XOXO Talk - Disintermediation of Self

Hello, there!
Tuesday, September 24, 13
Ladies and Gentlemen hello, my name is Mike Rugnetta.
@mikerugnetta
I write and host a YouTube show called Idea Channel,
about popular culture, philosophy, critical theory and technologyand am on third of a live, lecture based performance-art trio called MemeFactory.
We make performances about the internet and internet culture. If you know what either of those things are and we havent already I would love to
high-ve you in thanks, at some point before the end of the day. Speaking of which!
I want to thank Andy for inviting me. It's a thrill
to share this space with you guys. I mean, some of you are nothing short of internet heroes.
Without your shoulders to stand on, nothing that I do would exist; I never would have thought it possible to make a living speaking quickly about and on the internet. It is a huge honor to stand up here and wax presentational at a group of such distinguished
pillars of internet,
10
cultural monoliths,
SORRY
Tuesday, September 24, 13 11
hackers,
12
jammers aaaaannnnnndddd
SORRY AGAIN
[PAUSE]
14
disruptors. And that is what I want to talk about. Not how much I love you guys,
15
which I do but rather how the successes of others can give someone permission to be themselves.
16
My little presentation here is going to be sorta different. Im not really going to talk about MAKING something. Well. Sort of. Im not going to be talking about making THINGS, Im gonna talk about making YOURSELF. And how that process might, now, relate to that 7-but-really-4 letter word weve all come to know and love.
D****PT
We have and will continue to hear the internet and it's related technologies described as..D-WORD..technologies. Which is maybe a little unfair because this suggests that the internet has come along and causedtrouble
18
- that it's interrupted the natural and just order of things and has thrust upon the world its own agenda
19
where previously nothing was the matter. It does, though, properly capture the spirit, attitude or position held by one side of the resultant rift in the status quo: It evokes a kind of UPSET.
20
It is rather fair to say that many people, because of the internet, are upset. Some are upset because the likelihood of encountering spoilers
#109
has effectively skyrocketed, many OTHER people are upset about the internet because, practically, it provides a great many economic ...
22
shortcuts. If "disruption" is the million dollar word then the $2 million word is "disintermediation".
DISINTERMEDIATION
23
And talk surrounding disintermediation has a certain tenor to it as well. It suggests there is infrastructure
24
which was built and existed and now the internet is tearing it down
25
, un-building it or at the very least supporting its dereliction and eventual implosion.It describes a kind of DECONSTRUCTIVE INTERNET. It's not BAD. for the most part it's not
DESTRUCTIVE
26
DESTRUCTIVE
DECONSTRUCTIVE
27
it's deCONstructive and y'know, sometimes you have to get out with the old to make way but for the new butI'm not so sure it's the whole story. I think there is another internetwhich is to say, really, it is the
28
SAME internet just different parts and even some of the same parts viewed differently, and I'd like to call it the CONSTRUCTIVE INTERNET.
CONSTRUCTIVE
29
The constructive internet connects locales unreachable not because of
30
TOLLS or ROADBLOCKS but because there were. no. roads.
31
The constructive internet is not a wrecking ball,
32
it's a pathway.
33
It's not a saws-all,
34
it's a ag in the sand.
bit.ly/1blH0nb
The difference between the deconstructive and constructive internet is the difference between a shortcut
36
and adesire path.
37
A shortcut is, strictly speaking, a less traveled,
DECONSTRUCTIVE
38
faster route; a desire path
CONSTRUCTIVE
39
is a user-group built rethinking of what routes should exist, but don't. If the worldwide, media ecosystem is the park
40
and dominant modes of business and communication are the landscape-architect approved and department of parks and recreation installed pathways
41
then the DECONSTRUCTIVE internet is knowing that it's faster to get to the
42
food trucks if you just go THROUGH the woody part
43
where all the couples are constantly making out
44
and the CONSTRUCTIVE INTERNET is that weird strip of worn
45
down grass where you might hesitate for a moment to walk down it because well it's clearly not SUPPOSED to be there but wait who more than you, the person IN THE PARK, gets to decide where you are and are not SUPPOSED TO WALK, anyway? And clearly there are a good many people who feel the same way. Practically, the constructive internet is many things.
