hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
Peep Radio
2009,
14:13 GMT
Is Surveillance Worth the Social Cost? Article in the National Post
Posted by: Hal
Here’s a really interesting and well written article, complete with a healthy dose of snark and skepticism. The piece is called Are We All Big Brother Now? and, written by one of newspaper’s news reporters, a guy who spends plenty of time on the crime beat, it has a refreshing no nonsense look at the ideas I espouse in my book.
Here are two paragraphs from the piece:
As such, the flawed footage was typical of how CCTV plays out in major crimes, as a crucial but incomplete piece of the puzzle. But the other factors, especially the frantic speculation about the case on dedicated Facebook sites, also typify an emerging culture of democratized digital surveillance, in which security and entertainment have blurred into voyeurism, usually with the narcissistic consent of the surveilled.
This “Peep Culture,” according to Toronto author Hal Niedzviecki, is what happens when pop culture’s mass audience gains the tools to display themselves online as celebrities, with their private lives on enthusiastic display. But with time, it spreads beyond the time-passing frivolity of social networking into the most deadly serious corners of the culture.”
I liked the way this piece approached, without any sentimentality, the question of whether or not surveillance and self surveillance are worth the price that we ultimately have to pay as individuals and a society.
2009,
13:24 GMT
Jon and Kate Monday Debut: Disgust and Fascination
Posted by: Hal
According to the New York Times, the Monday night debut of Jon and Kate plus Eight was the most popular primetime show over Memorial Weekend. 10 million tuned in. Thousands commented on the show as it transpired, extending their peep entertainment through Twitter and Facebook conduits. There are now entire blogs devoted to the show – check out Gosselins Don’t Need Our Pity, which should be doing a pretty thriving business these days. I dropped by expecting debate on whether or not the couple are using their helpless kids to enhance their profiles and fortunes, but it’s more like US Weekly – which has featured the couple on the cover of the mag for the LAST FIVE ISSUES. I didn’t manage to catch the show but thanks to all the recaps and blogs, I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything. Peep Culture is now indisputably the most prevalent entertainment trend. And the moral implications are finally starting to make people a bit queasy: we are watching with disgusted fascination.
2009,
16:36 GMT
Peeping the Iranian Revolution
Posted by: Hal
Last night my brother was watching the 6pm broadcast of the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company) news with his 12 year old son. They showed one of the videos currently sweeping through YouTube that captures the last gruesome moments of life of Neda Agha-Soltan, shot dead by persons unknown while walking the fringes of the protests against Iranian’s repressive pseudo democracy. My brother, who had previously watched the video online, was halfway out of the living room at the time and only partially heard them talking about the video. When he realized they were actually playing it, he ran back in and told his son to cover his eyes. But it was too late – the most graphic part of the video, the final seconds of Neda’s life, ending in a closeup of the 26 year old woman’s face as blood gushes out of her mouth and nose and her eyes roll up into the back of her head — was already playing. Afterwards, his son asked him: “I don’t understand. If she was shot in the chest, why was there blood coming out of her face?”
Last week, the Western media was convinced that Twitter was galvanizing the Iranian people into full scale revolution. This week, the news is that it will be the YouTube video of Neda’s death that will spread outrage and ultimately topple the Islamic regime of Iran. Meanwhile, everyone is putting out articles on how the importance of Twitter and Facebook are being overstated in this burgeoning revolution.
So what to think about all this? Sad to say but Peep plays a role. Whenever we are using mediums that primarily provide entertainment – from television to twitter – to cover fast breaking world events like this one, we are dealing with the problems endemic to Peep.
