Great News For All You “EDtv” Fans
In the future, everyone will be famous 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Fucking kill us.
If that's the future, Justin Kan is its questionable prophet. The recent Yale graduate, unchastened by the bust of his latest venture, Kiko.com, has come rarin' back with a DIY online reality show, Justin.tv. Theoretically, the idea is this: Kan straps a camera to his head, does cool stuff with his ragtag crew, you watch, he makes money. The idea is still fresh, despite earlier forays like the long-running JenniCam and the less successful DotComGuy, and the technology is ripe. They already sell t-shirts. There's even a futures market on how long the show will run. Whether Justin is going for cash, attention, or geek cred, we're guessing all three are within reach.
Of course, that has no bearing on whether the show is fun to watch. The main problem: it redefines meta -- a word that is increasingly becoming a synonym for "insufferable." A lot of the time, all Justin and his friends talk about is the show itself. Their first night was spent posting promotional stickers around San Fran. For Christ's sake, you watch Justin fielding phone calls from viewers who are simultaneously writing in the comments field. Watching it feels like the infinity effect you get when you train a live camera on its own TV.
Sure, it's fun to think about if you're Jean Baudrillard. Media, space, simulacra, identity -- think of the seminars! If Justin.tv isn't "hyperreality," what is? (And btw, we sincerely hope this means Prof. Charles Nesson gets his own TV show.) But after five minutes of actual viewing, you find yourself begging for mercy, care of Final Cut Pro's splice tool, or a gunshot to your monitor.
In his introductory interview, Justin talks about where he sees Justin.tv going: "Hundreds of employees, thousands of cameras, tens of thousands of shows, all run from our two-bedroom apartment in North Beach." God help us.
(h/t CrankCast)
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March 21st, 2007 at 2:19 pm
This is a terrible idea. A horrible, horrible idea.
March 21st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
“terrible idea…horrible idea” might be understating a bit. I would honestly prefer a feed from arush hour traffic cam. At least it doesn’t have an annoying voice and cuts to text every 3 seconds.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:10 pm
You guys are so obviously Columbia grads…I love the paragraph on Baudrillard!
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 am
No one from San Francisco calls it “San Fran.” Oy.
Well at least you didn’t say “Frisco,” hah.
March 22nd, 2007 at 2:57 am
I have a copy of Baudrillard in my backpack right now. God, I love Columbia.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:02 am
Is Columbia the de facto home of shoddy theory and questionable scholarship now? What’s with all the Baudrillard love? You guys know he’s, like, a hack, right?