Continuing the thread of distraction and music–particularly in live settings–over the weekend a blogger whose writings I enjoy attended a Radiohead show and was almost driven mad by the way many of his fellow concertgoers were so focused on the commemoration of the experience, they almost forgot to actually, you know, experience the show (or let their fellow concert-goers do so):
Beforehand someone told me they’d banned SLRs specifically from the gig. And were turning them away at the gate. Which seemed ridiculous. Some kind of attempt to keep high-quality shots in the hands of promoters and media?
But a half hour after the band came onstage, I would have happily barred every camera from the place. And mobile phones too. An endless array of shiny silver doodads held up, videoing, photographing, relaying. There’s something distracted about the way we’re enjoying ourselves now. It’s not just that new technologies are affecting our attention span, it’s like people are trying section away a portion of their enjoyment. Saving it for another day. Unable to simply experience the moment, as cliched as that sounds. Just fucking stand there and listen, or dance, or whatever. Just let the thing that’s supposed to happen happen.
That sums up my feelings on the matter of watching a show through other peoples’ viewfinders pretty well, I think. (Although in this instance, I give a dispensation to anyone who whipped out their phone just to snag some Jonas Brothers candids.) Anyway, a few people–including me and the always-cutting-to-the-chase Catbird–responded in agreement, but it didn’t take too long for some dude out there to call the drive for experiencing shows “nostalgia” and subsequently go into a full-on techno-utopian rant. Warning: The word “meatspace” and the term “mobile log” used as a flippin’ verb are within:
Think about how vastly we can augment our intelligence and capabilities by being plugged into what is happening around us on a hyper-current level? How much more can we experience through others sharing? Yes a picture of a concert doesnt give me the entire experience of being at said concert, but it is certainly more robust than not even seeing that picture. Is having countless mini-experiences through rss and social feeds more enlightening than one physical encounter in meatspace?
From a certain perspective one can state with some sincerity that social network users are taking part in something bigger than themselves.
Those who mobile log and share at the sacrifice of their current experience are participating in a global conversation. We are through our tumble and flickr feeds, exploring the world on a level we could never match in reality. Through the cumulative power of social sharing we all experience something more powerful than the experiences we can have in the physical realm.
This self-styled Howard Rheingold seems to be so convinced of his importance that he thinks he transcends the physical, i.e. his assertion that because he has the means to acquire technology that can broadcast his banalities worldwide and probably annoy the crap out of the people who are actually standing around him. Which is kind of funny, since I originally got online (way, way back in the day) because i wanted to buck that sort of “might of money” attitude exemplified by the larger telecom companies out there. “Exploring the world on a level we could never match in reality”? Putting aside the idea that, well, in reality one can actually use all five of their senses to experience a show as opposed to just sight and maybe hearing, how, may I ask, would this person even know, given that he has seemingly chosen to live in an entirely mediated existence right now, one where he doesn’t have to be confronted by new experiences because he can just put on his Bluetooth headset and not-so-subtly tell the world “la la, can’t hear you” while looking like Lobot.
Monday June 09, 2008 at 9:23 [distorte]
Sunday June 08, 2008 at 22:43 [distorte]
I’m often torn about busting out the camera for a nice picture to remember an event with. For the most party now I take pics with friends before/after and keep the camera put away during the show. It DOES interfere with the live experience and just buy the damn live tour dvd when it comes out if you have to relive it in some way.
Look, I’ll confess to taking pictures with my phone sometimes at shows, but I never let myself take more than a handful, because, well, they’re pretty much all crap. And besides, I need to keep my hands in free at shows in case I have to pump my fist in the air or something.
Also, I don’t post all my crappy pictures to the internet. Because they’re crappy, and I don’t have the delusion that a blurry shot of a black lump that might be the lead singer is adding anything to “a global conversation.” A picture like that really shouldn’t be anything other than a personal memento.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: That’s the worst part!
I was at the The National/Modest Mouse/REM show this weekend. Admittedly, I took some pix on my phone because I had really awesome seats and wanted some photos for myself so I could remember how great the view was. What weirded me out were the people all around me looking at the shot to see what I shot. I have a crap camera in a crap phone and they were comparing my shots to their iPhone pix. I found it more invasive/distracting than the texters around me that were texting through the whole show.
Sitting in a seat would be enough to ruin a concert for me.
