I’ve been expanding on the idea of unconsumption, as originally explored in this old post, and then this page. (And to an extent in this Consumed column.)
Here is the latest development: I have lately started a Tumblr blog called unconsumption. I’m getting some help from regular Murketing Organization contributor Tom Hosford. If you go unconsumption.tumblr.com, you’ll find a working expanded definition of what unconsumption is all about. If you browse through what Tom and I have put on the site thus far, you’ll get an even better idea.
And:
1. I really hope you will check it out. Here’s the link again.
2. I hope you will spread the word about it.
3. If you would like to be involved as a contributor, I hope you will let me know. There are lots of relevant blogs etc. that I just don’t have time to read and search for useful unconsumption-related links. I think this project will be more successful if there are more people involved as contributors to the Tumblr blog. So get in touch at murketing@robwalker.net.
4. Please?
This is more or less phase 1 of the newly revitalized unconsumption project.
More soon.
Explanation: “You are looking at ‘la colrita’ ….an original digital photograph of a taco truck. I then digitally manipulate the image and print it on high quality archival paper. Each print is numbered and signed by me. The taco truck series is a limited edition of 100 prints each.” Via Poppytalk.
Got some interesting, and mixed, reactions to yesterday’s note about Twitter & orchestral performance. Here are two more bits about Twitter & music:
1. Coudal points to 406 bands who Twitter.
2. Wired’s Epicenter blog assesses Tra.kz, billed as a “new tool for putting music on Twitter.” While unimpressed by some aspects, Epicenter does say the Tra.kz player “could prove beneficial for labels, artists and users looking to distribute music on the Twitter platform, as well as Twitter users looking for new music. The player includes play and pause, a short version of the song’s URL (of course), and, perhaps most importantly, buttons that let listeners to re-tweet or otherwise share the song. (Bands must host the MP3s themselves.)”
These examples have more to do with promotion/connection/distribution than with changing the nature of a performance (like the earlier example), but still worth noting.
Posted Under:
"Social" studies,
Music by Rob Walker on February 20, 2009
Comments Off on Another quick note on Twitter & music
I’m not sure how interested you are — or how interested I am — in Anna Wintour’s take on virtue, frugality, the new consumer, and all that. But I was amused by this:
I don’t think anyone is going to want to look overly flashy, overly glitzy, too Dubai, whatever you want to call it.
“Too Dubai.” I have to remember that .
I’m just crazy about this person‘s work. I keep seeing it and enjoying it.
Here’s a randomly encountered post on the subject of how orchestras can use Twitter:
An orchestra gives a concert. Someone sends commentary tweets, in real time while the music plays, describing what’s going on. I don’t know how pinpoint the time accuracy might be, so maybe you can’t time something precisely to a downbeat. But you could certainly indicate major sections of a piece.
But it gets better. You could have a dozen Twitter streams. What does the conductor think about, while she’s conducting the piece? What’s the hardest part for the principal flute? What passage in the horns makes the principal trumpet player’s hair stand on end? All kinds of people in the orchestra could send tweets during the performance, or rather could write them in advance, and have them sent out at the proper time by others. Someone in the audience could decide which Twitter streams to follow, or could follow them all.
Knowing full well that I’ll be slammed as a dinosaur etc. if I say anything at all to question the mightiness of social media and like that: I find this a little odd. In-concert tweets “describing what’s going on”? Um, there’s an orchestra performing; check it out. (I’m remembering an old David Mamet interview where he talks about disliking it when reporters use a tape recorder: “Why don’t you try listening?” ) Or maybe you’d get a tweet that says, “This is the good part, starting now.” Or just: “Applaud.”
And what’s this about what the conductor is thinking about while conducting — is the idea that s/he is waving the baton with one hand and texting with the other?
Having said all that, the problem here may just be that the example is throwing me off, and there’s some more interesting/useful application of the idea. But my immediate reaction is that this implies that an orchestra, by itself, simply playing music, isn’t worth your time. Like maybe what the audience really wants is a Twitter feed for their favorite baseball team, so they can pay attention to the game during the boring parts of the musical program.
What do you think?
A recent-sh installment of CraftyPod focuses on “Crafting Green.” What does that mean? That question is actually the theme of the episode, and if you’re into the whole handmade/DIYism world, and there’s any kind of consumption-ideology element to your interest, it’s worth a listen. (Especially, now that I think about it, if you have an interest in unconsumption. More on that soon.)
CraftyPodcaster Sister Diane has many useful thoughts on the subject — starting with a bit of skepticism of the overly simple word “green.” She notes that many crafters have been talking about buying fewer new craft supplies this year, and crafting from their existing stashes instead. This actually might be a legitimate example of converting economic reality (saving money in tight times) into something productive: The creative challenge of using what’s on hand. That’s Sister Diane’s take, and she has a point. She’s starting with an inventory of all her craft stuff so she knows what she has.
On the other hand, later in the episode, Sister Diane raises the point that it might make sense to budget a bit for occasional new purchases from retailers you want to support. Anyway, I’m generally a fan of the concept of appreciating — or at least evaluating — what you already have, rather than always seeking something new (including the buying of new “green” products, etc., as a way to participate in concern about sustainability. So I like her rather balanced take on the subject.
Anyway, she also has some interesting examples. At the more extreme end: Futuregirl pledges to “Use What I Have” in 2009 — and in fact is attempting to spend $0 on craft supplies for the year:
We recently shuffled around our apartment and I moved my crafting area into the bedroom. As I was moving and reorganizing everything, I realized I have TONS of craft supplies that I *really* want to use. Thanks to my blog, I know exactly when some of them came into my life, too … ugh! It breaks my heart that so many wonderful supplies have been sitting around ignored FOR YEARS.
