Conversation with zer0hue

Here's a conversation with art-minded YTMND user "zer0hue," drawn from a series of in-system "Private Messages." It's been edited for clarity and format, as it took place over several message and involved a lot of tangents about the meaning of art and voice actors.


Jeff E.:I'm very interested in what you think about the AV loop form, particularly in it's existence here. The goal of the project is to analyze the ways these forms of digital communication effect the way people communicate. The best example I can think of is how the comments, friend count, and Top 8 of Myspace effect how people communicate with and use that site.

If you don't really have any opinions on how the format effects the communication, that's fine. A perspective on the affordances of the form and how it's used at it's best, worst, most and least experimental, etc. would certainly be valuable.

zer0hue: I am very much a classicist, not by choice but simply by nature, and so my understanding of art is a product of another time. In contrast to modern understanding, art is not merely the result of creativity, though the two are intimately linked. Art must also possess a quality that speaks to the mind, or perhaps the spirit if such a thing exists. Most of my work speaks to the senses, but rarely satisfies the intellect, and so couldn’t really be considered art. However, there are more than a few fad sites and pop-culture junk movements that do have a tangible idea to them. It might be a terrible idea, which is why they often make for terrible art, but art is art regardless of the qualifier. By contrast, my sites are usually good at being what they are, even if what they are isn’t very good to begin with. I think of them as compelling entertainment, more unique and better-designed than your front page nonsense, but just as shallow all the same. Of course, most of these were made quite some time ago, and I’ve changed a great deal since then, but that’s another topic entirely.

If you’re looking for a good place to start on the subject of art and YTMND, I would suggest klasky’s conversation.ytmnd.com. You’ll notice some of my earlier thoughts expressed in the comments section, but the real draw are klasky, korf41, and others’ views on the matter. I have no great enchantment with art, as you should realize by now, but if you’re in the search of those who do, that’s where I would begin.

The second, and far less boring, aside is about the difference between the medium and its distribution. Film is a medium that AMC theaters disseminates. Looped media is a medium that YTMND disseminates. Though media is often synonymous with the channels of distribution, they are two very different things. If your focus is on YTMND as the distributor of looped media, and all the compelling business-model techno-babble within, there are better and more knowledgeable people than myself to interview. Really, it’s not terribly different from other user-generated content sites such as YouTube, where the front page is just as coveted, votes are just as polarized, and most every comment is typed by teeth chewing angrily on a keyboard with the caps-lock on. Since I’ve been here off-and-on since the beginning, I’ve witnessed all the many internal structural changes to the site itself. I still remember when it wasn’t uncommon for my sites to go months without receiving a single vote, and the only way to talk to users was to leave comments on their sites. I know there’s probably a great deal of meaning to all of this, to someone at least, but that person isn’t me. I’m much more fascinated by the medium of AV loops, which predated this site by many years and will exist long after this place is sold to the AOLGoogleSpace internet conglomerate and transformed into a viral ad farm. Oh wait...


JE: MasterSitsu made it sound like the user base is pretty fixated on their site scores. Do you agree, or is this just a certain portion of the population? Is there a minority that focuses on the quality of their work, as opposed to their scores?

zh: I don’t think most people are fixated on scores so much as the exposure that results from popularity. I know from experience that unless you have a sustained presence on the front page, very few people will find your sites. Obviously humorous, fad-driven sites will resonate the most with the user base and will usually do better than serious, creative sites. Therefore the amount of effort, creativity applied to a site is rarely reflected in its score.

I’m not a part of the YTMND community and never have been. Again, these questions are better asked to site staples such as MasterSitsu, xXWaspXx, etc.


JE: So you're saying people tend to leverage scores, often via fads, to increase their front-page visibility, and thereby gain fame. So fame is represented by numbers of votes, comments, and how junked up their PM inbox is. And those who put creativity into their work and try to make their sites original and thoughtfully composed are often ignored, lest they happen to inspire a new fad.

Thus, much like Newgrounds, YouTube, and MySpace, many users attempt to exploit the system for some degree of fame, irrespective of any creative drive, social responsibility (Unfunny Truth aside), or cultural value their products may lack. There are users who try to use the site's distribution for less superficial purposes, but their work often goes unnoticed under the waves of in-jokes and variations on tried-and-true themes.


zh:Your assessment is pretty spot on. The problem with this community and those like it is that it’s essentially engineered to promote popularity over creativity. As long as that remains, the creative will always be marginalized in favor of familiarity.