Re: [-empyre-] empyre: circumventing and disrupting norms in art and in advertising
Hi, I'm a new subscriber to -empyre- mailing list, so I introduce myself shortly and get back to the topic. My name is Shervin Afshar. Currently, I'm a student of Interface Cultures master program (http://interface.ufg.ac.at) in University of Arts and Design in Linz, Austria. Meanwhile, I'm working in Ars Electronica FutureLab ( http://www.aec.at/futurelab_about_en.php). Media art, history and theory of new media, generative art, and artificial intelligence in art are some of my current interests. As a continuation to the list of viral marketing campaigns provided by Renate which were campaigns based on the use Internet video sites, I like to mention some other examples which can also show us some different though related trends in this field: 1. Campaign for the Nine Inch Nails' album Year Zero in 2007. Main aspects of this campaign, which you can read about it in details here ( http://www.theplugg.com/nin-and-viral-marketing/), are connecting the physical fan memorabilia (t-shirts, buttons, etc) and found object (USB flash disks) to the different layers of the marketing campaign (fake websites reporting a dystopian scenario). This adds a layer of mystery and puzzle-solving and discovery to the campaign. Also, during this campaign the band intentionally leaked a few of the songs from the upcoming albums using those found USB flash disks. These tracks soon were shared by fans online which brought the RIAA in. This can be considered a provocative act by the campaign designers to raise controversy through using the usual heavy media coverage of controversial activities of RIAA. 2. The Lost Experience; campaign for ABC TV series LOST ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Experience#Viral_marketing_sites). The most important aspects of this campaign are using different media (alternative reality computer game, websites, TV and print commercials, billboards, novels, and voice mail, as well as episodes of the TV series) to build a web of interrelated contents hidden somewhere to be found by the audience to advance further in the mystery puzzle. With this method, the designers of the campaign extend the computer game, and therefore the campaign itself, to the physical and online spheres. 3. The third example can not be considered a perfect example for a case study for the fact that it is taken from two novels; Pattern Recognition a novel by William Gibson which was published in 2003, mentions mysterious video footage pieces appearing here and there on the Internet and reaching a cultish fame. A fan-base of people discussing and analyzing these pieces on online forums. The book also mentions an advertising agency who commissions one of the fans of the footage to find out about the mystery and methods of people behind the production of the footage with the aim to commercialize it. In his next novel, Spook Country (2006), Gibson returns to the same ideas of hypermedia-based viral marketing and even some of the characters from the previous novel. This time the media which is of interest of the marketing company is locative art created with augmented reality (AR) methods. The methods and processes of viral marketing mentioned in Gibson's novels, show some kind of prediction in coming trends. I hope the examples mentioned would open the way to deeper analysis about the use of connected narratives in virtual and real world, use of hypermedia, and branding novel methods in new media art as marketing approaches. Looking forward to the upcoming discussions. Shervin On Sat, Nov 7, 2009 at 20:37, Renate Ferro r...@cornell.edu wrote: Thanks Tim for mentioning the media theorist, Bernard Steigler’s, writing on the virulent unstoppable market of a web of data that we acknowledge today is often times subliminally positioned within the proliferation of value. In “Viral Economy” Baudrillard writes about biological virus, terrorism, the stock market, company takeovers and specifically art as contagious. “…art, which is now everywhere subjected to the problem of the fake, the authentic, the copy, the clone, the simulation-a veritable contagion that de-stabilizes aesthetic values, causing them to lose their immunity as well- and simultaneously undergoing the delirious, speculative bidding wars of the art market. It is no longer a market in fact; it is a centrifugal proliferation of value that corresponds exactly to the metastases of a body irradiated by dough.” While over the next four weeks we will highlight the art-practices of those who circumvent, disrupt and critique the data streams of the virulent art market and those of advertising messages, images, videos and all the rest, I’ve linked a few historical marketing campaigns whose high-profile advertising agencies circumvented and disrupted old norms of image mass-marketing. These advertising messages were crafted to be personal and contemporary and were most times directed at specialized, targeted audiences. At first glance these messages
Re: [-empyre-] empyre: circumventing and disrupting norms in art and in advertising
Hi Shervin and welcome to empyre soft-skinned space. Your examples are ones that use social networking in the physical world to create brand marketing. Many of the examples that I chose in my last post did have physically based elements as well that led to the internet sensations that they became. Your post reminded me of several historical examples of artists using physical social networking and the media to display confusions between what Tim and I called in our recent talk designing vs. de-signing. I'm thinking about the early networking of the Gorilla Girls who posted thousands of posters in the 1980's to critically engage the art world about gender politics. Or perhaps Muntadas' Limousine from 1991 that promoted anti-capitalist slogans screened on the windows of a black stretch limousine. As the limo was driven around the urban center, an obvious symbol of corporate wealth and power, projections displayed de-contextualized