People who follow my Instagram (@sieurjana) know I often post videos of myself playing the piano. The videos are usually 30 seconds or less, just snippets of my practicing sessions.
It has always been highly difficult for me to perform live. I think it is ironic that putting myself on display for others feels “safer” online, a place where we are very accessible yet deceptively shielded from the reality that there is always an audience. Modern-day technology, like the news and social media, has realized an perpetual interconnectedness among the human race. This fact is relevant when considering McLuhan’s perspective on technology and the way electric circuits “[confer] a mythic dimension on our ordinary individual and group actions” (62). By “mythic” McLuhan refers to “the mode of simultaneous awareness of a complex group of causes and effects” (62).
In the sense of my short film, I reckon with the way content posted online is just as performative as a recital in real life. Oftentimes when feeling pressured to play live for others, I’d assert that I make music for myself, not for others to hear. And this can be true, but social media has also conditioned me to package my music neatly for an audience every time I sit down to play. Just instead of a human audience, a camera lens watches me. I have been swept up by the way technology has normalized my personal image being consumed by other people. While I shiver at the thought of a recital, social media has normalized being observed.
On the brighter side though, I hope this video makes it clear how much I love playing piano and find it personally fulfilling!
I could NOT stop bobbing my head when I was watching this during class. The piano playing is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!!!
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