46
IFTTT, Seamless, Evernote and the countless animated reaction GIF albums on
47
IMGUR are all new routes not available or even CONSIDERED pre internet. Most signicantly and importantly, though, the constructive internet is
48
communities:connections created between people who, before now, would neveror only with signicant efforthave crossed paths.Some of them are AD HOC:
Permanent
Small
Large
Temporary
[ANIMATING SLIDE] on the small-large, temporary-permanent matrix HERE are communities which develop around the funny hash- or tumblr tag; and communities which subscribe to a blog feed or comment on a post. Many of these communities, though, are larger and more permanent: HERE, is thefandom.
(
)
50
Now before we get too much further let me totally and completely acquiesce to the fact that "fandom" existed for a long time before the internet. I'd argue, though, that the para-internnetfandom is a totallynewsense of "fandom". It is not a geographically far-ung group of people who point their faces in the same directiontowards the movie screen, book, tvwith a shared regularity but rather a fully networked group of creatively involved fans constantly working and celebrating alongside one another. Fandoms no longer meet exclusively at the book release, yearly con or regular local meet-up near the Panda Express at the mall (not drawing from personal experience).
bit.ly/1blIuO6
In other words: "Fandom" has reached a kind of cultural prevalence it has not previously enjoyed, especially not under the name "fandom". Shakespeare and Liszt
52
certainly had "fandoms" but today fandoms are COUNTLESS and FAR FLUNG:
bit.ly/194KNQK
The Sherlock Fandom,
bit.ly/194L0U0
the Doctor Who Fandom,
bit.ly/1blJrpD
The My Little Pony Fandom
bit.ly/1blJqlF
Homestuck,
57
Arrested Development,
bit.ly/1a4JCC5
Welcome to Night Vale,
bit.ly/194MRbs
Harry Potter,
60
Breaking Bad,
61
Nerdghters,
bit.ly/194N8LA
Game of Thrones,
bit.ly/194NmST
Star Wars,
bit.ly/194NDFr
Torchwood,
bit.ly/194Ox4Z
The Walking Dead,
bit.ly/1blLjyS
Avatar and HECK there are even some people claiming to be in
bit.ly/1blLI4f
MY FANDOM. For whom I am very grateful and by which I am very, VERY attered. As a side note: the
68
"list of fandoms" tag on tumblr is VERY interesting. If the internet ever has it's own
69
Art of War, except,
70
Art of the Internet, and not about War but about being a smart and respectful internet user, something my good friend
71
Kenyatta Cheese said should go in there. He said that
72
"fandoms are not about the fans gathering around the media they love, but about gathering around
73
each other NEAR the media they love." The Deconstructive Internet allows fans access to the
74
media and personalities they are absolutely bonkers over; the Constructive Internet allows fans access to
75
EACH. OTHER. The theory, actually, is that the most "successful"which I realize is a wily concept
76
in and of itself but, bear with me herethe most successful fandomsdon't have the best media or the best top-down provided access to that media
77
but rather the best interpersonal
bit.ly/1blH0nb
relationships, the best stories
79
and most engaging, ongoing conversations.
bit.ly/1egMxwg
Deviant art,
81
twitter,
82
tumblr,
83
steam,
84
reddit,
85
Live journal, and
86
forums-upon-
87
forums-upon-
88
forums allow fans to create and share
bit.ly/1egRKEC
art, fan ctions, GIFs, remixes and parodies. They develop
90
fan theories and headcanon, theorize 'ships and generally
91
relate toone another as much ormorethan they do directly to the media which has caused them to gather in the rst place. The weird thing that this seems to suggestand you'd be correct in thinking it is both weird and merely suggestedis that canon media
92
(the tv show, the book, the video game, the youtube show, the whatever)
93
isn't REALLY the most important part of the fan community.Rather, it is the bond between and excitement of the people
94
in that communitycertainly INSPIRED by the media but by no means part and parcel with itwhich allows and encourages its persistence. The hypothesis, then, is that maybe there couldand given the
95
innite-alternate-universes size of the internet, certainly there MUSTbe a fandom WITHOUT canonical media. It would subsist primarily, instead, on the attitude and interpersonal connections
96
of the fans involved and not a perfectly pervasive devotion to one particular spectacle. As my close friend and MemeFactory amigo Patrick Davison points out in the forthcoming MemeFactory book,
BLATANT SELF PROMOTION

