The Real World

pynchon
Originally uploaded by crazywanda.

"would you believe that there's a show now called 'ice skating with the stars' and it's popular?"
um, yeah. i would. and do.

"television today is just another sign of the degradation of modern society."

oh, eff you.




Television [programming] has become what it was destined to represent: meaningless minutiae. Television programming fads are not the sign of degradation. the fact that we take it less seriously as a generalized population, and put less stock in what the deadish green eye spews at us is another sign of the communicative revolution at hand. Programming trends are mainly a point of reference in popular culture (for which the doublespeak is "water cooler talk"). And for some of us, It's a sociological meter by which counterculture is measured. Perhaps those who rely on the act of watching television are less free, overtly deviant only if it's sanctioned by the programming, not because self awareness. The remainder of the population, subculture, participates (perhaps unwittingly) in every alternative form of expression. With "home computing" as popular as microwaves, the personal computer is a source of entertainment with the power to replace a (general) population's addiction to the boob tube. And now that we can subscribe to video programming by way of our personal computers, television has become exactly what it was meant to be. A piece of equipment, also reliant on a vacuum tube is finally recognized by popular culture as mindless entertainment, not a heat source of intel and widom. It's more like the excretion of what popular culture left behind. Now popular culture revels in it's own shit for entertainment, without looking for deep meaning. Nothing we can take too seriously if we want to survive in any intellectually stimulating environment. Because for entertainment to stimulate the senses in a real sense, it must relinquish some power, and leave itself vulnerable to audience reaction. Censorship of the airwaves and the domination of government sponsored propaganda (the surge of which occurs during election periods) have lead the general public to a door. When opened, it reveals a new communicative space, wrought with kinetic potential. We have the ability to overtly communicate with art, so who needs meaning from the other tube toy...?

we're back to the old days, the all or nothing days.

A symphony without applause in Mozart's day was one which would not survive in the performance circuit. The audience at Cats had a chance, night after night, to reject it and knock those kitties off broadway. But audiences, en masse, subscribed to these performances. And now by way of digital communication, audiences once again have the means to subscribe and approve or reject entertainment as they see fit, as they see it and hear it. The massive amount of entertainment available leads to a long tail effect, the new buzzword but a valuable one, and audiences have a real time vote, and one they can use retroactively. Lucky Audiences, once again, or perhaps for the first time ever, now also have leveled opportunity to become creators. Creators, Consumers, Subscribers. All at once.

Population and art once again interact, where media is no longer screaming at us, but instead asks us to subscribe. Radio which beamed repetitive playlists at us are now on the eve of destruction. Media is once again a breeding ground for the evolution of ideas, not the dissemination of instruction and rules, which is how it has been utilized in american consumerist culture. But in a time of revolution, as we've seen in european history time and time again, population regains control of media, as the sentiment is reflected in the artistic output of a culture.

The first sign of revolution is a genuine shift in communication. Communication is a living entity. To avoid stasis, communication finds holes, creates gateways, behaves like grass buried in sidewalk concrete - communication is a force of energy and must breathe. It will fight suffocation and so far has demonstrated over centuries that it will win. It is fuel for change and evolution. Communication is a natural living art.

In "3rd world" mesoamerican nations, revolution was fed by the counter culture's ability to use radios for communication. Thanks to radio, communities were able to organize and revolt.

In america, we took the high road and have wound up in the same place. In the digital age, revolt is known by another name. Wikipedia.