Comments on: Mike Daisey and Me

By: Urban Honking | “Journalism”

Urban Honking | “Journalism” — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:42:51 +0000

[…] of authenticity, and the role of journalism in an art context. Our own Andrew Dickson wrote an essay exploring these conflicts. Other than an extremely awkward appearance on NPR, Daisey has remained […]

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 06:53:07 +0000

In any other professional context, Daisey would have been fired. Fictionalizing people to inculcate faux pathos and faux ethos so as to create a faux logos is an offense worthy of being terminated from a job.

By: Gene

Gene — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:39:08 +0000

Tony’s last paragraph is exactly how I feel about this incident. I have trouble summoning any outrage for Daisey, although I wish he didn’t cut corners which diluted both his message and his art.

By: matt

matt — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 02:02:17 +0000

i don’t think people come to a performance art show expecting factual information (see mike’s post above) -so a little hood-winking in my book is A okay. but with Daisy, he essentially told the audience THIS IS FACTUAL and left no room to wonder, which is not so cool when lobbing potentially slanderous accusations at a public figure.

By: Tony Zito

Tony Zito — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:33:46 +0000

Hey Andrew, I’ve been thinking a lot about this Mike Daisey thing too, but more in the context of what it (and the Invisible Children saga, along with the rise of crowdfunding via Kickstarter) says about what it takes to be heard in this moment of viral media. I think there’s a huge difference between your project(s) and what MD did — you say you were “using false pretense to convince my audience of the power of eBay,” but I don’t think that’s really true; you weren’t selling them eBay, you were playing with, and trying to get people thinking about, the idea of eBay, hucksterism, and (most importantly here) the line between art and non-art. There’s nothing dishonest about that sort of strategy. (Hell, we love Andy Kaufman, don’t we?) Daisey wasn’t playing with that line; at no time was the audience meant to wonder “is this real? is he playing a character?” (as they were in your powerseller performance.) He was selling an idea, and taking dishonest shortcuts to do it, “theater” or not.

I’d hate it the Mike Daisey debacle were to have the sort of chilling effect that discourages artists from playing with that line between fiction and reality, as there’s some very fertile ground there, and a lot of thought-provoking fun to be had, and art to be made.

By: Mike Merrill

Mike Merrill — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:29:09 +0000

I want to be lied to the theater and told the truth in the news. So please, lie to me.