Ah yes, art and the Web…
The National Arts Club clearly believes they go together as last night, Internet video star Caitlin Hill became the first online performer to win the NAC’s Medal of Honor, the Club’s most prestigious award.
At 17, the former Blockbuster employee and self proclaimed dork was feeling a little lonely, had something to say and decided to voice a few insights through YouTube under her online name “thehill88”. Three years later her online videos (which chronicle her Valentine’s Day crushes, impressions and instructionals) had over 20 million views and she’d established a subscriber base of over 70,000.
She now works as Chief Creative Officer of Hitviews, a company which helps connect emerging web stars with corporate patrons. Yeah, we know: even artists need to make a buck.
The celebration attracted various media achievers: a former CEO of CNN, radio star Cousin Bruce Morrow and although not in attendance, movie mogul Bob Weinstein has even put some coin into the Caitlin brand.
The online world’s evolution is an interesting thing. One Hitview staffer mentioned by 2012, 90 percent of online content will be audiovisual, DVDs won’t exist in five years and that the “new” entertainment is all about interacting: TV is just too passive! This is a world where there are no barriers between the audience and the talent; apparently, it’s the most visceral connection yet.
In line with such claims, all night I kept hearing about Hill’s huge popularity, how she’s “solid gold,” how successful web stars “know how to get views” – which in turn makes advertisers salivate. Further discussions involved brand equity, media properties and how current TV and media personalities want to become even bigger stars by going online.
Interesting, yes. But remember the evening was supposed to be about art. And online artists seem to be intrinsically linked to popularity and consumption– on a scale we’ve never encountered.
Regarding Hill’s “craft” (she admits there’s minimal rehearsal), we did all go home with DVDs of her video posts. But I did think it interesting that there was no official viewing of her works throughout the night. Instead, a silent montage of her clips ran continuously on a large screen – strange for a medium that thrives on immediacy.
Sure, it’s entertainment, but calling it art could be a stretch. Let’s not forget that by receiving the Medal of Honor, Hill is now amongst an elite group of fellow medal recipients: Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Leonard Bernstein, Salvador Dali and Martin Scorsese, to name but a few.
We could yap about the intersection of art, commerce and popularity for an eon but the definition of an artist that has always stuck with me is that if a person calls himself an artist, it is simply what he does. Ultimately it doesn’t matter whether or not anyone’s watching or whether or not he makes any money.
As we Twitter, Gchat and Flickr ourselves toward the grave this premise is changing – our communication and art along with it.
Of course in terms of global impact, how can anyone not be impressed by Hill’s success? She’s inspired kids to make their own videos and serves as a new form of role model and talent spotter for online stars; she clearly has that priceless x-factor that so many performers and entrepreneurs yearn for, but so few have.
Yet I also can’t help but think that in an art form measured by the accumulation of views, I’ll be more interested in someone akin to the “writer's writer” in the online sphere: someone who’s producing quality works but who isn’t being recognized on an unprecedented scale.
A web star’s web star? Sounds like a contradiction at best…
Photo Credit: Rose Billings
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