Image via The New York Times

Banksy, the famously mysterious British artist (who has yet to publicly put a face to his work) has been whipping up some fantastical creations in New York City as of late.

Billed as his first official exhibition in New York, a storefront with signage reading “The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill” has popped up in Greenwich Village. Now, here’s where it gets really weird: passersby stop dead in their tracks when they notice actual bales of hay lining the city sidewalk and see a mechanical leopard swinging his tail in the shop window.

Upon entering, there are sausages and hotdogs moving along in sand-filled tanks, fishsticks swimming through water-filled aquariums and chicken nuggets singing nearby.

Not to be outdone by these oddities, a massive rabbit wearing a pearl necklace (above) is filing her nails and a frighteningly lifelike monkey is wearing headphones and watching its fellow primates on a television.

What does all of this mean? “I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming,” relayed Banksy. This ‘exhibit’ should definitely get you thinking…and if not, it’s worth the stop for the mind-altering trip alone.

In a recent post entitled ‘The Biggest Irony on the Internet,’ Ethan Bauley attempts to draw a line between Social Media on one side and Mass, or Traditional Media on the other. His argument is simply put; if there is a true arena that we insist on calling Social Media then clearly there is its opposite - Mass Media, Traditional Media etc, or Old School Media as I like to call it.

I liked the idea of defining the parameters but not the Google-bait moniker he had come up with to describe it - Industrial Media. [Industrial Media makes me think of heavy industries such as ship building or ordinance factories although it is true that mechanical devices are required to deliver most of old media...] I left a lengthy comment on his post. Here’s an extract - the animal references are a result of another fine post that Ethan referred to on a similar subject entitled ‘Dogs and Birds Can Make Social Media, You Can Too‘ by Bryan Landers.

…..so, when we consider Twitter or FaceBook as “social media” we miss the point. They are just tools that users think have a ’soul’ but there is no there, there, to coin a phrase. We are not connected at all - no dog pee, no ant colony eusocial structure, no bee hives - just blather, photos and updates at the base level.

Social Media vs Industrial Media seems a weak argument to me and just serves to muddy the waters more. Drop the term Social Media altogether and then we can just go back to broadcast, traditional or mass media on the industry side - it’s worked for long enough why change it now? As for what we are all up to online on social sites I would say that arguably we are not connecting the dots - we are sending technological semaphore signals that are being misunderstood, misread or mangled in an attempt to find the results we are expecting. Unfortunately those results will always leave us wanting. Throw a party, go to a concert, commune with your inner animal to remind yourself what socializing really means….or just follow a dog around its neighborhood and see how many times it stops to pee.

Here’s Ethan’s reply - “Ultimately, trying to define “social media” or “industrial media” isn’t really the game I hope to play, and I should be more transparent about that. In fact I think that pursuing a definition as an outcome of this discussion is tantamount to trying to “decide” whether or not In A Silent Way is “jazz.”

My goal instead is to share a little insight about what I’ve learned from books like TWoN, get some feedback on my thoughts, and help others and myself make better business decisions through an understanding of information economics (production, distribution, and consumption). Reading and thinking about comments like yours, I’m feeling pretty good about that goal.

In general, I find it a lot easier and more fun to design businesses and marketing plans while pursuing a systematic study of the economic differences between dog pee, Usenet, cable TV, et al. To that end, you might love Brian Haven’s piece from last week, All Media Is Social, which is kind of the happy medium between Benkler and your comment.”

Ethan is right, I do like Brian Haven’s post ‘All Media Is Social.’ He at least considers Nature.

When we wrongly consider technology as a ‘new’ medium that simply and efficiently transformed culture, business and society, we forget our own human ancestry. We leave out Nature. In our hearts we want to belong, to share; we fear dying alone and as we age we become thanatophobic - we fear dying. Individuality is an illusion. [By that I don't mean an individual's style, taste, fashion etc, things that set us apart aesthetically from others, I mean we are forever bound to being social animals.]

Here’s an extract from an essay of mine called ‘On Social Media, Blogs and Advertising:

“most people that take a position on social networking and advertising come at it from a technological point of view, as in “technology has created the means for everyone to be connected and to stay in touch.” I disagree with that statement because it removes nature from the game. It is entirely natural for humans to want to interact as often as possible as we are all social animals. Cities are no more artificial (technological) than the hives of bees. Therefore the Internet is as natural as a spider’s web. People who believe that technology is driving our interactions are missing the point - we ourselves are technological devices, invented by ancient bacterial communities as a means of genetic survival.”

