It's Memorial Day, and I'm on vacation. No meetings this weekend, only a little bit of work here and there. I'm watching a video on New Order that I never saw before, and I'm trying to send an email to David Byrne.
What do these things have in common? Well, strangely, Bono is interviewed in the New Order video. And he stands out as such a pompous ass. I mean, New Order are a relatively humble group. They were a bunch of kids from Manchester, who still seem relatively shy and down to earth. They're likable and somewhat inscrutable because they just look like people. They just sort of say, this is who we are. But Bono's another story. By comparison, he seems totally full of himself, utterly self-satisfied, self-important, and smug. He's on the video saying something about Ian Curtis's sacred voice or something, and you kind of want to slap him.
So... What does this have to do with David Byrne? Well, David Byrne seems to be a fairly down-to-earth guy. He's an incredible artist who's worked in a variety of media, and I've had a lot of respect for him since the Talking Heads first started making sense to me when I was in my late 20's or so (I never really got them when I was a teenager and they were actively recording). Well, David Byrne is doing an installation in the Battery Maritime Building with Creative Time this summer. This coincides directly with the FIGMENT event and the Emergence exhibition that I'm working on on Governors Island (the Battery Maritime Building is where the ferries leave to go to Governors Island). So, I thought, well, why not reach out to David Byrne and say hello? Invite him to FIGMENT, Emergence, whatever.
But the thing is, you can't just send an email to David Byrne, silly. He's a star! He's got a great website and journal (blog). He writes his thoughts about things there (just like I'm doing here). But you can't actually respond to anything he's written. You can't post a comment. You can't (heaven forbid) actually email him. Because, presumably, the volume would be too great for David or whoever maintains his site to respond to.
Now, in a 20th Century, pre-Internet way of looking at the world, this makes sense. You want more David Byrne? Buy a CD, go to a concert, consume media like a good fan. But we're in a world now where we have TRUE many-to-many multi-polar conversations, and loose organizations and connections that support this. I'm reminded of the article in the back of Time Magzine when they named "you" the person of the year a year and a half ago: "Andy was Right." This article was the first time that I read the rephrasing of Warhol's famous quote "In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes" as "In the future everyone will be famous to 15 people." On the Internet, everyone can find their own audience.
David Byrne, of course, is famous to way more than 15 people. And that's why I can't just send him an email. But I imagine that 15 people is about the right order-of-magnitude for how many people will read this particular blog post that I'm writing right now. And that's why you can email me, but you can't email David Byrne. Is this the new dividing line between the "famous" and the rest of us? Can I google you? If I google you, and you show up, can I find out how to contact you?
As an artist, how insulated are you from communication? How do you stay connected with people, with what's happening right now, if you can't be directly contacted? How does being insulated by intermediaries (agents, representatives, managers, lawyers) keep you from really connected with the world we're living in?
The promise of the Internet is that should we should all be able to connect with anyone. But that said, there always need to be filters, boundaries. I guess the question is... how do we each enable as much connection as possible, while still being able to filter through all of the inputs that are out there?
What do these things have in common? Well, strangely, Bono is interviewed in the New Order video. And he stands out as such a pompous ass. I mean, New Order are a relatively humble group. They were a bunch of kids from Manchester, who still seem relatively shy and down to earth. They're likable and somewhat inscrutable because they just look like people. They just sort of say, this is who we are. But Bono's another story. By comparison, he seems totally full of himself, utterly self-satisfied, self-important, and smug. He's on the video saying something about Ian Curtis's sacred voice or something, and you kind of want to slap him.
So... What does this have to do with David Byrne? Well, David Byrne seems to be a fairly down-to-earth guy. He's an incredible artist who's worked in a variety of media, and I've had a lot of respect for him since the Talking Heads first started making sense to me when I was in my late 20's or so (I never really got them when I was a teenager and they were actively recording). Well, David Byrne is doing an installation in the Battery Maritime Building with Creative Time this summer. This coincides directly with the FIGMENT event and the Emergence exhibition that I'm working on on Governors Island (the Battery Maritime Building is where the ferries leave to go to Governors Island). So, I thought, well, why not reach out to David Byrne and say hello? Invite him to FIGMENT, Emergence, whatever.
But the thing is, you can't just send an email to David Byrne, silly. He's a star! He's got a great website and journal (blog). He writes his thoughts about things there (just like I'm doing here). But you can't actually respond to anything he's written. You can't post a comment. You can't (heaven forbid) actually email him. Because, presumably, the volume would be too great for David or whoever maintains his site to respond to.
Now, in a 20th Century, pre-Internet way of looking at the world, this makes sense. You want more David Byrne? Buy a CD, go to a concert, consume media like a good fan. But we're in a world now where we have TRUE many-to-many multi-polar conversations, and loose organizations and connections that support this. I'm reminded of the article in the back of Time Magzine when they named "you" the person of the year a year and a half ago: "Andy was Right." This article was the first time that I read the rephrasing of Warhol's famous quote "In the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes" as "In the future everyone will be famous to 15 people." On the Internet, everyone can find their own audience.
David Byrne, of course, is famous to way more than 15 people. And that's why I can't just send him an email. But I imagine that 15 people is about the right order-of-magnitude for how many people will read this particular blog post that I'm writing right now. And that's why you can email me, but you can't email David Byrne. Is this the new dividing line between the "famous" and the rest of us? Can I google you? If I google you, and you show up, can I find out how to contact you?
As an artist, how insulated are you from communication? How do you stay connected with people, with what's happening right now, if you can't be directly contacted? How does being insulated by intermediaries (agents, representatives, managers, lawyers) keep you from really connected with the world we're living in?
The promise of the Internet is that should we should all be able to connect with anyone. But that said, there always need to be filters, boundaries. I guess the question is... how do we each enable as much connection as possible, while still being able to filter through all of the inputs that are out there?
You may or may not be amused to know that I found your blog while trying to find out how to e-mail David Byrne. So far, I'm having as little success as you did... I'll let you know if I do get to talk to him, though. Meanwhile, thank you for your interesting posts.
Posted by: Andy Dyson | December 31, 2009 at 12:34 PM