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Continuing on from what Eleanor was talking about in her Patronage post. What i kept thinking while i watched it was how, with Matt always positioned in the center of the group, he was like the nucleus of a human rejoicing. Whatever he tapped into with his first solo dancing videos that caused them to spread through the internet so broadly, had also allowed him to travel around the world and bring that gift to people everywhere. And seemingly everywhere he goes, people understand and join in. This isn’t the same view of the underlying connection of all humanity that’s engendered by the Olympics or World Cup, where the solidarity between people is created through a focus on a single episode, or struggle. In those cases the spectacle is the nucleus, and what draws people to it is in part the knowledge that so many others are being drawn to it. The human connections in this Matt video are much less grand, but they’re also more flexible and personal. It’s just people having fun, for no particular reason for a small amount of time. This formula seems to work just as broadly as the epic conflict between the world’s most highly skilled atheletes for creating connections across cultural boundaries. I’m not sure what my point was, but there you go.

My sister sent me this video yesterday. Maybe this is a modern form of patronage. Rather than commissioning a work solely for oneself, funding is provided for a project to happen and the final results are available to all. This isn’t a new idea; think of orgainzations like Creative Time and Public Art Fund, who solicit donations and funding from a wide variety of sources, and then help fund artists projects for a wider public to experience. The only difference is that this is a single corporate sponsor. The creator of this video, Matt Harding, has made three of these videos now. The first was all by himself, just a thing for his friends and family to laugh at. But somehow, in that mystery that every ad executive craves for, the video went viral and within a month his server was crashing from all the traffic (YouTube wasn’t around yet) and millions of viewers had seen his goofy dance. Then he got a proposal from Stride. They didn’t want to be involved, all they wanted to do was sponsor Matt to do another video. So they did, two videos really. It is obvious that this is not a commercial for Stride Gum. With the sponsor recognized only after all the credits have rolled, it is pretty inconspicuous. Stride could make a commercial in the exact same way, but that might kill whatever it is that made these videos so appealing. Maybe because it would lose its sponteneity, or the viewer lose the direct connection between the creator and the product, or maybe just because ads turn people off, it’s safe to say an overt Stride Gum commercial wouldn’t get 5 million views in just a couple months. What’s so great about these videos is that, from the start, they were fueled by the desire to make something, by art. I have to say though, whatever Stride was looking for to happen, it worked on me. Though I don’t buy gum, I have a good feeling about Stride. Anyways, I thought this was a good followup to yesterday’s post, figuring out how people do what they do.

I remember a time in high school when I all of a sudden realized that there are some artists who actually make a living at being artists. Funny: it was sortof a shock. I am always interested to see how other artists and creative people of all varieties make thier lives work. I like listening to interviews, seeing where they live and work, and hearing about their lives in general. It seems like they must have a secret. Not with the internet around! aha. On my Desk: where artists, illustrators, designers, & creative folk share the stuff on their desks (or studios) WHEREWEDOWHATWEDO: “is a community-built visual database of the spaces in which we spend our days, nights or both doing whatever it is we do. While it may not be the freshest idea in the attic, we thought it would be a fun project to work on during down time. As well as we wanted to give this interesting and slightly voyeuristic concept a place all its own. ” Lastly, I just found out about a project that our friend Helena Keefe has done, called “Living Proof“: a collection of stories about the various ways in which artists make a living. I heart stories.