Poppy A Case Study on Art in the Online Space Name: Zoë Gielen Student number: u1277689 ANR: 720016 Master: Art, Media and Society Date: 24/10/’17 Supervisor: dr. P.A. Bax Second reader: dr. I.G.M. van de Ven Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation to Sander Bax for his endless patience, support and honest feedback during the process of writing my master thesis. I would also like to thank him for being a great ‘dad’ to all us Art, Media & Society kids, throughout the premaster and the master. I would like to express my appreciation to all the Art, Media & Society lecturers for the refreshing new perspectives and passionate discussions. I would like to thank my parents for always believing in me, supporting me and giving me the opportunity to do what I love. I would like to thank my sister, my partner and my friends for always telling me everything is going to be alright and for convincing me to pursue my Master’s degree. Abstract This thesis examines the artistic and discursive strategies that young artists can use to contribute to the public debate in the context of capitalist and neoliberal society, by means of their media presence and artistic work. Starting from a theoretical framework, the work of two young artists in the online space is analysed. 2 Table of contents Introduction 4 1. Theoretical framework 7 1.1. Media & neoliberalism 7 1.1.1. Television 8 1.1.2. New media 10 1.2. Public intellectual & celebrity 12 1.2.1. The public intellectual 12 1.2.2. The celebrity 13 1.3. Art & post-art 13 1.4. Conclusion 14 2. Case study 17 2.1. Operationalisation & methodology 17 2.1.1. Operationalisation 17 2.1.2. Methodology 18 2.2. Public behaviour 19 2.2.1. The ‘Poppy’ and ‘Titanic Sinclair’ personas 19 2.2.2. Poppy’s interviews 27 2.2.3. Titanic Sinclair’s interview 34 2.2.4. Discursive strategies 37 2.3. Artistic work 39 2.3.1. Lowlife music video 39 2.3.2. My Past video 49 3. Conclusion 52 3.1. Discursive strategies 52 3.2. Artistic strategies 53 3.3. Societal context 54 4. Discussion & recommendations 55 Images 56 Literature 57 3 Introduction Near the end of 2016, I was mindlessly browsing YouTube when I stumbled upon a music video for a song called Lowlife, by an artist called ‘That Poppy’. The song and the accompanying video were, appropriately so, rather poppy and featured a girl with long blonde hair, big doe eyes and childlike, angelic features. At the same time, the video had somewhat of an eerie feel to it. In the ‘recommended section’ next to the music video, I saw a number of other videos that featured the same girl. They were posted to a YouTube channel by the name of ‘Poppy’ with a ticked ‘verified’ box. When I clicked on the channel, I found that over a hundred videos had been uploaded to it. All of the videos featured the same blonde girl: Poppy. They were all set in the same, seemingly empty, white space and featuring Poppy staring into the camera and talking in an innocent voice or doing some kind of activity (Poppy, 2011). I started watching the videos and before I knew it I had fallen into the internet rabbit hole surrounding Poppy. Image 1: Still from video ‘I Am Not In A Cult’ (Poppy, 2017). The videos on the Poppy channel are minimalistic, pastel coloured and rather absurd. The outfits she wears are always quirky and dainty. Despite her sweet, innocent voice and appearance, there seems to be something off in the videos. The background noises and soundscapes in the videos are strange and unsettling. The way Poppy speaks seems almost dictated or cyborg-like and strange things often seem to happen. Most of the videos have a duration between fifteen seconds and three minutes. However, there is also a fifty-minute video of Poppy reading from the bible, without any cuts or breaks. Often the videos contain estranging elements or objects, like disturbed screens or sounds, Poppy interviewing a plant, Poppy being interviewed by a mannequin, Poppy starting to bleed from her mouth and a ten-minute video of Poppy staring into the camera and repeatedly stating ‘I’m Poppy’ while the camera switches angles. There seems to be a theme to the videos as well. In many of them Poppy talks about fame, likes, clicks, the internet, YouTube and computers. The way she talks about them, almost makes her seem alien. For example, when she tells you things like ‘I like making videos on the website YouTube dot com on the internet’ (“Poppy”, 2011). 