Alex's Sixth Challenge: Posters Round The World
March 20, 2006 12:00 PM Permalink
THE RUNDOWN
Global Postering
My favorite part of this challenge was brainstorming my poster strategy. I wanted to get them up in as many different parts of the world as possible, because I thought it would be cool to see them in Tokyo, London, and Vancouver, for example. Seems like it worked:
FLICKR SET OF WORLDWIDE "INTERNET FAMOUS" POSTERS
I am in awe of my generous friends. I would like to thank them/give them props here:
My friend Azure managed to score major brownie points with her hit on Mikey's workplace and various other Portland hipster hangouts.
Charles in Montreal doesn't have a digital camera, but he does have a webcam, so he shot this video out of his bedroom window: View on Vimeo, View on YouTube.
My brother Luke also got some good spots in P-Town. He also posted some Day-Glo posters on Flickr, which look really nice, in my opinion.
Marisse, Jeremy, and Jocelyn in Vancouver boggled my mind with their creative and awesome postering. Katie and Thomas in England fought the time zone difference and still came out on top. Phil and Genevieve got crazy in Tokyo. Shannon hit up Nagano. Pete got Halifax, Kirsten pasted up in Victoria, Tim printed in Kennewick, and my good friend Flint used a pole in San Francisco. I took pictures in Langley, BC and Anacortes, WA.
Promotion on the Web
I wanted to be a little more nuanced with my "web marketing." It's a fine line between self-promotion and spam, and unsolicited attempts at selling your "product" or "pitch" may often backfire, causing feelings of bitterness and annoyance toward the well-intentioned but hapless salesperson. I decided to rely more on email than message boards or forums, because I know most of the people on my email lists to be somewhat receptive to weird sales pitches like this.
Emails:
Mass email to the Department of Safety email list, 825 subscribers as of last count.
Flint dropped a news item about my page into his email update list, which contains over 100 subscribers, I think.
I also sent emails to family and friends around the world, probably around 100 in total.
Forums and Websites:
The Department of Safety
Digital Hearth, my blog
K Records Forum (ooo, a bit of backlash!)
Urban Honking Forums (nobody cares, everyone here is already reading UB2)
G-Rad Forums(same deal as urban honking forums)
Mt. Eerie Forums
About My Content Solicitation
I chose my content question carefully. I didn't want it to be so broad that nobody wrote, but I also tried to avoid a narrow approach to the content, because a specific web is often a boring web. I wanted contributions to be diverse, personal, and open-ended. Content that can be used as a potential building block for future interactions between individuals and communities but also content that can stand alone as evidence of the heterogeneous, creative, decentralized nature of web users. Fashion nostalgia can be interesting and funny for a while, but from all the people I've talked to, it only appeals to a relatively small cross-section of users at one time.
Although many of the submissions I received were "entertaining," entertainment wasn't my sole goal in asking this question. I wanted responses to be a part of a broad approach to content creation on the web through conversation. A bunch of people around the world asking questions and posing answers about themselves, about technology, about music, about their creative projects, about art, about politics, about the future of humanity...those are the sorts of discussions and narratives that I wished to spark with this challenge.
And something must have worked, because I'm really pleased with all of the contributions that I received in response to my call for questions. When all of this is said and done, I'm interested in continuing this project of creative questioning in some manner or another. Hopefully some of you would like to join me. It's been fun whether I win or whether I disappear from the Internet tomorrow. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!
LOVE, ALEXANDER MAHAN
By: Alex M. | Challenge 06 | March 20, 2006
There is no way to see what I posted on your page! This is unfortunate because I don't know if HTML was allowed, or if everything worked correctly... oh dear!
I like your approach on this challenge. I feel like using the internet for Joan Rivers-style fashion crit is kindof selling it short. We all wear dumb clothes, but should that be an issue on the internet? I feel like the internet has its own fashion world that is a whole lot more interesting than conventional "fashion": web design. Everyone who has access to the 'net can take part in design in some form or another, whether it is just posting a comment on a blog, or starting a free site. New media.
"A bunch of people around the world asking questions and posing answers about themselves, about technology, about music, about their creative projects, about art, about politics, about the future of humanity...those are the sorts of discussions and narratives that I wished to spark with this challenge."
You're taking the internet seriously. I hope you win.
the 'worst outfit you've ever worn' idea to me is overdone. Vice magazine has been fillling that role for years with their do's and don'ts article and i could DO without it. we've all seen the pictures of the bad dress we've worn in middle school, or that horrible year book photo with the mullet.
i DO hope we are able to view what kind of responses you received alex, i'm curious to hear what was on peoples minds. your question concerning 'question' gave a lot of room for varied answers. good luck to you! and i hope you do decide to continue with this project idea.
