Vlogging is an interesting medium. It allows us to share a piece of ourselves, in all its entirety, to an audience. Yet, at the same time, it also leaves us very vulnerable even when we are in a position where we have full control of what we can share. As Andrew mentioned in his vlog, through this medium we are, in a way, tricked into setting our guard down and removing our masks, revealing who we really are. Because we can't anticipate each individual that makes up our audience, we are denied the ability to cater ourselves a certain way to "please" them. Or in other words, we aren't "acting" for someone. What we are left with is who we are in the raw, unfiltered and unmasked. In a way, he is right in saying that some of the friends made through the internet are more genuine that those in real life. The only thing exchanged is the undiluted essence of us and that is what the "audience" sees and forms their judgment on. Whereas, in real life, we have to put on the mask(s) and play the role society has created for us.
Then again, this is like another form of a mask only the places are switched. We're not the ones wearing it, but rather the audience is. The mask is not quite a mask, but rather a mirror. There isn't really an "interaction" going on when one vlogs. It's only a reflection of us. We stare into the camera and all we see is our own self. There isn't that much of an interaction occurring between the vlogger and the audience. Though, true there are video responses, but there is a certain delay in time. And, I guess, that sort of takes away from a "real" friendship. There's still that physical barrier between the two persons, making it difficult to truly establish a wholesome relationship.
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Fascinated by this notion of the audience being the "one" who's wearing the mask. Writers and other kinds of artists must deal with this on some level too when they are making their art pieces. They don't know who's going to be reading or viewing them, what kind of responses they'll be eliciting, or what forms of understanding or misunderstanding receptions to their intent for the work will take. The audience is more conceptual or potential rather than veritable or comprehensible, and this has a range of effects on the form which the piece and its message ultimately take-- how reception can be anticipated but not fully choreographed or guided by the act of exchange (like it can be in conversation, discourse, or even something like email or letter writing where we know or at least have an idea of who's receiving the message).
ReplyDeleteSuch a state of being seems to be heightened even more intensely with online media such as vlogs, not only because your own self is presented in an unmasked state like you point out, but also because there is a kind of "context collapse" once we're staring down the eye of the webcam and trying to picture the unknown void behind it. (That video we began watching in class today, "Anthropological Intro to YouTube" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU, goes into this, check the 25:00 minute mark.)
With the lack of either a concrete or even a hypothetical conception of who that audience is that we're addressing, we have no orientation, which can lead to a series of feelings or states like fragmentation, (metaphorical) seasickness, or simply general vagueness. Artists are different here because they communicate through symbols, which are very specific and based on extension of their ideas, so this isn't as much of a "collapse" for them as it is a reconstitution and universalization of their message. But in a vlog, by contrast, the vlogger is actually speaking. He or she is still bound by the conversational medium and the expectations that come with it for an identifiable reception of our ideas. This lack of a clear receiver can be disorienting, or it can be reorienting. We still picture the receiver, but we can't visualize them, and so project a mask onto the entire audience, making the audience an "everyman" and "no one" at the same time. The mask they're wearing is the one we put on them.
For your vlog, a way to make sense out of this in terms of the medium's use, would be to think over what communication barriers are both raised as well as erased without a clear receiver of our message. What does this free us to do or say, and then what limits do we have to adjust to? How would you recommend we make those adjustments in constructive ways? This is a mind-bender of a blog topic--- beyond the vlog assignment, you could also explore these ideas in a piece of writing or art. To be sure, if planned carefully, it could be a very compelling and original one.
JM