well duh
Saturday, September 27th, 2008I just realized that I can write a post and save it without publishing it, and what that entails for my project. Okay, even though a lot of this is going to be after the fact, let me lay out the progress on project one so far:
Friday/Saturday 9-26/27
Project One: “Man, you missed it!?” OR “The Most Obscure Indie Band Performance Ever.”
Goal: To create a convincing enough facade using Myspace and random artifacts to convince a casual observer that a rare performance by an obscure local band took place at Austin City Limits Music Festival, as well as an aftershow. In reality, the band does not exist and the shows never took place, but significant evidence exists to suggest that it did.
Theory: This project exploits the nature of ACL in that the festival is so large and there are multiple bands playing simultaneously, so it’s entirely plausible that a person in attendance could miss an actual show and know neither that they missed it nor the band in question. This also hacks the much abused system of myspace, specifically its music subsection, and its ability to document bands and performances through pictures, comments, show dates, and music tracks. The final intended hack is to actually hack the expectations of the class and the presentation space by presenting the band and the concerts as real, with the “joke” revealed toward the end. In order for this hack to be successful, the presentation needs to be delivered under the pretense that it serves another decoy hack. I have yet to figure out what this false hack is.
Method: using photographs of some random individuals (my coworkers), I will create a myspace band page and cast them as an obscure Austin indie band [step completed]. The myspace bulletins and blog and show dates will reflect an active performing schedule, including a last minute gig at ACL on the final day of the concert. I will present myself to the class as a big follower of the band, and to that effect will display a t shirt with the band’s name, signed by the “lead singer and guitarist” with a photo of the fake lead singer actually signing the shirt at ACL on Sunday, where I will have alledgedly met him by chance. After retelling the amazing concert they put on, I will then tell the class about the aftershow I attended and display a trampled flyer “found” at ACL as another artifact.
The guiding concept is to produce as many “real” artifacts or evidence as possible without resorting to digital manipulation of pictures or video in order to create a web of evidence supporting the make believe band and concerts simply by putting that evidence out of context (the photo of the t shirt signing will really just be my corworker signing the t shirt I made for myself while we are at ACL on Sunday; the location, time and event are real, but the meaning is altered by the context).
Long term goals: The band website and the fake ACL show provides a foundation to continue the exploration of just how far can a nonexistant band go without actually existing? I could send them on tour, hitting made up clubs and locations across the country with willing friends providing comments and messages supporting the tour. If I limit the adventures of the band to the scenes I can capture on camera and recontextulize, the nation wide tour is less likely. Another issue is the actual music of the band. Myspace allows you to put tracks of your music up for streaming audio listening on your page, and it is normal practice for bands to do so, but what kind of music does a nonexistant band make? I’ve condisered making the traks entirely by myself, but i’m not sure if i possess the talent or time to do so. Maybe this is a job for fellow musically inclined hackers.
UPDATE 2:30 9/27: Skinny Factory has just received its first random friends. Someone I don’t know as a friend on my own myspace account has added them as a friend, and it is another band. The more the friends list gets fleshed out, the more legitimate the band seems to onlookers. Like Santa, it becomes more real with each new believer.