4 At this point, I was very intrigued and eager to find out more about this mysterious Poppy girl. When I clicked the description box beneath one of her videos, I found out that it was directed by a person going by the name ‘Titanic Sinclair’. I soon found out that all her videos were directed by this same person. When I googled this name, I found a website for Titanic Sinclair, which told me that he is a director/writer living in Los Angeles. The website had some pictures of Titanic Sinclair, links to his Instagram and Twitter profiles and some videos of his work. He directed some music videos for other artists and he is a musician himself as well. I also found a YouTube channel for Titanic Sinclair, that featured videos very similar to the videos on the Poppy channel. They seem to be recorded in the same space, they are edited and styled in the same way and they feature Titanic Sinclair talking to the camera about similar themes (Sinclair, n.d.). I also found a website for Poppy. The website has a pastel and playful layout. It features some pictures of Poppy, tour dates, a computer screen that displays messages like ‘Hi, I’m Poppy’ and ‘I wonder what it feels like to reboot’. There is also a web store with Poppy merchandise (“That Poppy”, n.d.). Image 2: Still from video ‘I Am Not A Cult Leader’ (Titanic Sinclair, 2017). Upon doing some more research, I found that it was very hard to find more information about the people ‘behind’ the Titanic Sinclair and Poppy personas. There was little to none personal information about their private lives and what they did before ‘Titanic Sinclair’ and ‘Poppy’. I did find that many people were digging for information on the two of them. I found a significant number of YouTube videos, sub-Reddits, and Facebook groups that were trying to unravel the mystery around Poppy, Titanic Sinclair and their supposed message. A recent article and interview in online magazine WIRED said the following about it: If you Google more about Poppy or watch one of the Poppy explainer videos made by other YouTubers, you’ll find out that Poppy refuses to tell reporters her age. She claims to be from Nashville, but she gives little other biographical information. A cursory search will tell you that no one has been able to figure out who she is. […] The satanic and Illuminati 5 symbolism in her work leads some to say she’s a cult leader. […] Whatever the case, she is an enigma, and she has cultivated a fan base that spends hours poring over her videos trying to glean clues about her identity and the deeper meaning of her oeuvre (Pandell,2017). The mystery and eeriness surrounding this project seems to captivate more and more people. The first video on the Poppy channel dates to 2015. At the end of 2016, when I found the channel, it seemed to be fairly popular in a relatively small circle of YouTube fanatics. In the following months Poppy’s popularity started to expand rapidly. More and more mainstream news outlets started to pick up on this strange internet girl, people started to talk about her videos and their possible deeper meaning on other platforms, she released some new music, was featured on comic con and some of the biggest YouTube channels like PewDiePie and The Fine Brothers featured her in their videos. In February of 2017 Comedy Central gave Poppy her own show on their Snapchat channel, introducing her to a broader mainstream audience. Both Poppy and Titanic Sinclair are active on Twitter and Instagram, where they interact with their followers, but also comment on current affairs. During the Art, Media and Society premaster and master track I have developed an interest in art in the online space and online and popular culture in general. I believe the ‘online space’ has become a very important part of the public debate. I am very interested in how young artists present themselves in this online public space and how they can use their artistic work to comment on contemporary society and affairs. However, a critical perspective from the arts, within the online space, does present us with a few dilemma’s: ➢ First, when artists critique the online space, while being part of it, a paradox arises. Artists need a platform to reach their audience. Is it possible to criticize the same system that provides you with your audience, or can the system only be undermined when you are part of that same system? How can artists stay authentic when they are subjected to the same system that they are criticizing? ➢ In accordance, a second dilemma presents itself when said artist becomes more and more popular. What happens to the authenticity and the autonomy of critical art when it becomes so popular that slowly becomes more commercialized.