@scott pgwp: Agreed. I don’t what is up with Brooklyn Vegan lately, but it seems like in the past few weeks their excessive photo posting has gone up ten fold. I can’t even read it through the ol’ Google Reader anymore because it takes so long to load all those shots.
a) anyone with a free hand to take more than ten seconds of footage needs to buy a beer, like any other decent american would do. Put the camera down, and support institutionalized cirrhosis.
b) The Gnarls Barkley/Battles show this weekend (not that anyone could find this surprising), was like that fucking Jessica Simpson performance of “Angels”, there were an ungodly number of cell-phones there. Shit was aggravating.
Can I plz to reach through monitor and strangle Mr. Vastly Augmented Intelligence?
There was a truly surreal moment of this phenomenon over the weekend when I was watching the Sparks concert series netcast for Plagiarism. On the one hand, the fact that I could just kick back at home and watch a solid enough feed of the show from a camera at the back of the venue is an example of why I love the modern world. On the other, the person who kept holding up their own camera in front of the venue one should be punished by means which I will not go into in a public forum.
You know, I’ll be honest, to a certain extent this guy has a point, but he loses me right here:
“Those who mobile log and share at the sacrifice of their current experience are participating in a global conversation.”
For one, you’re sharing at the sacrifice of EVERYONE’S current experience by obstructing people’s view, which I don’t recall ever agreeing to. And also, your “global conversation” is drowning out the more private conversation I was having with my own experience. Some basic courtesy, please?
I was freaked out by the 3D cellphones in the 3D U2 movie.
“Those who mobile log and share at the sacrifice of their current experience are participating in a global conversation.”
That sounds suspiciously what sports journalists do at sporting events — in the press box. Away from the fans. Which makes me wonder if we should cordon off a section of seats reserved for you brave, brave mobile loggers where you can jostle for camera-phone real estate with your enlightened peers.
Camera-phone-recording someone else’s camera phone recording of a concert is so meta.
The thing that irks me the most is that these people, for the most part, aren’t even getting good pictures/video.
wtf is a “hyper-current level” and how do i get to it
Cameras at shows don’t really bother me. Granted, I rarely attend indie buzz band shows, but they can’t be any more annoying than sweaty topless men and people with sharp elbows in your ribs all night, can they?
conversation? so crummy video and audio are elevated to the level of ideas? this is somehow educational? this notion of entertainment as the central modifier of one’s whole life sounds like some kind of guerrila marketing. by which i mean this guy is the first one against the wall.
At this point, I feel we must thank the stealth tapers who document these events with high-quality audio without having to wave a cell phone in the air for two hours.
Seriously, all the show photos need to stop. I can’t handle the daily cascade of amatuer pics of ugly dudes on a dark stage that clog my rss reader, mostly courtesy Pitchfork’s “News” section and Brooklyn Vegan. If you want to put up a picture or two, fine, but this whole twenty-five-pictures-per-post thing has got. to. stop. Flaming Lips aside, most these shows are not visually interesting in the least.
And to think that Homeland Security has to look at each of those photos and videos. The mind boggles.
@Audif Jackson Winters III: yep
This guy is right about augmenting our intelligence: everything I ever needed to know I learned by watching shaky cell phone videos of a Ted Leo concert.
I’ve pondered this as well. I have been tempted to pull out the old camera phone, but I felt like, “what the hell?” This is an experience I’d like to experience without distraction, besides if you were there do you ever watch those videos?
I have so many un opened Concert DVDs. I doubt I’d waste time watching a crappy 1.3 mega pixel blur fest…but I suppose someone’s into it. Probably them damn kids with their MyBook and their FaceSpace.
I was going to point out that your concerns re: mediated existence and reluctance to experience the moment as it happens were concerns expressed as far back as Neal Stephenson wrote nerd-transcendence manifesto In The Beginning Was The Command Line, but then I got to the other fellow’s argument and my eyes filled with blood and steam shot out my ears. People like this make me feel like such a jock.
If this guy wants a conversation to expand his horizons, I’m sure there’s a better way he can go about it than watching grainy videos of the same gig from 15 different angles. He could always try having a conversation with someone in “meatspace”.
[uuurggghhhh I feel dirty for just saying that]
He has a point - from channel surfing to YouTube, pirated songs to blogs, we are beginning to live things we physically could never experience in person. Metaphysical experiences are the result of people that are willing to either augment their experiences by sharing, or fully selfish in that they want people to know what they experienced. Either way, they share. The same as you are with this blog, so who is right? Eh? ;)