... there is. And than fandom isno laughing, please
bit.ly/1dkfZi5
the furries. The Furry Fandom does not have ONE piece of canonical media around which the community gathers. There is a SET of media, like:
99
Black Sad,
100
Lackadaisy, and even
101
The Lion King,
bit.ly/1dkhLjb
with different signicance and different meanings for different furs. Whats more: not every creator contributing to that set of Furry Media self-identies as a fur, or set out to create "furry media". There is even /debate/ within the community about what actually qualies as FUR MEDIA and FURDOM itself. The Furry Fandom is not organized by one particular piece of media or even canonical denition of what a Furry is; it is at once singular and diasporadic. They are, in a sense, more "remote",
bit.ly/1ek7HK0
[ANIMATED SLIDE] more far ung, MORE uid than a standard fandom. As such, the internet and furries are a match made in heaven. Did the internet create furries, then? Well,
104
No. There were furries pre-internet,
105
and they did just ne. There are, however, more furries now than before the internet. Is it fair to say, then, that the internet has created SOME Furries? I think so, yes. I
106
I've spoken to a couple furs and they think so as well. This is signicant, and relateseventuallyto our broader point about a weird and different kind of disintermediation and being given permission to be yourself. Because. Imagine you're a teenager.
107
Or, really image you're yourself. And you'resitting at home in your bedroom, tortured and lamenting
108
[ANIMATING] "I am theonlyperson in the WORLD *fascinated* with anthropomorphic depictions of ... bears, or cats". That seems a
109
ridiculous thing to think, now, doesn't it? Of course you're not the only one:
110
Furries exist. And forat least one, though likelymany more people, the discovery of the furry fandom and their ability to connect with itthe fact that they happened down the
bit.ly/187WeHk
"Furry Desire Path"if you'll allow me such an unfortunately suggestive phrasewas of signicant personal importance. This disintermediation is not really media
112
or BRAAANNNDDDDS or
113
access to celebrities.
114
It's not the news
115
or video content or
116
access to scholarly knowledge.
117
Alongside all these things, which yes the internet has game-changed, the internet has also changed the way peoplecan construct themselves.
bit.ly/187XJFp
It has provided access to knowledge and communities and media and people who can help to un-ball the
119
complex knot that is self-constitution. I mean, the self is a complicated thing because it isn't accessed DIRECTLY.
120
The REASON you have to spend lots of long nights staring out the window looking at the moon,
121
visiting all the coffee shops and
122
smoking all the cigarettes
123
in an effort to gure out what you feel, who you are and what you believe or desire is because you can't just shut your eyes andobservehow you feel.The self is a little like a pitch-dark room:
its back here
124
[ANIMATED SLIDE] if you want to nd the sofa, you'll have to go feeling around for it. Maybe its right in front of you, maybe it's not. If you want to know how you feel about the conict in
125
Syria, maybe you immediately know or maybe you have to really consider it for a while. The philosopher Immanuel Kant
126
described thesystematic elusiveness of the 'I'.He wasn't talking about knowing if you're a furry
bit.ly/1880F4U
or not, but he was talking about apprehension of the self and how it's always kind of
128
retreating. For some certainly more than others and for many, very different reasons.A common difficulty, I think it's fair to say, is a preoccupation
129
with knowing what is acceptable or evenpossibleto believe, or want, or do. The self retreats
130
not just as an effect of its complexity but sometimes as an effect of it's inevitable comparison
131
to other selves. It's difficult to condently construct one's self without placing it alongside others; thetrueself, if there is even
132
ONE, can retreat behind cultural norms, community practices, social and societal expectations. So we're at this weird spot, right? And not like,
133
the dog park in Night Vale weird
DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE DOG PARK

but metaphysically weird. You want to be TRUE to your SELF
THINK ABOUT YOURSELF INSTEAD

