There is something about the nature of childhood that lends itself to misconception. Children are free from the confines of social norms and common sense. Their brains and spirits are fresh--children absorb information at incredible speeds. No matter how quick they learn, though, children still make mistakes. They still misunderstand. They use their fertile imaginations to fill the gaps in knowledge that fact hasn't found yet. From that universal experience of confounded innocence, "Misbeliefs" was born. "Misbeliefs" is a collection of strange, funny, or downright ridiculous things people believed when they were kids.
Some experiences, at least in my Western experiential frame, relate on a universally personal level. Fran Krause's "Deep Dark Fears" Tumblr series and Eric Boyd's six word stories rely on the intrinsic relatability of user-compiled content for their popularity. These artists open inboxes for crowd submissions and generate poems and/or imagery based on the suggestions they receive from fans. With "Misbeliefs," I tried to hack into the relatability sector of internet art. I relied on my Facebook and Instagram community to gather ideas, and then compiled those ideas onto a Tumblr blog. My friends generated the content, and they reacted incredibly well to the result. The reception of "Misbeliefs," "Deep Dark Fears" and Eric Boyd's content has been astronomical; people like consuming content they initiate. People like when television writers listen to their ideas. People like when poets respond to their prompts. People love talking about themselves and their experiences, and they love the interrelational joy that community compiled content brings to their internet sessions.
We live in a social generation. Projects are almost expected to be entirely collaborative in today's new media world. Mass content sites like Tumblr and Buzzfeed have audience involvement--quizzes, polls, submission boxes, and personal messaging, to name a few. Any site that produces a high volume of good and/or relatable content is expected to interact with the audience on a near-intimate level. People love themselves and value their entertainment too highly to give crummy content. In internet society, audiences basically throw the content they want to see at the people who make money off of their entertainment.
"Misbeliefs" is a small-scale reflection of mass internet amusement. People close to me gave me their stories and enjoyed reading other people's submissions. Although not all the submissions were identical, they brought up the same feelings of humorous nostalgia in the entire audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment