David Choe is Rich!!! Posted on February 10, 2012

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past week, you’ve probably heard of the amazing story of artist David Choe, who in 2005 painted the start-up offices of Facebook and opted for stock as payment (stock which is now estimated to worth $200 million). Now as a result of this decision (and not his art), he has been the object of desire for every news organization under the sun from ABC to Al-Jazeera.
Now whether you area fan of Choe’s work, or not, is not the issue here. The issue we are wrestling with is that it seems that the artist’s ability to make money is as significant (if not more significant) as their ability to make art, to our perception of them (and is that anything new?). This very Warholian notion has us trying to dissect this whole art-and-commerce thing in a way that makes sense to us.
Here is the question; does the monetary value attached to an artist make them more interesting? Does the monetary value of the work directly correlate to the impact that artist has on the world around them (Damien Hirst debate anyone?)? Why are we fascinated with an artist (an extremely talented artist to boot) that has made $200 million on Facebook stock anyways? Does this decision to take stock in 2005 make his art in 2012 any better (it has sure made it more valuable)? Is the artist’s persona their greatest work of art? All questions we are far from having the answers to, but serve as food for thought regardless…
Watch David Choe’s mostly uninformative interview with Barbara Walters here.
Or listen to his hilariously lewd interview with Howard Stern here.

Shut Up and Play The Hits Posted on January 13, 2012

There are few things we love more than a well done concert flick, and their are few that respect their craft more than James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem. On April 2, 2011 LCD Soundsystem played their final show ever at Madison Square Garden. What resulted was a 4 hour spectacle that the New York Times called a “marvel of pure craft.” Shut Up and Play The Hits has documented this event and Murphy’s thoughts in the run up to the historic night in the tradition of great concert docs like U2′s Rattle and Hum and The Band’s The Last Waltz. Premiering at Sundance, we are excited to say the least.

Who’s your Voice? Posted on January 5, 2012

It’s a well known fact that a brand is shaped by what people say about it online. It started with online search – people trust results in Google far more than they trust a brand’s mainstream advertisements or corporate website. And that trust has transcended into social media, as search integrates social results, and users become habituated to monitoring and responding to the social activity stream they follow on services like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Yelp to name a few.

These streams are powerful influencers.  A Social Network study asked users to list their most credible source of information for a brand. The results are revealing number one are online peers,  a close second was “the Brand itself.” A distant third was “Journalist” and even further back was the “Marketer.”

In the context of social media, consumers understand that brands can have voices and they give brands permission to be part of their online interactions.  So the question then becomes:  Does your Brand have a voice? It’s hard to join the conversation without one.  Answering that question is one of the 12 trends from Cannes 2011 “The Brand must become the Publisher.”  Publishing now means connecting a community through the art and science of communication.

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