but you might not know what OPTIONS are available for inclusion in that truth unless you go shopping, I guess, is one way to put it. But are they "true" if they came from somewhere outside your own brain?This is actually a big, important question: is there a truly and totally internal self? Or put another way: would every person who currently self-identies as
136
goth or pro-life or democrat or an evanescence fan
137
[MUSIC VIDEO] - until childish fears
bit.ly/1882M8Q
or who identies as a furry have come to that conclusion independent of the actions and preferences of others?
139
I don't have an answer. Because one doesn't exist. But here's what I think: the self is understood only through itsPROPERTIES.
140
You only know what you think and believe based on your experiences, which are themselves an inscrutable stew of nature, nurture and environment; action, reaction, expectation, rebellion and also probably a fair amount of
141
luck and entropy. Asking whether someone is truly this or truly that is ultimately unhelpful and honestly just brings me right back to the
142
McCarthy-era-esque "poser"
143
witch hunt of the 1990s. More so than whether someoneisthis-or-that I think it is important to ask if someone FEELS COMFORTABLE identifying asthis-or-that; part and parcel with that comfort in self-discovery is seeing and recognizing in others
bit.ly/1dkfZi5
in people, in communities, in media and in the worldthat which you feel
145
stirring in yourself. Since were talking about the internet, it's easiest to connect this line of thinking to those thought of as having a special home online,
146
thought of as existing because of or with a reliance on the internet. Communities like furries. Or "demisexuals",
DEMISEXUAL
who have been a recent and frequent topic of tumblr's
148
Social Justice community. Demisexuals do not experience sexual attraction based upon looks or personality but rather only once they've formed a strong romantic bond with a partner. Or Otherkin:
OTHERKIN
a community of people self identifying as partially or entirely non-human:
150
part spirit, mythical being, life form from another dimension, normally inanimate object or animal
151
slash cartoon character, positioning them rather, though not entirely, in line with furries.According to wikipedia, Otherkin have had a persistent online presence since about 1990. Eventually, though, we will be talking not JUST about those people
152
who seem only to have a home because of the internet, but abouteveryone for whom the internet and
262
"self" are somehow related. That number is going to get bigger, always; I would guess it is represented with abnormal distinction in this room, right now.I mean, thats why were here, right?
154
Whether its for art, business, media or technology the internet is the tool which helped US all peel away those layers to get at that ... inside thing. But you know, its not a special club. And that peeling away process works just as well for people who CONSUME as it does for people who MAKE, because the more, and more different, media you are exposed toas an effect of the Great Disintermediation
155
[ANIMATED SLIDE - EARTH GETTING LESS BLURRY] and the more and moredifferent people you encounterbecause of those desire pathsthe more accurate and complete and ne grained and detailed and complex and confusing and exciting your conception of the world is. And, as follows, the more you know that no matter who you are, your self is worth celebrating. This is most notable and visible, for me at least, in the young
bit.ly/15CPzq6
156
queer and uidly gendered communities nding each other and media which speaks to them online.A very recent pillar of that media has been the podcast
157
Welcome to Night Vale, whose main characterradio host
158
Cecilhas a romantic relationship with the town Scientist
159
Carlos. Amidst the pages and pages of fan art,
harlequinpants.tumblr vasyenka.tumblr
160
most common are romantic depictions of
memphs.tumblr
dragon-draws.tumblr night-vale-arts.tumblr
bit.ly/15CQXJh
161
Cecil and Carlos. It is also probably worth mentioning that
162
Welcome to Night Vale has been hovering like a
163
glow cloud around the
164
#1 Podcast in America spot for quite. A while. Are these things related? I'm not sure, but it's certainly a big deal. In writing about Night Vale for Policy Mic, Zainab Akande points out justhowbig a deal. She wrote that:
night-vale-arts.tumblr
"It is these two characters that make Welcome To Night Vale so central in giving media representations status quo of white and heteronormative a run for its money.Why does this matter? Because media representation matters. Why does media representation matter? Because the media is aprettycentral force and plays a vital role in society at large. Mass media in particular has the power to change or reinforce the habits of its consumers. It also aids in constructing worldviews of its consumers by reproducing realityto an extent. Perception is the name of the game and its difficult to perceive what is non-existentor in the case of POC and LGBTQ characters, severely lacking compared to the real world the diversity scale."
oilandsugar.com
Night Vales universe features oating cats, mountain deniers, clocks that arent real, hooded gures, a taco place with a forsaken menu and a woman without a face who lives in your house. In the world of the show, Cecil and Carlos relationship is just about the most normal, traditional thing going on.
bit.ly/15CQXJh
One particular reading of Night Vale shows how welike, people in the real worldpay absolutely no mind to all kinds of absurd nonsense, and yet homosexual relationships remain a thing to focus on, to treat as separate from the norm. I cant help but make at least a passing comparison to that one Lonely Island Video about Spring Break:
168
[video]
169
To say this indicates something a of a sea-change might be prematurely optimistic but welcome to Night Vale is in good Internet-only company:
170
Orange is the New Black features a cast of not only primarily women, but many incredibly complex, women of color and one transgendered actress cast as her own. gender.
171
Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset accomplishes much of what Akande attributes to Cecil and Carlos: a challenge to major market white heteronormativity with the added
172
challenges to male cis-gendered norms. Coxs portrayal of Burset
173
charming, complicated, motivated, awedhas earned her a huge following and has given the trans* community a voice in a piece of nearly-major market media. So... maybe this is a little internet utopian,
174
but I'm gonna allow myself this pie in the sky dream:
175
that as the internet and access to media and access to distribution and audiences for that media continues to grow, so too will challenges to the idea of "normal". The internet isnot a system beholden, at least not in the way most broadcast is, and certainly not solely, to the dominant
READ: COMFORTABLE, PROFITABLE

