Autobotography Response
1.I think there are two reasons, the first is that video recording technology has become cheap and available, therefore more accessible. The second is that the internet gives the average person an audience and better yet, an audience that responds.
2.Autobotographies give us a look at who we are, but more importantly, what the medium is, thereby “waking” us up in a sense.
3. In the Jennicam case, there is a most definite risk of being exposed (literally sometimes) to the wrong sorts of people. On the inverse with Stephen Mann, it’s fun being to one to monitor someone for once, instead of vice versa.
4. The Blogging a Birth is an interesting piece to look at from a writing standpoint. When the father of the baby writes, “We are having contractions”, this can mean many things; it could merely be a figure of speech, him just saying his wife is having contractions or perhaps he’s just trying to imply that he’s there with her. In any event, the communication can be considered muddled. Ubiquitous Diary is also an interesting case because you can tell if he’s living an interesting life so the writing is interesting or vice versa. There are many people who live exciting lives just so they can write about them and sell books, but he goes very in depth with it, documenting his life in so many different ways. If he lives his life to make his writing interesting, then I believe there’s an upside to that; it’s encouraging him to try and and diverse things, to live a more fulfilling life. More power to him in my opinion.
5. In modern living, the flash portrait offers us very odd and surreal imagery, but in the surrealism there are definite questions being raised, such as advertising for example when the man ignores the advertisements, the advertisements then attack him because they were ignored.
6. All of these artists seek self-expression, but these means of self-expression have gone beyond and become alive in the own way. The autobotographies do their own thing, but they are at the same time very relatable for people, meaning that behind the machine, there’s some human in there.
7. Due to the rise in people wanting to put themselves out there, to be known by many, my people have become a commodity that others wish to partake of. Projects in which a person’s body, race, and belongings are sold, are looking at this fact and trying to show how ridiculous it really is.