The recent trend on social media of Wes Anderson-like videos where many places are put through a template inspired in the famous movie director. Regardless of the accuracy of the trend, which cause outrage in purusts and conisseurs, is interesting how the most disparaged placed take a new air when beauticized, aestheticised in the colourful palette of the template and the music of the movie. It allows thousands of users to recreate their place of existnece in a poetic manner. And that is no small feat. Because story telling is important. Marketers know this as a fact, but I guess in a rather utilitatiran way rather than a belief, for msot of them is a tool, as it should be, since they should change and reditrect ths tool everytime to different purposes and points of view.
However , what I mean is something slightly different, or maybe not, and I noticed it in a just casual conversation with a friend who was complaining that he had been suspended at work and was sulfuruous and offended because the cause of the penalty was a lapse in punctuality, yet he was really one of the backbone workers of the company.
As I heard him complaining once and again I could see he was really upset. As my friend is a fond of playing football/socer every now and then I happen to recall a story that happen to circulate not that long ago in the news, namely that Lionel Messi, the proclaimed Goat of football was suspended by the Fifa for accusing them of fixing matches (or something like that I am not really sure) I mentioned this to my friend, saying jokingly that these things could happen even to the most renowned individuals, and he stopped, stayed silent and said yes that is true, now when they asked me that is what I am gonna said, with a more uplifting tone; he just happened to find the narrative that suited best for the situation he was in and that could help him to manage the sour moment.
Some people disregard this framing as "placebos", a self blinding exercise, that has no correspondence with the reality whatsoever. And yet, if seen under that lens, what could be demeed as of true value or esence? As we know, data , information, reality, have no sense by themselves and as such, narrative is more than a self decepting tool, is an existential tool, a tool that allows us to live in this world, a scaffolding for understanding and interaction with the world. From poets to physicist, everyone develops an ideaof the places things occupy in the world and the relations among them, from ptolemaic to copernican system and from poetry to painting.
The Wes Anderson trend led its colourful spirit to the most diverse realities and allow their creators to reimagine their reality. Yes, it could be done in other more meaningful ways, but lets not be dismissive of these kind of phenomena, regardles of what critics say of screen framing, photography lighting or travelling zooms. Poetry emerges itself from the most unexpected places and not always from happy-go-lucky places. But poetry could take different shapes and moods as another trend let us know. The template is as follows: a young woman places her phone like taking a photo of herself with a timer and wals aways just to bump into a stranger and suddendly envision the future, of course, full of fantastical moments among the two. This template had led to romantic, glamorous, funny and splapstick versions of such a future, like the one by sabrine_khalifamansour-among others-, where the young woman starts posing only to be robbed of her purse by a motorcyclist and her mobille taken by a bypasser. Far much anecdotes like this could happen, like in the Arab world or in Latin America, nad I mean to be recognised as part of the life as a commentary of their daily life. .So here as always the users malleate the template to express themselves in ways that differ from the initial original, these are the real prompts that bring different results
Going back to the idea of placebo, a narrative, hypothesis, model, etc build itself when it accomodates to reality and empirical experience, somehow. A disguise,a decoy, a simulation also has its value detrmined by such criteria. But to make a disguise, a simulation, a lie, the knowledge and precision ust be artful and knowledgeable, as art falsifiers know. THis idea of knowledge inthe service of a recreation, of a creation, is somehow behind every art manifestation, as art will speak to our perception. That is why there is a link between art and deception and between tehm and the artiluge of a narrative made to understand the world. Give me a fulcrum and a long enough lever and I shall move the world” said Archmedes. IN the ludicruous space between art, lie, storytelling merge is where the trends of social media appear every now and then.
the importance of storytelling
the importance of our own storytelling
the importance of lie
the importance of art
art and lie