attitudes about culture and, by extension, self identication. And it is not some place that exists opposite or
177
instead of or in subjugation to "real life". The internet is real life and it is changing the way people are living their real lives, the way they are being themselves. Its kind of like what Andy described at the very beginning of the conference...
178
At the heart of all these buzzwords, the fun and sometimes overplayed ways to talk about how were changing the world and upsetting the status quo and going into all the board meetings and ipping all the tables is the really simple-but-complicated-and-isnt-that-the-beauty-of-it search for independence. And I think weve learned thatcounterintuitivelyyou sorta need a community to be independent. And that is what were building: this community of independent people, forging out alone, together. Doing our thing and showing other people it CAN be done. And that works for products and services and websites and media but also for social and cultural communities. This, I think, is the greatest
DI***PTION
*cough*disruption*cough* we can hope for. Not that
180
travel sites and publishing and manufacturing and distribution and whatever else didn't need to change, but there is something about people nding each other and in that process nding themselves that feels primary. To have not only routed around barriers
181
stopping the distribution of media, but also to have built
182
pathways between people consuming that media, so they can nd and identify with and celebrate one another and THEMSELVES all, of course, WHILE backing
183
Hyper Light Drifterand paying
184
Chelsea Wolf directly for her newest record...
Neat!
185
I think that's pretty neat.
Thanks
186
Thanks.
@mikerugnetta
187

XOXO Talk - Disintermediation of Self

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

XOXO Talk - Disintermediation of Self

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hello, there!

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Ladies and Gentlemen hello, my name is Mike Rugnetta.

Tuesday, September 24, 13

I write and host a YouTube show called Idea Channel,

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

I want to thank Andy for inviting me. It's a thrill

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

The constructive internet connects locales unreachable not because of

Tuesday, September 24, 13

TOLLS or ROADBLOCKS but because there were. no. roads.

Tuesday, September 24, 13

The constructive internet is not a wrecking ball,

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

It's not a saws-all,

Tuesday, September 24, 13

it's a ag in the sand.

Tuesday, September 24, 13

and adesire path.

Tuesday, September 24, 13

A shortcut is, strictly speaking, a less traveled,

Tuesday, September 24, 13

faster route; a desire path

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

food trucks if you just go THROUGH the woody part

Tuesday, September 24, 13

where all the couples are constantly making out

Tuesday, September 24, 13

and the CONSTRUCTIVE INTERNET is that weird strip of worn

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

Tuesday, September 24, 13

The Sherlock Fandom,

the Doctor Who Fandom,

The My Little Pony Fandom

Tuesday, September 24, 13