We Live In Public

"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU". Those words will conjure up visions of totalitarianism, disregard for privacy, and living in public. Although we will try to avoid this dystopian future as much as possible, our efforts may be slowly disintegrating in the viral world known as the internet. With the abundance of social networking, anybody can become an overnight celebrity with videos of you screaming at a double rainbow. To the average prole like you and me, the internet is our world of tommorow, and our Big Brother is seldom known internet pioneer Josh Harris.

This interesting foretelling of the future (and the chain of events that go with it) is none other than Ondi Timoner's "We Live in Public". Using a chronological chain of events in Josh Harris' life (from Pseudo.com in the late 90s to present day Ethiopia), this film was shown from his perspective with parallels from his friends, family, business partners, and residents of "Quiet". This film is a mix of expository and observational styles (archival footage, interviews, no narrators, ect), and was able to tell an unbiased tale of the potential world of tomorrow.

I found that the strengths of this film include the sheer magnitude of interesting information presented. My favourite information tidbit was the exposure of the many parallel sides of Josh Harris' television raised personality (eg. Luvvy the Clown), and all of his intricately complex "art projects". It was very interesting to deconstruct his way of thinking and enter the mind of a futuristic (if not somewhat weird) internet genius.

In terms of value, "We Live in Public" can have very high ranking in our modern day culture. Much like "1984", it shows us what can happen if we let our future (weather it be in technology or politics) spin out of control. Positive outcomes could be a raising of awareness for the results of a dystopic future (or the life of a crazy genius), while the only real negative is that someone else might try living in public, only to have it go horribly bad for them. When all is said and done, we are left with one important statement regarding the effects of the internet. Will we use the internet to connect, create, and inspire, or will we end up living in the basement of a Manhattan apartment filled with cameras, drugs, and mindless promiscuous sex. It all depends on what we let happen.

FIN.