Digital Studies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lawrence King<\/p>\n
Sample\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 28, 2019<\/p>\n
Haunted Media Artist Statement<\/u><\/p>\n
For my project I decided to go the ghost centric route and focus on the eeriness of social media accounts of dead people, specifically famous artists. I also wanted to focus on para-social relationships and how their existence creates a reality where the subject of their affection can become a pseudo-immortal. Finally, I wanted to highlight how the living take advantage of the artist\u2019s death to make money and gain online gratification. I referenced Mark Fisher\u2019s book, \u201cThe Weird and the Eerie,\u201d to highlight how confusing and unsettling it is to see new content and an active social media account from an artist you know is dead. I referenced Bethan Bell\u2019s article on \u201cdeath photography\u201d during the Victorian era to show that the periodic release of content and the active social media accounts are like a more advanced form of death photography because they allow us to hold onto the person dear to us and immortalize them through their art and through multiple technologies. I also referenced John Beatty\u2019s scholarly paper on para-social relationships between fans and celebrities to highlight the investments fans make by following and supporting their favorite celebrities and the motives behind that investment.<\/p>\n
My project is a Facebook page dedicated to the late rapper XXXTentacion who had multiple projects released by his label and estate since his death. The page acts as a personal account for him and I, the admin, play the role of the estate and post content in his place. The point of this project is to discuss the notion that if an artist dies but their social media is still active and their fans are still receiving content through the mediums they\u2019ve used to connect with that artist, then to them at least, the artist never died. The artist is only really dead to the people who knew him personally.<\/p>\n
On my Facebook page, you\u2019ll see the contradictory nature of life and death in the digital age we live in. You\u2019ll see how the people running XXXTentacion\u2019s estate have created a kind of ambivalence towards his death. Finally, you\u2019ll see how the label he was signed under has turned his legacy into a profiting tool and transformed him from a man into a brand. You\u2019ll see all these things through the posts I\u2019ve made, the comments I pulled from real people on X\u2019s latest YouTube videos and small Easter Eggs I scattered on the page thanks to Facebook\u2019s group page tips.<\/p>\n
In his book, Mark Fisher defines eeriness as \u201ca failure of absence or by a failure of presence.\u201d According to him, \u201cthe sensation of the eerie occurs either when there is something present where there should be nothing or there is nothing present when there should be something.\u201d After someone dies, you\u2019d expect their digital avatars to die as well but they don\u2019t in most cases. They just remain active but usually have no new posts, like a digital purgatory. This is eerie because something that shouldn\u2019t be there is. With a normal person this eerie feeling is minimal and you chalk it up to just being weird but it doesn\u2019t really affect your life if you weren\u2019t close to this person or family.<\/p>\n
However, when a famous artist dies the eeriness is amplified because you\u2019re not only seeing active social media accounts but you\u2019re hearing new music and seeing new visual content. This is particularly true in XXXTentacion\u2019s case. When he died, I wasn\u2019t sure how to feel. I was a fan of his music and suddenly hearing that he was murdered at twenty years old left me in a state of shock and confusion that took me, and would take any normal person I imagine, some time to process. During this processing stage however, I looked at my phone and saw a notification telling me that XXXTentacion had released a new video on his YouTube account. I clicked on it and saw X rapping, laughing and smiling and even though there were many \u201cRIP\u201d comments below, I didn\u2019t feel like he was dead because he was right there in front of me, talking to me.<\/p>\n
The video ended and after a little while I entered the processing stage again and again when I was about to accept reality, I hear that X has released a new album. The cycle continued again and again. In that time, I was notified about album release parties, more music videos, another album, etc. I wasn\u2019t allowed to process my feelings over his death and didn\u2019t have to because nothing about our relationship had changed. I knew him through his music, social media and visual content. All of those things were still active and producing new content at a steady pace so X was very much alive for me. I could see this sentiment was shared by multiple people across X\u2019s fan base. Similar comments were made on his Instagram posts, YouTube videos and album reviews on streaming platforms. We all knew he was dead but it never felt like he was dead.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s technology has provided XXXTentacion and other deceased artists with platforms that allow them to transcend their physical self and become an immortalized digital being. Our para-social relationships with them have also made this possible. Our \u201cvirtual communities,\u201d as Beatty puts it, connect people from all across the world and creates a new reality where the artist can also exist through technology. X existed through his music, social media and music videos. We encouraged him and supported him to keep making music while he was alive for our own personal gratification but also to continue to create bonds with people on these platforms; a \u201cmeaningful communicative bond\u201d as Beatty puts it. Now that he\u2019s dead we still want new content to keep those communicative bonds strong.<\/p>\n
X\u2019s label is aware of our desire to receive new content from him so we can maintain the reality and bonds we created on these digital platforms, sustain his immortality and not have to truly deal with his death. They, like many labels before them, like Michael Jackson\u2019s, Mac Miller\u2019s, Tupac\u2019s, Biggie\u2019s, turned a dead man into a brand so they could capitalize off his death and gain profit and gratification for keeping his memory alive. I highlight this on the Facebook page I created by categorizing my page as a brand instead of a memorial page because the label doesn\u2019t want to portray him as a dead man but as a legend because legends never die. They steadily release his new music and throw listening and album release parties and keep his social media account alive so they could continue to maintain their streaming revenue and sell his merch. I made his merch website my page\u2019s website to further highlight that this page is really about making money not memorializing a dead artist.<\/p>\n
