Group 2 =16-Oct

Ondi timoner – We live in public (2008)

1. Introduction of the disassociated protagonist (story of the greatest internet pioneer you’ve never heard of)

Disturbed relationship between mother and son Virtual goodbye to his mom Josh goes to NY in 1984 with 900 dollars. “I have got to get into this thing before somebody else does.” He works as a researcher, attends Frank Webster lecture about networks. This lecture inspires him & A lot of people will need numbers / data collection / marketing research. Both inspire him to create Jupiter Communications.

1991 – Internet appeared 1991 – 1994 internet grows exponentially 100000 websites 1996 – first web browser went public

He starts selling reports, predictions in NY Times. Sex would sell over the internet so he sets up chat rooms. You could turn nobody to celebrity because of the internet.

When Jupiter Communication was put on the stock market, he made 80 mil. dollars. With this money he creates Pseudo.com – first internet TV network (watch video and chat at the same time) - people had a voice He sets up legendary parties with artists: cinematographers, models, rich nerds etc He uses the parties to recruit his cast. “I would lick the floor to work here” Bunch of excitement that people really believe in. He says that if you assume it’s gonna work/happen, then you get there before anyone else He created an environment for other people to do creative things because he wasn’t an artist. The Pseudo is listed with CNN, CBS etc Pseudo represented the whole dot com in a shell.

During the 60 min report he is very aggressive : “We’re gonna take CBS out of business” because Pseudo is much more efficient TV, very specific audience that can be counted He wants to “Program people’s lives” You see an ad, you click and that’s the transaction. Josh: “Can’t suck more of the TV as the way it is structured”

Childhood

Youngest, smartest child, 3 brothers (teenagers) and sisters (had no privacy) Mom worked in a young offenders prison for girls, drinks a lot of Martini His father wasn’t much around, he was in business traveling He buys McDonald’s for this brothers and sisters He is a wild child, bringing himself up Mother says “Fend for yourself”. Josh:“Love my mom virtually” Watched a lot of TV, not playing with other kids Emotionally neglected, introvert, not particular intimate relationships Gilligan’s Island became his family He was absorbing the electronic calories

He made Launder my head, an animation for which it worked 2 years. He wanted to explain to humans what is gonna happen next – group generated consciousness – dreams are programmed

He then turns into Luvvy. Luvvy is Josh’s avatar, artistic free-form Maybe based on the wife of Gilligan’s island Brother: “Luvvy is my mom” Friend:“He became rich, so he became Luvvy” Tanis says he wants to connect with people but nobody wants to connect to his character He is quite surprised that people were scarred

Pseudo – the investors were horrified by his public persona. He starts saying less and less full sentences, becomes less focused on the business End 1999, Josh walks away/ is kicked out from Pseudo He wants to move to something more important He says Pseudo was just an art project

He moved to his new project “Quiet, we live in public”

Budget: 2 mill dollars. Josh: “I spend money like sand through the fingers of time” Underground society, part social experiment, part about the self-sufficient community Josh: “Perfect analogy of what the internet will be like.” The experiment looks like a concentration camp: “a Stasi-type intelligence of what people do” He brough international artists to be in charge of decorating the place. Data mining information Capsule hotels with cameras everywhere.

He created an “electronic human beehive”

“It reminds me of slavery” Tremendous fascist overtone (once you’re in, you are not allowed to get out) Very formal process to get a room – give away security number, give away privacy The cameras were everywhere: “Relinquishing all your rights to image” “Everything is free, except for the video we capture of you. That we own” Josh was seen as super permissive parent

One big experiment, everybody will feel like celebrities here. The camera inspired people to do things they wouldn’t do anything in the world. “Quest for fame is willing to pass over shame” People want 15 min of fame everyday Because everything is exposed there is a tension in how to get to know people: “I completely detached from myself” “Josh was the puppet master, not connecting the puppets together, but letting their strings get tangled”

Dec 31, 1999 he holds his talk about Preparing for WWIII – man against the machine Police came on 1st January, 10 am His subjects became human parasites He invented reality TV (creativity to destruction)