ads, headlines, or political slogans that were aimed at reformulating the discourse of popular culture. Or the work of Critical Art Ensemble who in 1994 in their project Useless Technology designed pseudo advertisements for hi-tech weaponry and appliances for a newspaper insert that was inserted into Sunday editions of major urban newspapers. Or even Nancy Nisbet's exchange project, where she trucked the entire contents of her personal belongings each with an RFID tag across the borders of Canada, the United States, and Mexico to test the cross border laws on exchange. These examples used analog networking and/or media to deconstruct and comment on the system that the project was embedded in. The projects were playful exchanges with critically hard political messaging. The boundaries between artist, designer and critical activist seems to be more slippery than it used to be in this economically precarious time. Im hoping we will be able to talk about this over the next few weeks. Renate Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Art Cornell University, Tjaden Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: r...@cornell.edu Website: http://www.renateferro.net Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space http://www.subtle.net/empyre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre Art Editor, diacritics http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
[-empyre-] empyre: circumventing and disrupting norms in art and in advertising
Thanks Tim for mentioning the media theorist, Bernard Steiglers, writing on the virulent unstoppable market of a web of data that we acknowledge today is often times subliminally positioned within the proliferation of value. In Viral Economy Baudrillard writes about biological virus, terrorism, the stock market, company takeovers and specifically art as contagious. art, which is now everywhere subjected to the problem of the fake, the authentic, the copy, the clone, the simulation-a veritable contagion that de-stabilizes aesthetic values, causing them to lose their immunity as well- and simultaneously undergoing the delirious, speculative bidding wars of the art market. It is no longer a market in fact; it is a centrifugal proliferation of value that corresponds exactly to the metastases of a body irradiated by dough. While over the next four weeks we will highlight the art-practices of those who circumvent, disrupt and critique the data streams of the virulent art market and those of advertising messages, images, videos and all the rest, Ive linked a few historical marketing campaigns whose high-profile advertising agencies circumvented and disrupted old norms of image mass-marketing. These advertising messages were crafted to be personal and contemporary and were most times directed at specialized, targeted audiences. At first glance these messages were not obvious as advertisements using gaming strategies, animation, avatars, You Tube, Flickr, blogging, among many others. In all cases advertisers banked on the fact that their target customer would share the information with her own social networks. And indeed it worked. One of the early examples of this appropriation from 2001 is Burger Kings Subservient Chicken. While based on a series of television ads the online, viral marketing campaign was disguised as an interactive gaming site featuring a person in a chicken suit who interactively playacts the viewers typed directives out as if they were both at home playing a charades like game. Other segments of the online site feature a casino game and a chicken mask you can construct and wear. The campaign was so successful it ran until 2007. http://www.bk.com/en/us/campaigns/subservient-chicken.html Cadburys Gorilla campaign was disguised as a music video in 2007. Launched on You Tube after the company was facing huge losses due to a batch of salmonella tainted chocolate. The You Tube video received 50,000 hits during the first week of viewing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo The Total Blender ads are featured on an internet site as infomercials for the entry level Blendtec Blender. Disguised as science fair lab experiments that you should not perform in your own home the ongoing series has blended everything from laser pointers and silly putty to an I phone. The other side of the site provides a variety of items that are safe to blend at home such as coffee and chicken soup. My favorite blends glow sticks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l69Vi5IDc0g While introduced on You Tube the phrase Will it blend? has become an internet meme. The Blendtec Company now not only sells their blenders but merchandise based on the infomercials star and originator, Tom Dickson. Dickson himself has become a celebrity in his own right appearing on late night TV and the history channel. The site as of June of this past year boasted of 83,238,033 views, an average of 967,884 views. The Viral Factory is notorious for using mockumentary film or computer generated animation and viral seeding for advertising a promotion. They have even emulated pornography as in their animation for Diesel, the London based clothing firm who was celebrating their thirtieth birthday. We created a film titled SFW XXX to globally celebrate Diesels 30th birthday. The charming viral featured clips from a raft of 80s porn films that we cunningly censored with humorous CGI. Diesel consumers should continue to expect the unexpected. Dont watch this one with your kids around! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p6pSi6x46Y On that note Ill say good-bye for now. Renate Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor Department of Art Cornell University, Tjaden Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: r...@cornell.edu Website: http://www.renateferro.net Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space http://www.subtle.net/empyre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre Art Editor, diacritics http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