This, coupled with the economic downturn, means it’s the perfect time for me to cut back on my crafty spending. The more I thought about it, the more I started to think that maybe I should try to spend ZERO on craft supplies this year.
Is that going overboard? Well, I’m not sure.
CraftyPod also suggests craft-supply swaps — see the show notes for links — and points out RePlayGround: “We’re recycling fanatics and just love finding new uses for old items. Your scrap is the raw material for our next design project.” Looks like a really interesting little company/design studio. Apparently they do design projects (furniture, packaging, etc.) for cleints, as well as sell kits to anyone interested in doing their own upcycling. Also mentioned: Lee Meredith, also known for making things from other things.
Plus she talks about “the craft potential” tied up in “unfinished craft objects (UFOs).” Perhaps, Sister Diane suggests, it’s time to confront those UFO projects — and consider giving up and reclaiming the materials for something new. Or combine that with a swap gathering. I’m trying to think about parallel behavior for the less-crafty among us.
All in all a very thoughtful discussion, and another example of why, when I talk to people about the book and they ask me what I’m keeping an eye on this year, I still say it’s this DIYism subculture.
A few years back I met Shepard Fairey when I wrote an article about him and his design firm, Studio Number One, for Inc. We stayed in touch a little bit, and I was later invited to contribute a piece to the book Supply & Demand. Normally I decline such offers, but for various reasons I made an exception in this instance. Lately I have decided that that it might be interesting to publish that essay here. Partly because Fairey is obviously much in the news, partly in order to mark the occasion of his first major museum show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and partly because people keep sending me email asking me what I think (or telling me what they think) about his work.
Keep in mind that this was written in 2004 and first published in 2005, so adjust the date references accordingly. (Among other things, there is obviously no reference at all to the Obama imagery.) Here it is:
SURFACE EFFECTS
The story goes like this. Some 15 years ago, when Shepard Fairey was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, a friend wanted to know how to make stencils. Fairey offered to show him, using picture of the wrestler Andre the Giant, chosen basically at random from the newspaper. The friend objected that this was a stupid image. Fairey said no, it’s a cool image — because Andre the Giant has a posse. Later they made some stickers, slapped them up here and there around Providence. That might have been the end of it, except that Fairey overheard strangers at the grocery store, discussing what the stickers might “mean.” So he put up more stickers, and a prank turned into a campaign. In a way, it’s a story that has everything. The never-ending of river of pop culture flotsam. The mastery and teaching of a skill. The seductiveness of persuasion. The power of repetition. And the curious human yearning for symbolic meaning.
That crude early image has long since shifted to a more stylized visage – the icon face — and is now most familiarly paired with the words “Obey Giant,” or simply “Obey.” It has been reworked dozens and dozens of ways, and as an open-source project that pre-dates the Internet, it has been spread by countless volunteer confederates all over the world. The icon face has been in movies, in art museums, it has been tattooed onto people’s bodies, and, yes, it has even appeared in commercial messages, and on clothing. People are still arguing about what it might “mean.” Please continue…
Okay so I’m trying a new “theme” for this site — a new design template. I’m still messing around with it and no doubt will be for days. I think I’ve got all the “features” of the prior design here. Will explain more later, but thanks for your patience as I tinker.
Posted Under:
Murketing.com by Rob Walker on February 17, 2009
Comments Off on Tweaking
Back in November I made an offer to college and university classes to “visit” by way of Skype or similar means.
Those got underway last week with a great visit to Christine Harold‘s class at the University of Washington; it was a smart group and I had an excellent time.
The full semester schedule is below if you’re curious.
Feb 12: University of Washington (rhetoric and popular culture class)
Feb 18: Tufts University (media and society class)
March 3: Penn State book club (courtesy of Alex J. Mann)
March 23: University of Rochester (publishing class)
April 8: Sonoma State University (introduction to marketing class)
April 21: Boston College (communications and promotions class)
Ad Age notes Meetup’s recent-ish decision to start courting sponsors. The article says co-founder Scott Heiferman was originally against the idea, but changed his mind because group organizers “said it makes their meetings better.” Ad Age says:
Sponsorships take a lot of shapes, but all involve a monthly donation to the group to cover organizer fees, buy coffee or just provide a free venue for a book club. The idea is to keep it small, cheap and simple so it can scale. American Express Open, Huggies, Sony BMG and e-mail-device maker Peek are sponsoring thousands of entrepreneur, parenting, music, sports and moms’ groups around the country.
Also using the tactic are smaller brands such as Peek (which I had never heard of), the maker of “an email device” that is sponsoring “about 100 mom-focused Meetup groups.” Apparently it’s the brand’s biggest single marketing expense.
“The goal is to get Peek into the hands into people we build the device for and we think its perfect for,” said Marketing Manager Jeremy Downs.
That meant sending three Peeks to Melony James, organizer of the 224-member Toddler Adventure Group in San Jose, Calif. Peek also started depositing $30 a month in Ms. James’ Amazon account to cover her Meetup dues and snacks for the kids. “I like the Peek because it’s simple to use, not targeted at techies,” she said. “They pitched it quite well.”
Why is Peek doing that via her Amazon account?
Well, anyway, apart from that weird-ish detail, not particularly surprising, but worth noting, and keeping and eye on.
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