doing absurd things in front of a camera and shared it with his friends and family members. He would do things such as drink a gallon of Tampico orange juice and throw it up or rearrange his entire apartment to have all the furniture stacked up on each other in the center of the room.

Goyvaert and Weatherson’s projects are similar in their use of social media to promote their artistic ideas. What I have noticed is that they began promoting their projects through their friends, and then their friends helped them promote it, and then their friends’ friends sent it to their friends. It’s a chain reaction. And, there you have it… the power of social media.

I would like to see more art documentations such as these. The most interesting part about it all is to see how people react to them – whether they view, interact or participate in the work.

Great job Goyvaert and Weatherson! You continue to make social media a fascinating topic of conversation.

Check out their sites:

Sven Goyvaerts

Glenn Weatherson

Save the Tatas!

Watch the video my friend and I made:

Goose Patrol

For my internship at The Glenn Group today, I was invited to be a tag along for a video shoot for Feather Falls Casino’s promotional event called Hot August Knights.

I never knew the true definition of “intern” until today. I drove our talent around, took everyones’ lunch order, and was asked to quiet the squawking geese at the nearby lake. An internship without the tedious tasks wouldn’t be a real internship. But, hey, if I look at the bright side, I got to meet the clients, the talent, and the crew while taking their lunch orders. It’s networking in disguise. However, the geese are a different story. You gotta be kidding, right, Mike?

The times I wasn’t asked to do anything is when I learned the most. I was able to simply observe what was going on around me. I learned how ideas become reality, how sets are created, and what roles certain people have when filming a commercial.

I had the honor to work with the crew from FLF Films. Jerry Dugan was the director of the commercial and Erika Frick was the producer. They are so talented, they make filming look easy. Their group is laid-back, funny, hardworking and talented. They have my full recommendation. FLF Films is based in Reno – The Biggest Little City in the World.  Check ‘em out!

Also, just a little shout out for Floyd Lamb State Park on US-95 and Durango in Las Vegas. We filmed at this park. I never knew it existed until today. Besides the crazy geese and the $6 parking fee, the park was beautiful.

In honor of every mean goose out there.

Hissing and squawking all day, everyday. Lighten up.

Networking at its best

During the week of June 9-15, I volunteered my time to CineVegas Film Festival. It has probably been one of the best experiences I’ve had in Vegas for a long time. I met a lot of great people, talked with filmmakers and writers, watched upcoming films created by independent film geniuses, and mingled at the after parties till 4 a.m.  It truly was an experience.

My first night, I went to Lavo at the Palazzo Resort & Casino. I awkwardly went by myself not knowing too many people at CineVegas. Trying to waste time, I go into the bathroom to fix my makeup that didn’t need to be fixed and for 10 minutes, chatted with the attendant who didn’t know how to speak English. I finally got the nerves to go back to the club. This time, I snatched a drink from the waitress and hid in the corner of the bar. There I met Ron*. Ron seemed to be the typical, 50-year old, raunchy man who hung out at the clubs to pick up on young ladies like myself. But, instead of being creepy, he was actually a very nice man. To my surprise, he was one of the account directors for the free credit report commercials. Pretty awesome, huh? We created mini-stories about everyone around us. We described one man as a recent retired military man, who never graduated from high school and hates his life. We tried to make up a conversation between a man and woman consisting of random babbling about how much they like each other. If you haven’t done this before, try it out. Just make sure no one overhears you. After many stories and laughs with Ron, I finally picked a face in the crowd that I knew who was a director of one of the short films playing in the UNLV showcase and also a good friend from high school.  We talked, we drank, we reminisced on the good times.

Aside from the after parties, being a volunteer at CineVegas was great. I met amazing volunteers and staff members. It’s too bad I had so little time with everyone. With the little time I had though, I still created, what I like to believe, a few long-lasting friendships.

My experience at CineVegas has once again proved to me how important networking is. I met people who live in Los Angeles, New York City, a small city in Alabama, and even Toronto. I know I would have a friend to visit if I did go to any of these cities. During CineVegas, I thought about not going to any of the events and just meet people while volunteering in the theatre, but I knew that it wouldn’t benefit me. I tend to be a shy person. However, when I am social, it never ceases to amaze me what great things come out of it.

If you have the opportunity and time to volunteer for events, I would highly suggest it, especially if it has to deal with what you are interested in.

CineVegas was more than just partying and getting little to no sleep. It was about learning, meeting new people, and gaining new experiences.

Guess where I will be next summer? That’s right. CineVegas.

How To Stand Out

Like any good social marketing program, transparency and authenticity are the two most important factors when thinking how to brand yourself or company. The only way to compete with the big boys or related professionals is to be your self. Here are a few questions you should consider when trying to brand yourself on the social market:

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. What are you passionate about?

After answering these questions, stick with it. Express it on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other social channels. Combine your humor and profound intellect to gain an audience. The only way to gain and keep that audience is to be transparent and real AND interesting. I dare you to stand out from the rest.

To get inspired to stand out, I’m attaching a video from A Goofy Movie, where Max performs to the utmost amazing Disney song, Stand Out (ignore the getting busted part at the end).

If you are interested in learning more about social marketing and branding, check out Social Marketing Playbook by 360i. They have written a great packet on Social Marketing with contributing authors from Mashable, Interactive Advertising Bureau, Sawhorse Media, and other reputable companies.

Stupid things are in

Stupid things are in.

Seriously though. The most outrageously, stupid things are everywhere. Stupid commercials. Stupid videos. Stupid people.

You know how you question the stupid person in your office and ask yourself over and over, “Really, really, really? Are you kidding me?”

People question people all the time. It is a way of life.

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about the media and the direction it’s going in. More than ever, media has been creating stupid, absurd advertising for products and companies. Even though many people refer to stupid things as something that lacks common sense and intelligence, stupid things have become the intelligent thing to do.

I’m not exactly sure when the whole “stupid” phenomenon came about. I do believe it has become popular because people connect to stupid, rather than static informational things. People aren’t afraid to be themselves. People identify with stupid stuff. I’m not saying that people are stupid. I actually believe that the creators of all these stupid videos, commercials, and other forms of media are the most intelligent people. It’s a bit ironic.

Take  Stephen Colbert and his show Colbert Report. It’s so stupid, that it’s so amazing. He is able to create humorous, stupid commentary  about the most serious, so dull of topics such as politics. I enjoy the political sarcasm that he brings to his show. That’s pretty amazing considering that I can’t stand politics.

Turning the tables, do you remember the Skittles commercial that consisted of an annoying opera-like singing rabbit? I do. It was probably the funniest commercial of its time. Check it out…

So stupid, right? But, isn’t it funny? Skittles has branded themselves through stupid commercials. Even though the commercials are not related to the product, it works. It works because stupid things are in.

To make this blog not so full of stupid things, I’ll leave you with this:

The United States has been so linear in their approach of communicating with people. Why not be more configural and let people construct their own meaning behind a theme or idea? What I’m trying to say is, take the stupid-funny approach to everything you do (well, not everything). Think out of the box. People will question your motives because that’s what they do, but they will have a good time questioning you. They might even laugh a little. At least they’re talking about you.

Be the one that they remember.

Be stupid.