IT SHOULD BE SAID THAT THE CONTENT OF ALEX'S QUESTION IS REALLY SMART. IT IS ASKING A QUESTION OF A QUESTION. IN THIS WAY, IT SUBTLY SUBVERTS THE AUTO-FILL FORM BY NOT REACHING UPON EMPIRICAL DATA, BUT RATHER ASKING USERS TO ASK THEMSELVES SOMETHING NEW. IT IS PROVIDES SPACE FOR INDIVIDUALS TO RETORT WITH THE MOST BANAL OR THE MOST CREATIVE. IT IS AN INCREDIBLY TELLING QUESTION OF INDIVIDUALS' PERSONALITIES. I VIBE ON THIS QUESTION.
12:35 PM on 03/21/06 3:40 PM on 03/21/06Um, who wants to "take the Internet seriously"? Why isn't humor and funny photos and memory-sharing a valid use of the Internet?
The bad outfits idea wasn't so much, to me, about fashion as about the feelings and memories of that time that you associate with that outfit. Zoe's questionnaire was about how you felt in high school, how you would sum up your life, and how you were feeling when you wore that outfit--it wasn't simply some sort of Joan Rivers-esque commentary on why pink ruffles don't go with orange stripes or whatever. It's actually a way to get to know people, because, believe it or not, there's a lot of people out there who express themselves through fashion (noticed Mikey's natty suits?)
If her website/challenge response would have been about some simple fashion police whatever concept, it would have been called gofugyourself.com
As is evidenced by my previous UB2 entries, the Internet is certainly no place for humour.
'Tis a dour place, this World Wide Web, and I intend to keep it that way.
I just wanted to say that I am personally sick of hearing about fashion. Fuck fashion. Right now, there are too many wrong things in the world for us to think about how cool or embarassing a certain outfit is. Too many important things need to be discussed. In all your decadence people die.
#1: I agree wholeheartedly with Genevieve.
#2: I don't think the internet needs to be serious, but I think people need to take it seriously. When it is only used to show hamsters dancing or .avi's of celebrities giving blowjobs, there is no obvious reason to take it seriously as a tool for the changing of a global consciousness.
So fun stuff is great. I like fun stuff, but fun stuff was done on TV, in print, and on the radio. The internet offers more than just repackaging old forms of media.
Again, why does this have to be either/or? good/bad? It's a big space, the internet, and there's room for everyone.
I often find that people who consider themselves the most open-minded are usually the most judgmental.
By judging instead of examining, you can't learn anything.
Can somebody explain to me what the point of this is!? Did you do anything other than brag about how many "friends" you have in different parts of the World!? Seriously, your lame.
It's funny to me that all these posters who think this is all lame and fashion is decadence (but a blogging contest with $1000 prize money isn't?) are somehow attracted to UB2 like moths to a flame...
Like Zoe said, there's room for all types, so I guess I'll take my crispy-fried moths with a side of brilliant bloggers, trolls, shadowy figures, and other ilk who are entertained by the feats of strength demonstrated on UB2.
Cheers!
These are all good comments. Even Bob's. But it should be "you're lame," not "your lame." Proper contractions are IMPORTANT, as important as the INTERNET if not more!
Ultimate blogger is hardly the venue for spewing profoundly regarding "serious" matters.
It is a competition, not a scholarly, political or activist site. The contests and the whole set-up: anything but serious.
It is way below the belt, illogical, and petty to judge a contestant's choice because it is not quote unquote serious.
As mentioned above, if you're interested in the weighty matters plaguing the world right now, you are hanging out at the wrong place. Anyway, if you think it was about fashion, you missed the point.
Now it's getting interesting . . . everyone so nice and cuddly in the beginning of the contest, complimenting each other, giving out the love . . .
Not that I've ever watched a TV reality show all the way through, but I think the posts today show that everyone's really getting into the spirit of the thing: nastiness, backbiting, taking sides. As one incompetant politician would say, "bring it on!"
8:07 PM on 03/21/06Whoa, Tim, do you have access to those cool .avi files???
I think things getting a little less chummy is natural and not necessarily dark. The dudes who are still in this competition have put in an incredible amount of work at this point, and I'm sure they all think they deserve to win (and they should) and this will come out in pride, and when there are so few left the pride is sometimes seen as snark or attacks or something.
I applaud all who remain.
9:27 PM on 03/21/06Using the internet for humor is awesome and rad but like, don't mistake the moon for the finger pointing at the moon. Funny stuff and entertainment and things can point us to important realities or they can distract us from important realities. Not saying that anyone in this contest is doing either but, you know...the idea that forums like this one could be used to express real meaningful ideas isn't totally prepostrous.
Hey, are you guyz as excited about SNAKES ON A PLANE as I am? I think it is the best name for a movie in a LONG TIME.
Because that's what it's about! Snakes on board an aeroplane! And Samuel Jackson has to fight them off!