These problems include: *Veracity – is this a genuine tweet or video? Everything seems true. *Passivity – by watching this and maybe even appending a comment or sending a tweet like “to Neda…we will remember your bravery” are we imagining we are somehow taking meaningful action which actually prevents us from taking meaningful action? Everyone shade their tweets green in support of the Iranian protests. *Context – One person’s outrage is someone else’s entertainment. There is an unsettling blurring between the two. A video of a woman dying sandwiched between commercials for Tide, plus updates on the weather and sports. On YouTube I found a panorama of scenes from the protests culminating with Neda’s death set to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. Appended to the video the pronouncement: “Khodaya be Iran azadi bede - ????? ?? ????? ????? ??? NOT A ROCK MUSIC VIDEO. DO NOT VIEW AS SUCH.”
Ultimately, we don’t know if the video showing Neda being murdered will prove to be a catalyst, a distraction or equal measures of both. Our instinct is to believe that when images emerge from a crisis of this magnitude with so much at stake we are not peeping. We are not simply spending our leisure time watching other people’s lives. We are absorbing and passing on crucial information. But the more television, YouTube, twitter and Facebook blur into one big infotainment peep universe, the harder it is to figure out when we have crossed the line from crucial information to peep. We have to watch the video of the young woman’s death so that she will not have died in vain. At least, that’s what we keep telling ourselves when we watch it, decide to broadcast it, or pass it along.
I’ll end with a random sample of tweets about Iran I grabbed off the Iran.Twazzup site providing real time amalgamation of tweets related to the Iranian protest.
Show support for democracy in Iran add green ribbon to your Twitter avatar with 1-click - http://helpiranelection.com
We r having difficulty gettng updates 2 u as many of r contacts been arrested-life here is v/v/dangerous now #Iranelection
2009,
22:46 GMT
LA via Denver
Posted by: Hal
I’m on the plane to Los Angeles via Denver. Yesterday was a crazy day, trying to tie up loose ends, film my “reality tv casting tape” with director Sally, and find some time to work on/figure out the peep themed monologue I’m going to deliver Thursday night in Washington DC.
Didn’t get to bed till 1am and was up at 5:30, but other than that, I feel like I’m in decent shape going into this final stretch. In terms of filming, I’ve been feeling more at ease in front of the camera, probably because I’ve been in front of cameras 8 hours a day for the last week or so. I’m excited about tomorrow’s shoot on the set of the crazy Fox Reality show Solitary, which basically involves putting people in different kinds of solitary confinement and seeing how long they last. The winner gets a cash prize. The show mixes self inflicted sensory deprivation torture with classic reality tv peep: we get to know the people, peep into their regular lives to get a sense of their motivations, and are treated to constant juxtapositions of their everyday life and the extremity of their current situation. Also we’re going to sit down with David Lyle, the head of Fox Reality and the man behind such classic peep reality shows as The Swan. He’s also very funny and loquacious, so I’m sure we’ll have a great talk about all aspects of reality tv.
As much as possible, I’ll be continuing to broadcast live via peepcast. As soon as we get to LA we’re going to head over to Best Buy and grab a mobile internet stick that should let me pretty much lifecast from anywhere. But it might be difficult for me to lifecast and check the chat in some circumstances, so don’t get mad, I’m not ignoring you, I’ve just got my hands full. Anyway, subject to the agree-ability of the people we’re spending time with, you should be able to get a pretty good look at the action as it proceeds. Lifecasting while filming and being on the road will be, I think, very different from doing it home. For one thing, I’ll be able to be on more, fewer blackout periods when W. and the kid are around. For another, there will, arguably, be more action, less time watching me sitting in front of my computer. This phase of the lifecast will probably provide more of a sense of how the documentary is coming together, as opposed to a sense of how my life comes together (or comes apart, as the case may be). I’m relieved, actually, to take the show on the road. I’ve been getting frustrated with certain aspects of the lifecasting at home. That’s something I want to address, but I’m going to wait to do it on camera as a vlog.
So anyway, check the lifecast, my tweets (@halpen), and this space for ongoing updates. Here’s a schedule of what I’ll be up to. As much as possible I’ll be peepcasting!