As for marketers who wish to advertise on social networking sites, they must first consider our everyday lives before they consider our online ‘personas,’ - the ones we all make up as we fill out our profiles on social network sites. We are far more complicated than those shadowy online personalities suggest. Marketers wishing to reach the millions of people in social network sites face the same conundrum that pollsters face during a general election - if a Republican candidate for office were to ask a registered Republican which way she will vote he will get the answer she thinks he wants to hear - “for you of course.” But behind the secrecy of the ballot box curtains she will vote the way her heart tells her. In my online profile I may lie about my age, my sex and my race, my income level, my home town, my likes and my dislikes and more.

But, am I really lying? Maybe I am just reinventing myself for the digital age - giving people the information they think they want which can easily be shared with other people who also think they want it. Good luck marketing to me.

Image: The New York Times

In this faltering economy, if you still manage to have an extra $30,000 dollars to blow, there’s a room waiting for you. On the top floor (52nd, to be exact) of the Four Seasons Hotel in midtown New York City, you can live in the lap of luxury with access to a private butler, grand piano, health spa, a remote controlled bidet, a thermostat-adjusted floor, lasers in the bathtub that turn the water different colors and even a toilet that heats your prosterior and flushes with a remote control.

Clearly, this is the hotel room of choice for wayward CEOs with a Centurion Card in hand.

Individual innovation and creativity in our society are the cornerstones of our economy. They create wealth and improve the nation’s welfare. Through innovations, the 20th century became the American Century. Will the 21st century be so as well or will it become the Global Century? How, if at all, would your administration foster innovation in the following areas: the provision of health care for our citizens; an immigration policy that attracts and retains the best; educational policies that increase the value of our human capital, our most important resource; helping people accumulate enough retirement savings; international trade and manufacturing; the evolution of information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and neuroscience; the allocation of water, food and energy and the development of alternative energy sources; and, to some, the most important, the environment?

— MYRON S. SCHOLES, who shared the Nobel prize in economics in 1997

More questions here.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview in the movie ‘There Will Be Blood.’

Much is being made in the current election cycle of which presidential candidate will bring about change. The Vice Presidential Debate twisted and turned on which party’s presidential candidate was more of an agent of change than the others. ‘Maverick’ was a word that I heard a lot during the VP debate and it only came from the lips of Governor Sarah Palin when describing herself, Senator John McCain and their team. It suggests McCain and Palin will act with single-handed impulsiveness more than checking their guts. The Obama camp meanwhile sticks to its message of change and hope, something that sounds more inclusive.

It had me thinking that maverick is a word for describing an agent of change; after all it’s not a word we use often in common currency. But no, a maverick is defined as someone who is not inclined to conform to accepted rules or standards. It has its western connotation too - an unbranded range animal, especially a motherless calf.

De Niro as Travis Bickle

Stepping outside of politics and into the world of movies, maverick brought to mind three brilliant actors in perfect screen roles. Robert De Niro in ‘Taxi Driver,’ Paul Newman in ‘Cool Hand Luke‘ and Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood.’ Not that maverick is a word that describes the actors although arguably it could. The men they play in each of their roles are most definitely mavericks and notably the characters in these movies are all loners, they manage very well without help from others; there is no team spirit here.

As I looked up these movies online I came across a review of Cool Hand Luke that was prefaced with this paragraph:

“For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.”- Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

It seems to sum up Luke in the movie quite well - the authorities attempt to control Luke’s every movement and unsurprisingly Luke fights back regardless of the consequences that befall him. The review goes on - “Luke is sent to prison, and what follows is one of the greatest existential movies of all time. His conversations with God, the nature of his offense, his isolation and alienation, his experiences and a pair of profound scenes, both involving his mother, elevate “Cool Hand Luke” above most prison-break movies.” A portrayal of a true Maverick.

Meanwhile in ‘Taxi Driver,’ De Niro’s Travis Bickle, tortured by what he sees as a night shift cab driver, becomes a one man nihilistic machine dedicated to cleaning up the streets of New York, as he says “Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.” In ‘There Will Be Blood‘ Day-Lewis’s character, Daniel Plainview “is a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail.” Real Mavericks.

In Hollywood this maverick stuff makes for gripping plot lines and thrilling movies but it should stay right there on the movie lot. A Maverick or two in the White House is a whole different storyline and that script should be relegated to B movie status.

Business Week has posted a slide show offering up its list of the 25 Most Influential People on The Web and it’s a pretty good list too. Of course, any list that includes Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, which has become the place where many claim to be getting their best coverage of the elections, would get my vote….