I don't buy the 'UB2 is not where serious people hang' thang. I'm obsessed with the war and nazification and it, my obsession, doesn't leave me while I check-in here. I'm fascinated by this apparatus and it's potential for producing, among other things, joy. For all I know, it will be the blogopolises like this that rewrite the world wide social code. People aren't types. They aren't even what they type. You can thumbs up or down their work, or what you think you see in it, but you can't know what they do, or have done, with the experience of producing it.
Parse me out, my lips are fly.
10:02 PM on 03/21/06It's interesting to see such a shift in public (as far as UB is concerned) opinion on the concept of the internet. It seems to me that it hasn't been that long since Tim first won immunity with an entry that everyone was blown away by. Laying out the internet for not what it currently may be, but what the future holds for it. It may well be that it spirals downwards into a tool of corporate mind control, or perhaps it may emerge as the force behind a major paradigm shift in social theory. While the future itself may be unclear to us now, what it clear is that the internet is place where, more than any other time in history, it is the masses that have the ability to control what path it takes.
With that in mind it is understandable that some people are dimayed, nay, offended by the choices others make about how they want to shape it. To see what to you is a tool ripe with potential to change the world be twisted into another outlet to play right into the hands of those who already hold the power is not something everyone can take sitting down. For every person who is roped into aiding the downfall of the internet, be it simply taking it as one big joke or more directly as another place to plague with senseless materialism, there has to be someone to take up the other side of the fight. This contest isn't about the prizes or the fame, it's about trying to see what future the internet really has. It would seem that all sides are represented in this final match and I for one can only pray that the last bastion of true freedom is not struck down in a vain attempt at personal entertainment or gain. The internet, if anything, deserves more than that.
I think Andy and Rich said exactly what I wanted to say, except with a less juvenile approach. I will be the angry kid who gets mad at this type of use of the internet, someone else can be more moderate and explain themselves in a calmer way. I feel like at this point I just don,t need to justify my statements, even the people who disagree with me know exactly what I mean.
I believe that the Ultimate Blogger is actually pretty idealistic in many ways. I have heard stories of Jona, Mike and Steve breaking into the conference rooms of corporate buildings to film the challenge movies. Every single step seems to have been done by either one of them or a very close friend. They are a tight little unit. The general idea behind this competition to me is a lot like: You do with what you have.
Very punk rock, in the positive sense of the expression. It was great when it was all funny at first, but funny only lasts a while. We all have to cry sometimes. Tim,s incredible post took everyone by surprise because, in a sea of jokes that were getting old, it was meaningful and heartfelt. Beaming.
As for the posters all over the world, to me it is a direct display of how far this network of people can reach. In Tokyo, all the people who,s help we needed to take and send the pictures wanted to do it rightaway, people are very willing to participate if you ask them to.
It is easier to sit back and let yourself be distracted by the funny stuff, and we need to do that sometimes, but really, the Ultimate Blogger is someone who can make you laugh but also incite you to think and participate to the real world.
I, personally, think that people sharing their pasts and their awkward moments is perfectly serious while also entertaining. It's true that to think of my entry only as "fashion" is missing the much broader picture--and, quite frankly, the entire point. Using the internet to bring people together, to make them feel less lonely, or to reassure them that we've all had our awkward moments? I think that's a swell use of this space.
I also worry about people who aim to dictate content. That's actually quite a fascist thought.
6:21 AM on 03/22/06The Internet can be revolutionary, if we use it that way, I agree.
But it can also be fun, entertaining, useful, companionable--and we shouldn't limit the amount of ways we can use it.
Personally? After moving to NYC eight months ago, my blog makes me feel connected to people in a way that I don't in the city. And if I can connect with RealGirl over things like old memories and fashion mishaps? What's so wrong with that? It's not just "decadence"--it's human interaction and it makes me feel better.
There's no right/best way to use the Internet. There are terrible ways to use it, but it's not just one thing to one person.
A Real Girl Beauty reader with a young child wrote me that my blog motivated her to stop smoking. Two sets of lungs, one under the age of 5, that I got to save? That's as together as I aim to be.
Not every battle has to be large. Not every victory epic. And if you don't think that's "cool?" A-okay with me.
I think that is awesome, Zoe. I love stories like that.
I would like to say for the record that I think Zoe's blog is legit. That is all.
Talk about idealistic looney's... Here's my quote of the day, "The Internet should be a safe happy place. Everywhere should be a safe happy place, except prison."
I think it really is amazing that the internet has the potential to be a multi-faceted outlet. We can use it in a very personal way, to keep in contact with close friends, or it could be used to mobilize people internationally.
I was talking with a friend the other day who thinks that the most potent way to fight international business conglomerates may not be through "Buy Local" campaigns, but through people uniting trans-nationally, just as these corporations have done.
Perhaps this international mobilization of the people will be done through the world wide web...
11:37 AM on 03/22/0611:38 AM on 03/22/06Perhaps the margins are messed up if you are using Internet Explorer to browse the internet instead of Firefox?
2:24 PM on 03/22/06 4:22 PM on 03/22/06
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