My goal for the project was to make a page that showcased the ambivalence X\u2019s estate has for his death. I believe I accomplished this goal by flooding the page with conflicting posts and images. Posts that made it seem like he was alive but had small clues that remind you that he\u2019s dead. I named the page XXXTentacion Lives but the username right below it reads \u201cin our hearts x minds.\u201d The profile picture shows X happy, smiling and full of life but the cover photo is the infamous photo of him lying dead in his car after the armed robbery. I also posted a video of X going live, where he talks about death. These were some of the obvious contradictions but I had multiple subtle ones too.<\/p>\n
Facebook gave me tips on how to make the page more popular. One of them was having a contact us section. I put in X\u2019s real phone number but when you call it, you\u2019ll get a message saying, \u201cthe number you have dialed is no longer available.\u201d In the description you\u2019ll see that the page was \u201cborn\u201d on June 18, 2018 which is the same day X died. I created events telling people to head out to the listening and album release parties. I also posted old photos from his Instagram including his final photo with the same caption to, on one hand, keep my page active, but on the other, to subtly remind people that this was his final Instagram post. Die hard fans of X would be able to catch these subtle hints.<\/p>\n
In addition to the subtle and obvious contradictions, I posted links to all of his new music and videos while completely ignoring his death in the captions. I complicated the post by adding ambiguous comments from real people that don\u2019t explicitly say he\u2019s dead but imply that he\u2019s no longer with us. They said things like \u201clegends never die\u201d and that \u201cit feels like he\u2019s alive.\u201d When I saw comments like this, I knew the label was succeeding in its mission to make people feel X\u2019s presence despite having the knowledge of his death.<\/p>\n
While the label uses his legacy for profit, I\u2019d found that regular people, usually trolls, use his legacy for likes. They would use his name in comments like this: \u201cHit the like button if you miss X.\u201d They were guilting people into liking them essentially. I saw many comments like these in the comments on YouTube and Instagram and it proves that it\u2019s not just the music industry that\u2019s taking advantage of death and grief but normal people are doing it too for online gratification and to rile people up and start online comment battles.<\/p>\n
The digital age we live in today has allowed us to preserve people who\u2019ve passed away in new ways. Like the Victorian\u2019s did with photographs, we use social media, video-sharing services like YouTube and streaming services to hold onto the people we care about. With an artist, that you\u2019ve only ever interacted with through these mediums, this practice allows you to delude yourself into believing that that person is still alive. Death and this preservation practice create a conflict that leaves you with an eerie feeling that you can choose to acknowledge or ignore.<\/p>\n
These para-social relationships however leave room for exploitation by third-parties who live outside of the reality created by these individuals and online communities. People and entities like labels, family members, non-fans and trolls to name a few. These entities and people exploit the legacy of the artist for monetary gain and online gratification by steadily releasing their music along with merch on the artist\u2019s platforms and by commenting things that guilt you into liking them. I wouldn\u2019t consider it exploitation if they just leaked all of his music and videos at one time and gave the proceeds to charities or something.<\/p>\n
My page\u2019s goal was to act as a microcosm for other deceased artists\u2019 pages that sheds light on the eeriness of this preservation practice, the exploitation of the artist, the transformation of man into brand after death and the pseudo immortality that is gained by the artist in question. While exploring my page to the utmost you will be able to see the obvious and subtle contradictions between life and death on these platforms, the ambivalence it creates and how real people react to it. The funny\/sad thing about all of this is that even if you know the artist is being exploited after his\/her death, you still contribute to the exploitation by buying and listening to their music and streaming their videos. We\u2019re funding the machine but at the end of the day it doesn\u2019t matter to us because like other people who struggle with grief, we don\u2019t want to let go of someone who was important to us and we\u2019ll do anything to keep up the illusion that that person is still with us to avoid dealing with the truth; even if we\u2019re only connected through headphones or a computer\/TV screen.<\/p>\n
Bibliography<\/u><\/p>\n
Fisher, Mark. The Weird and the Eerie<\/em>. Repeater, 2017.<\/p>\n Bell, Bethan. Taken from life: The unsettling art of death photography. BBC News, 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n Beatty, John. Motives and para-social interactions of fan celebrity web site creators.<\/em> Paper presented at the meeting of the International Communication Association, 2006.<\/p>\n Link to the page: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pg\/inourheartsxminds\/posts\/?ref=page_internal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Digital Studies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lawrence King Sample\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 28, 2019 Haunted Media Artist Statement For my project I decided to go the ghost centric route and focus on the eeriness of social media accounts of dead people, specifically famous artists. I also wanted to focus on para-social relationships and how their existence creates a reality where the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-haunted-media"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paB9Ga-gA","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1031,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028\/revisions\/1031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/death19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}