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"The Audience is the Artist"

· Content,Social,Disintermediated,Distributed,Expression

I’m just back from Digital Hollywood. This is the 17th year that I’ve attended. Now that’s scary. Thanks go to the ever-gracious Victor Harwood for including me, and keeping the rather large endeavor going.

 

Every panel seems to rotate around the same themes: Who is paying for what? Ad vs. Subscription model? Content or Technology? Hollywood Execs are either stupid or Luddites, and Technologists are pirates. This year (as last) it was mostly, Where’s the money…?

 

For me the ‘arguments’ blur into white noise. It’s all a turf war, a battle of constituents vying for ownership. Even the First Annual meeting of the Web Television Academy smacked of a land grab. Early in, you get to help shape the platform, define the categories and most importantly, vote for the winning productions. For me, if it isn’t a “people’s choice” award, than it won’t reflect the Web. The Web is a bottom-up phenomenon. Any voting should be open, any platform transparent. Any Award of Web Television greatness shouldn’t be vested in the hands of the West LA’s power elite. And, I’m born and bred Brentwood Country Mart.

 

The beauty of where we are today is that power is distributed and disintermediated. Even artistic expression is now shifting to the audience. Truly great artists will recognize this fundamental change, and embrace it. Silently creating the structures that empower the expression and creativity of the user.