#107 - Too Much Data Not Enough Art

The thing about humanity is that it’s hard to quantify and contain.

But data about our behavior seems to promise the exact opposite.

And we’ve all been reduced to data points as our privacy continues to be eroded for the sake of fine-tuning the advertisements placed in front of our eyeballs.

I think there used to be a bit more nuance behind the decision-making. And sure, a lot of it came down to “well it’s what the boss wants” but overall there seems to have been more room for creative liberty to be taken between the advertisements.

Whether that was what types of TV shows were playing between commercials, what articles made it into the newspaper, or what movies were shown on the big screen, there was some artistic merit to what got pushed forth. Or, at the very least, the dude running the studio occasionally greenlit whacky ideas just to test the market response.

They didn’t have data down to the second to literally see when we stopped watching something. When we stopped scrolling. What we clicked on first. Where we hovered our cursors while reading the page.

It’s all there now, and so the media companies are catering to our worst instincts because it’s not about delivering the news, it’s about getting eyeballs trained on the screen long enough that they can morph into an Amazon affiliate storefront right before our very eyes.

Smash cut to: Bustle opening its arms and cradling Buzzfeed directly into it’s Viral List Marketing Campaign Guerilla SEO bosom.

Why write things that could maybe hit when you can write based on what the algorithm is telling you people want to read/watch/listen to the most?

Why trust your gut, why choose to allow journalists time and resources to report stories that the public may not even be aware they want to hear?

The thing is, the options have been so narrowed that there is no data collection on subversion. There are no proof-driven points to fight back with.

Even when we cling to new stories, to well-told narratives about people outside the narrow scope of who Gets Stories Told About Them, it’s not enough. It’s a fluke, a cult hit, something that doesn’t stand to make anyone important any actual money.

An overreliance on data will continue to shrink the sources we gather data from.

Sure, superhero movies have topped the highest-grossing list for like the last decade, but uh, what else was there? What other forms of film have we allowed to languish because the major studios have all consolidated and now the more daring production houses are formally under Disney and Disney doesn’t do anything but super-squeaky-clean-family-friendly-fare? Most of which they don’t even seem to be running actual marketing campaigns for beyond dropping the movies on Disney+ and calling it a day because god forbid their marketing and PR departments do anything besides spin the fact that none of the actors in these Major Motion Pictures have access to the entire script or even know what scene they’re filming lest they “spoil” the plot of which superhero defeats what villain in what CGI’d way.

If a spoiler ruins the plot, it wasn’t a very strong plot to begin with.

Sure, yes, twists are literary devices too.

But I’ve said it once and I’ll say it so. many. more. times.: knowing the ending of Romeo & Juliet does nothing to diminish your feelings while watching the story play out. Great writing and great performance go beyond the idea of plot contrivances. There are only like three plot structures in the entire world and the act of subverting expectations does not automatically make great art!!!!

Sincerity, however, does!

When they changed the end of Westworld because fans had correctly deduced the foreshadowing I knew we were toast. Audiences can’t be “too smart” now. Execs seem to be laboring under the illusion that the audience is only there for the trick, to see if we can stand the tugging of the rug out from under us.

Nothing they had set out in the first part of the Westworld season made sense when they changed the season finale. A show that had nothing but good press lost all steam by season 2, and devolved due to the creator being hellbent on the mystery and surprise.

It’s not an isolated incident.

Spoilers are easy. Shock value. They create an immediate reaction within the audience.

Authentic connection with material is hard. It requires skill. Deft hands and carefully considered moments of genuine emotionality.

In its absence, everything becomes flat and self-referential.

Easy to ingest, easy to sell, and easy to form one stance and opinion about so you can go argue loudly about it online.

Slick productions that are Too Cool To Care pumping out bland & blander. And while I know that the world of Indie Films & Journalism is alive and well, it’s not able to keep up at scale.

“[If] I see a character raising his fucking eyebrow, or crossing his arms, having a sassy pose — oh, I hate that shit. [Why] does everything act as if they’re in a sitcom? I think it is emotional pornography. All the families are happy and sassy and quick, everyone has a one-liner. Well, my dad was boring. I was boring. Everybody in my family was boring. We had no one-liners. We’re all fucked up. That’s what I want to see animated. I would love to see real life in animation. I actually think it’s urgent. think it’s urgent to see real life in animation.”

- Guillermo Del Toro

It’s like media can’t help but wink at the audience these days. There’s nowhere to go for “serious news”. I’m so struck by the idea that I don’t know where to get reliable not-influenced-by-corporate-interests news on Covid. Not in the anti-vax way but in the “are you just saying this because your biggest donors are in corporate real estate” way.

But, I get it, we can’t bear to pause and hang out with our emotions because if we do it all might come crumbling down. We might go on General Strike if we all realize just how fast the wheel is spinning and how unable we are to cease the mania and look around and come to terms with how bad it’s gotten. How few leaders we have. How they’re actively trying to diminish our hope for a future that isn’t lorded over by oil barons.

Don’t take this too seriously, we know what we’re doing here is silly. No, we’re not so self-important. Sure we have tens of millions of dollars at our disposal but we’re going to be pithy in our responses and say that themes are for “eighth grade book reports” before we bounce our way off of the stage on pogo sticks that are emblazoned with an in-fandom reference so that everyone who gets the joke can feel like they’re part of something (and, obviously, buy the pogo stick at the merch booth stationed just outside the doors).

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Honestly, it just feels like everything being produced is drenched in shame and cut corners and acquiesced fragments of artists’ and writers’ souls. The good shit gets canceled and scrubbed as if it never existed in order to create a write-off for the boardroom that contributed absolutely nothing to the overall process but now gets to banish media to non-existence so they can pad their bank account with another zero. And for what?? How many houses/cars/luxury yachts do they NEED?

The more we heard about the conditions that caused the ongoing WGA strike, the more the tanking of the quality across media makes sense. No one is on set doing script supervision, because the studios now have all these pivot tables to point to demonstrating that most people don’t care, audiences will keep watching, and hey it even ups the engagement to get people talking online about plot holes so why avoid them at all!

But maybe we’d pay more attention, maybe we’d have new favorite shows that stayed at #1 on the top 5 of all time for longer than a week.

Maybe there’d be less made but maybe it would matter more.

(And fans are now trained to be completionists, so everything that comes out must be consumed (and loved) in order for people’s categorization of themselves as stans to continue. So they get angry when they don’t like something and they feel personally betrayed by the fact that they have to take up this mantle (that, again, they have been self-appointed to carry). And so the numbers go up regardless of quality.)

The truth is, I think streaming doesn’t make any sense. Cable I can understand the business model of, I remember the conversations when TiVo popped up and we were suddenly able to fast-forward through ads! There was a huge panic about the future of TV because it would cease to be profitable without the commercials. Because commercials were what filled up empty content slots because we weren’t yet at a 24-hour marathon on every single channel. If you were up and watching Comedy Central at 2am you were probably watching infomercials for the Magic Bullet with Girls Gone Wild previews intercut.

At the end of Romeo & Juliet, the audience is enraptured. Collectively holding their breath hoping that maybe, just this once, Juliet will wake up before he drinks the poison.

Because it’s just so human to hope, even—and maybe especially—against all rational beliefs and what we know to be true.

We want to believe in the power of love, and we’re devastated when it isn’t enough. Even when we knew, from the opening monologue, it wouldn’t be.

So. Where does that data point fit in on the chart?