Life as Art: The Interplay of Identities Among Virtually Performing Musicians

“If I live my life with passion and meaning, then my life is art” – Monte Wise, April 2009.

I never appreciated this mantra…Life is Art. Monte had adopted this phrase many years ago when he was trying to find personal meaning after our divorce. He put it in cards to our children; his computer passwords were all related to the phrase. In short, it became something that was “stamped” on him (and almost an irritant for me). If he could have tattooed it to himself, he would have. Instead, our daughter tattooed it on her arm after his death.

As someone approaches the moment when they will present their dissertation proposal, they have to give a “name” to their work. I have read the dissertation titles of many and they always sound so official. Everyone wants to solve the world’s problems with their academic work and having a title as weighty as the work seems to be a given.

My gift to the world…my academic statement…is about people who create a digital persona – an avatar – in order to “bare” themselves artistically. They are players on a global stage…they have nothing to offer but their music…and yet they persist, night after night, year after year, in the hopes of receiving the feedback in a virtual world that they may not find in the physical world. They write, they sing, they play an instrument and their virtual fans may not ever know their “real” identity. The more immersed I became in the music community in Second Life the more I realized that “real” was relative – the identity an artist creates in Second Life may be more real artistically than their identity in real life. I finally understood what Monte was talking about – their life had become art, both in their pixilated identity and their performance.

The comps are over, the proposal is underway, and my title has been chosen. The method I will use is Portraiture, where I listen for the stories of the musicians who perform virtually, and intertwine them with my own experience in creating a virtual identity. My work will be about life, about art, and the blurred distinction between the two. This body of work, this effort to launch myself onto the academic stage, will represent my own life…as art.

What Is A Social Media Expert?

One of the LinkedIn groups I belong to has an ongoing discussion titled, “What is a Social Media Expert?” At this moment, there are 291 threads on this discussion, from a couple of sentences to paragraphs in politically correct business terminology espousing the virtues of someone who considers themselves to be an expert in Social Media — if there is such a thing. I have read many of the comments, mostly from people who consider themselves social media “consultants” which is probably code for “you-got-downsized-and-now-you-are-a-consultant.” Nothing wrong with that – we have all been there – but the fact that there are 1.5 million hits on Google under “Social Media Experts” boggles my mind.

Of course, there is the requisite “one-upmanship” that goes along with these discussions. One person will puff his chest and let everyone know just how expert he is, then another will show his plume and add to the previous thread, displaying his expertise which has to surpass the first thread. I am not a social media expert but I know expertise when I see it so I took my turn and wrote about Dave Carroll.

In my post I said that a social media expert knows how to leverage the power of the medium to inform and persuade (just as a good writer, a good sales person, or a good teacher is able to do). In Dave’s case, his issue was with United Airlines. In a post from Dave’s website (http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars), Dave tells the following story:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world.

And so he did…

The video “United Breaks Guitars” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo) has had over 7.5 MILLION hits. That, gentle readers, is VIRAL. As a result of this phenomenon, my understanding is that United Airlines has offered Dave a settlement, has (according to United on Twitter) donated $3,000 to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz for music education for kids (what are the odds of THAT), and Taylor guitars has given Dave two new guitars because their sales have jumped as a result of the video. Maybe this guy isn’t a “social media expert,” but you can’t argue with his results. He hit a societal nerve and society responded. That’s just good marketing.

I tried to go back to look at what was said after my thread was posted to the “What Makes a Social Media Expert” but I can’t find it. I saw several “comment has been deleted” entries. Maybe they don’t think Dave or I know anything about social media.