Welcome back to the magical land of furloughs, paycuts, and fee raises! The first entry in quite some time is not related to sport, really. However, I have seen the same phenomenon as we see in this Pearl Jam video below at many sporting events. The video was from a concert Saturday night in Golden Gate Park, and as you can see, the experiences of many concertgoers were at least occasionally mediated by their cell phone cameras or digital cameras. Questions arise, of course, about how this fits in with Jenkins' (2006) notion of Convergence Culture, since the videos are user-generated and posted on youtube, only to be edited by yours truly and posted on this blog for purposes other than their value to online fan communities. I am more interested here in the experience of "live" sporting or entertainment events, the role fans play as mediators of their own sensory experiences, and the actions of fans-as-generators of an experience for others who did not have the luxury of attending in person. What do we make of the video when the person filming pans away from the sea of other cameras filming Eddie and the band to the big screen? At MMA events I have caught myself watching the HD screen above the cage rather than on the fighters themselves. "They look so clear!" I remember telling someone, about the image of the fighters on the screen. "Reality" is often blurred or obscured, by a cage, by other fans filming their own versions of reality, or by the 3 inch rectangle that can never capture what our roving eyes can. Sometime in grad school I read an article on how the box scores in baseball changed the way we can experience the game (via statistics versus richer phenomenological cues). I wonder what the author would write about the knowing of a game, a fight, or a match through the disjointed attentional endeavors of people flipping (off) the live fantastic? At least we know the words well enough to sing along? Indeed, perhaps we want only to hear our own voices, see our own versions of the digitally enhanced performance, and experience the "thing itself" not through the Heidegger's "lived body," but rather through the detached and mediated/ing interface body that is itself performing back at that which it is so preoccupied with filming. Cyborg fandom and its peculiarities.Pearl Jam Through The Looking Glass(es)
I was at the Outside Lands concert and was drawn to watching the screen more than the concert itself....culture has created in me the screen mentality of conditioning what is watched...
ReplyDeleteMany times unless your seats are great you can see the concert a lot better looking at the screen. However, as a culture we are still willing to pay the money to attend the concert because of the atmosphere and just being part of the in crowd... Ledesma
ReplyDeleteWhen viewing the screen we choose to adapt to our society and redeem the “reality” of the event. By doing so we won’t necessarily miss what is truly occurring. The perspective would be what the majority is viewing and therefore it is “reality.” Our subculture appreciates what is most appealing and maintains our interest; whether it is at a concert or sporting event.
ReplyDeleteI feel that as a society we have become increasingly visually oriented. Due to the explosion of screen media (TV, internet, movies, text messages, email, etc.), our culture is now more dependent on being able to see visual cues to know how to respond. In years past, Americans were content to listen to whole stories on the radio or listen to entire musical albums on records, CDs or cassettes but now those activities have been replaced by YouTube clips, TV shows, mp3s, and music videos. I think Americans have become addicted to screen media and now require that visual cue to enjoy these activities, necessitating the use of HD screens at MMA fights, cell phone recordings of concerts, etc.
ReplyDelete- Alex Blake
I am amazed how technology has changed sporting events rather than enjoying the live event and taking it all in,fans are on their cell phone PDA's updating their twitter or Facebook status during the game. I find it quite strange that fans would rather let others know what they are doing instead of taking in the live action, that most likely they paid for out of pocket....Daniel
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Ledesma said. When we go to some of these events, we are paying for the atmosphere and to be with a group of people who are enthusiastic about the events going on.
ReplyDeleteI tend to watch the giant screen as well. It gives us a better close up view of what we are watching but it also misses a lot of little things that go into the enjoyment of the events such as coaches yelling on the sideline or someone on the side doing something spontaneously crazy.
Jimmy Herrera
Technological fetishism compensates for the lack of a compelling narrative. In other words, people watch the TV because they're bored.
ReplyDeleteIn general, our society has been conditioned to go for what's bigger and better in most situations. Why strain your eyes to see the little dot moving around on the stage/court/field when you can look at the screen to see it close up?
ReplyDeleteThis last weekend at the football game vs Utah, when the ball was on the other side of the field, I preferred to look at the video board, so I could actually see the play and understand what was happening. I had a first hand perspective of an event that hundreds of thousands of people were watching on tv, and I chose to go to the screen as well.
Just makes things easier I guess?
-Kendra Miller
Technology is going to change the way people view live events because they way it is evolving, but it's hard to duplicate the atmosphere of being at the event. I go to games for the atmosphere and being able to share something in common with 40,000 other fans. If there is a jumbotron, I do tend to watch it for a closer look at the players or the action. The atmosphere of being at an event cannot be duplicated on someone's facebook or twitter page
ReplyDeleteErin
yeah I would say that I am part of a generation that is definitely dependent on technology. phones, computers, and even televisions need to be wireless and within arms reach at all times (and also combined for convenience). I am sad to say that my generation may have lost some of it's humanistic (is that a real word?) attributes. We have indulged ourselves in so much television and video games that we have veered away partially from what is "reality". Sports have become portrayed on television mostly for entertainment purposes. Advertisements, previews, etc. are all kinds of ways that change emotions of the viewer. What I have noticed in more recent televised sports games (specifically on the FOX channel)is the widescreen effect of football and baseball games. This portrays the game as if it were a movie. Giving it a "theatrical" look only shows that the spectator sport is used solely for entertainment and distracts the viewer from the realities of the game. It is like the next step up from the yellow first down line on the screen during a football game, followed by an advertisement digitally placed on the field.
ReplyDelete-Shane Fandinola