A great example of a media artifact was done by Michael Lesy who stumbled across a collection of late-19th century photographs taken in a small town in Wisconsin called Black River Falls. Intrigued by what he saw, he started reading the town newspapers from the same period. Artfully arranging the photos and newspaper fragments in sequences, Lesy published them under the title “Wisconsin Death Trip” in 1973. This audio slide show includes an interview with Lesy and images from the book, in addition to other images of Victorian post-mortem photography.

A more conceptual media artifact could come in the form of Mel Bochner’s Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper not Necessarily Meant to be Viewed as Art. So as you can see, a media artifact can actually work as Art as well. In Bochner’s seminal conceptual piece he collected bits of paper from his peers which included Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin, John Cage and Donald Judd, and then photocopied them. In doing so he created a new type of portrait of the individual which was completely conceptual, but only based on what they had which was not meant to be viewed as art. Old receipts, working drawings, etc. Then we can look at how all of these works combined not only documents a subject, but also can stand alone as a separate art piece.

Now to the film. The film created a new fad which was simply skateboarding without the board. While skateboarding was created by individuals which then became a mass marketing phenomenon, Footskating is a marketing phenomenon which intended to create a fad. On their website they even encourage young people to shoot and upload their own footskating videos in order to compete to be the “Footskater of the month”. Thus, getting free publicity and buzz for their film under the guise of user generated content. In this respect the marketing team was quite clever in thinking about the power of viral videos on the web in order to hype a product. Not exactly creative or revolutionary because every company on the planet would love to have a video with their logo go viral, but nonetheless effective.

Here you can see some user generated content “competing” to be the footskater of the month.

Now let’s get on to the MTV spots for Footskating. These are 30 second long promos following the life of various anti-authoritarian footskaters in which they go on at lengths about consumerism and create a parody of those who believe that certain trends, music or movements all sell out at a certain point. In some of the spots there are even ad execs which go on to say that “ad execs are the new footskaters”. Now, to someone who analyzes and interprets media the jokes are simple, but to the MTV audience not so much. I don’t think the average teenager watching these (I don’t even know what to call them??? Spots? Promos? Advertisements? Station Identifications?) has the slightest clue about the nuances going into the message which they are trying to convey. If one really looks at these spots they are a parody of those who believe in authenticity, DIY culture, the underground, or the obscure. Which is absolutely fitting because while MTV seeks out the newest thing, they are also walking a tightrope because anything that gets on MTV is also labeled as being Sold Out. They effectively kill everything unique that they touch and turn it into a product. So MTVs footskating spots are a series of infomercials making fun of those who believe in the underground, and mocks those who wish to preserve it. Since they are catering to a demographic which wants to hear the safest and most mainstream music this makes sense. They want those who love mainstream music to laugh at those who criticize it. It’s the old “Anti Marketing” Market.

I’m anti-establishment

Sponsors. In this ad we see the main character making fun of sponsorship. Forget that the spot is “sponsored” by MTV, and most likely Puma.

On Magazines and Blogging

In closing you can take a look at http://mtv.tv/footskating for more information. It may not come as a surprise to you. But the link which is being flashed on the screen at the end of these spots doesn’t even exist

“But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?”