Convergence CultureNew film-making and editing technologies mean fans can now make their own episodes of their favourite shows, writes Haydn Shaughnessy
I could be guilty occasionally of overstating the impact of what is happening on the Internet, but take these few points. In a recent correspondence with artist Scott Kimball recently, he pointed out the blurring of rational economics by the online virtual world Second Life. In Second Life people trade goods for pretend money. It might be, for example, that somebody creates virtual clothing that others buy for the virtual equivalent of peanuts. Or the seller might take those clothes and sell them for real money on the auction site eBay.
Kimball is in the process of creating artworks in Second Life that he will exhibit in the real world. They are virtual re-enactments from famous movies. To call these events "mixed realities", the current vogue term, is to miss the point that there is only one reality and we are simply getting mixed up about it. There is some serious inversion of normal economics going on out there.
Take as another example the movie Revelations. This is what's known as a fan movie, put together by fans of the George Lucas Star Wars series. At 47 minutes long, the production, which cost a total of $20,000 (€14,814), called on computer-graphics artists from all over the world as well as actors from the US east coast. It is an act of devotion to Star Wars and it is so good (its director doesn't agree) that it has companies such as computer giant IBM asking why they pay marketing and advertising companies to do their TV spot-ad productions. High-class movie-making, like writing, is becoming available, accessible and much easier to distribute than it used to be.
Revelations, directed by newcomer and part-time actor Shane Felux, is hardly spoken of as big box office, though millions of people have seen it. More significantly for the future of the creative industries, its cost, for a movie rich in computer generated imagery, was next to nothing. The fan-made series Star Trek New Voyages is another case in point. Fans of the original Star Trek series have never let it go. That doesn't mean just pining for Captain Kirk's return.
The series uses crew from the Gene Roddenberry original and the producers even persuaded George Takei to reprise his role as Mr Sulu. The reason? "We still believe in the positive ideals of Gene Roddenberry," according to the New Voyages website, of hope, optimism and adventure.
Fan movies are of course only consolidating activities that used to take place in a different format. Before broadband connectivity allowed them to collaborate on the production and distribution of movies, fans would meet at conventions and swap text-based stories, memorabilia and enthusiasm. The fact that they can now connect with designers and graphic artists around the world, though, means they are now able to preserve and celebrate continuously their own most-prized memories.
This seems to me to be the crux of excellent amateur productions. On the one hand they represent a new economics of creativity, one which is beginning to affect everybody in the creative business. But they are also the first tangible and valuable outputs of the new social networking phenomenon.
Let me put that another way. Social network websites such as Bebo and MySpace allow people to communicate but they have a strange provenance. I can make and share my highly personal MySpace page but in reality it all belongs to News International. By contrast, social networks built around the fans of movies and TV series, like those built around activities such as geobotting and sport, belong to the participants and are the result of creative momentum.
What people are doing with this new capability is something very old fashioned: remembering and memorialising. The spontaneous desire to take hold of cultural icons and maintain them even when it means a vast investment of time is something that should make us stop and think. People are clearly deprived of ways to meet a uniquely human need, to be able to memorialise infinitely those things that touch them emotionally. Many cultural icons are owned by corporations and are protected by copyright laws and image rights.
These online memorials take us back to the statues, carvings and paintings that people have used to express a little wonder at the world and people around them, in the process raising a very significant social and economic issue: who owns memories?
• Revelations can be found at www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/
• Star Trek New Voyages can be found at www.newvoyages.com/
WORDS IN YOUR EAR
Mixed realities- combining virtual objects and events with real-world ones