Today: getting equipment, setting up. Wed.: Fox Reality on the set of Solitary. Wed. eve: fly to Washington DC. Thursday: two interviews, practice my talk that night, perform at 7:30 est (plus your opportunity to meet my mom!) Friday: 6am flight back to LA. Shooting various Hal-in-Hollywood footage! Saturday and Sunday: we spend the day with a casting director, attend a reality tv try-out, get a critique of my reality tv casting tape. Monday: homeward bound!
2009,
20:55 GMT
Pod People
Posted by: Hal
Okay, I’m on the last leg of my flight back to Los Angeles. I’ll fill you in on all that’s been happening so far, at least the highlights.
Got into LA Tuesday. Actually pretty hilarious arrival since director Sally and shoot assistant Melanie (aka “the Hotness”) managed to miss the connecting flight due to a sudden thirst for Jamba Juice. No damage done, they got the next flight and were only a few hours behind us and now I get to make fun of them constantly — “hey, anyone thirsty for some juice?”
Wed. morning we were off to an interview with David Lyle, the head of FoxReality. He’s an acerbic straight talking Australian — very very funny. I showed him the 2 minute casting tape I made, and he absolutely cracked us up critiquing what are apparently my many many flaws. We’ve got to get my casting video up online, that’s on my to do list today.
We had a great discussion with David about Reality TV. When we got around to talking about some of the negative consequences of Reality Tv – ie. distorting the shape of people’s lives for the sake of entertainment — things got particularly interesting. David maintains that while there is some distortion, you can’t turn, as he puts it, “a princess into a witch.” In other words, while certain events may be distorted, a person’s essential nature is at the core of the narrative, and that ultimately can’t be made up or manipulated. As for the ethical question of what a reality tv show creator’s responsibility is to the people they have on the show, well, David, again, asserted the hardly surprising idea that people sign up for this stuff and they know what they are getting into. And if they don’t, well, it’s nobody’s fault but their own.
Later on, we headed over to the set of Solitary, a Fox Reality show that was in production. Solitary is this show where they put contestants into solitary confinement pods and then subject them to various mental and physical trials — they call them “treatments”. Whoever lasts longest in their pod wins the 50k prize. It was fascinating to watch the producers of the show put the contestants through their paces. The control room was truly like a scene from The Truman Show. I got to chat with the producers who were pretty cool about having us invade their set. Sally thought I got a little too hung up on the whole torture aspect, but she wasn’t the one who ended up sitting on a torture chair made up of hundreds of blunt screws, while wearing a giant metal crown with more blunt screws pressing down into her frontal lobe. For the record, that was me. The producers compared the show to a sporting event and argued that it’s more like being part of a rigorous athletic challenge than being subjected to torture. They talked about the “triumph of the human spirit.”
Finally I got to go into one of the pods and experience Solitary. My sole companion was the computerized voice known as Val. I’m planning on doing a vlog at some point today on what I felt and learned from my time in the pod. Stay tuned.
After that, I took the red eye to Washington DC. I did two interviews there and a talk Thursday evening. Next morning, this morning, the 7am flight back to LA, which brings you up to date on my activities and whereabouts. I’m a bit groggy from the constant activity punctuated by lengthy plane rides. But I’m excited about the material we got at FoxReality — to their credit, they were totally cool about letting us film on the set and asking whatever questions we wanted. I was also really pleased about the reception the Peep event in DC got. Checked in with W. who reported an incident involving 3 year-olds and fecal matter (enough said) but otherwise seemed in good spirits. We’re both really looking forward to our upcoming holiday, about a week away. Normally the thought of going on a vacation annoys me — vacation from what exactly? is my usual line — but this time around, I’m ready for some serious chill out and family time. I’m sitting next to a little 4 year-old and her dad, so naturally I’m thinking of E. I wonder what she’ll make of this whole project in ten years. She’ll be a teenager and probably wish they’d left me locked in the pod.
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
New content on the Broken Pencil website! Short fiction: Shack the Clam Girl + How to Make Your Own Game Cabinet http://bit.ly/b6CHLP
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