Gaga Brings Sexy Back to Technology /  by Roxanne Teti

The Lady Gaga + Intel Performance | 58th GRAMMYs

For some time now there has been an ongoing debate regarding digital technology and whether it threatens the authenticity of artistic mediums like music or film. Personally, speaking from the perspective of both an artist and a lifetime champion of the arts, I have always been concerned with technology’s potential to limit creativity and tarnish the purity of artistic expression. To give you some context, I’m the kind of person who will only listen to the mono version of Happiness is a Warm Gun while wearing headphones or drive out to Santa Monica on random night to see a 70 mm screening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. So I was surprised to feel intrigued or dare I say inspired by the intense visual effects of Lady’s Gaga’s tribute performance to David Bowie at the 58th Grammys on Monday evening. 

Regardless of whether you believe Gaga's tribute paid justice to Bowie’s legacy or not, her collaboration with Intel brought the present and future of live performance into full focus and into the living rooms of an audience that doesn't readily attend Coachella or Burning Man. Before delving further into Gaga and “tech”, allow me to digress for a quick moment concerning the tribute at large. I do believe Gaga’s performance would have received greater critical acclaim if she limited the set list to three hits, performed each song longer than 15 seconds, and rocked out with artists of various generations, all inspired by Bowie’s music, like Elton John, Iggy Pop, or Arcade Fire, to name a few. Overall it felt a bit sporadic and perhaps egocentric at times for my personal taste. And I am done digressing on that topic...

Monday evening, while watching the tribute, I suddenly felt reminded to truly “turn and face the strange” as the electrifying face paint of Aladdin Sane entered a dynamic world of 3D motion graphics and superimpositions of Bowie holograms and psychedelic doves shifting imagery with Gaga in real time. And let's not forget about her robotic rose gold piano as it came to life—jittering and jiving to the bass line of Suffragette City. However, all this fancy Intel technology, the crafty robotics, the live video processing, etc., didn’t distract from Gaga’s performance but rather personified Bowie's prophetic nature and enhanced a new glam rock experience that felt almost visceral yet intoxicating in a tangible way. That evening she reminded artists that technology doesn’t always have to inhibit creativity like with pop singers and auto-tune softwares or obscure laser shows displayed for drug induced teens at EDM concerts. Instead a beautiful union between creativity and science can exist and stretch the infinite boundaries of possibility—allowing for imagination to thrive. And for that, I do think David Bowie, an innovator and starman, would be proud. 

 

Oscars So White-What Can We Learn? /  by Roxanne Teti

There’s been a lot of talk about diversity or lack there of shall I say regarding the Oscar nominations. The definition of diverse is of different kind, of varying types. Sadly enough society is attracted to sameness and encourages conformity because that's how it thrives—the social machine is inherently opposed to anything or anyone “different”. Because of power distinctions, people and/or institutions consciously and subconsciously desire to uphold the “status quo”. One’s actions or lack of actions can often become motivated by fear of change—as change can threaten the “status quo”. This is the unfortunate reality of what deters social progress and perpetuates inequality, especially if we are discussing cinema as an art form and industry operating within the profit centric realm of capitalism. Nevertheless, here’s the wake up call—underrepresentation of minorities and women not only exists in Hollywood, but also in other industries such as technology. For example, in the film industry women made up only 13% of the director positions on movies that achieved theatrical release in 2015. In “tech” women held only 14% of executive positions in 2015. 

Before we point fingers and accuse the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for being racist or solely responsible for the Oscars being “so white”, I urge you to look at the big picture—as the Oscars, an annual American awards ceremony for film, is a mere byproduct of a deeper rooted problem with Hollywood and America at large. Since the beginning of our nation’s inception, institutionalized racism was fully initiated by the physical and psychological chains of slavery. And for centuries, African Americans have been fighting for freedom and equality—battling against social stigmas that fueled segregation and the unjust legal barriers that prohibited blacks the right to vote. To make matters worse, for decades of TV and film history, African Americans were often depicted “on screen” as superficial stereotypes of inferior people in background roles. And yes, over time civil rights amendments have been enforced, and social progress has been achieved, but implicit inequality (the social psychological repercussions) continues to pervade our society as a negative symptom of years of disenfranchisement and marginalization. 

So how can we, as a society, learn from “Oscars So White” without polarizing the issue of race and driving a deeper divide between black and white? Adding more diversity to the Academy’s voter composition may or may not help. I certainly don’t believe firing or vilifying current members is the right approach in addressing a greater issue at hand. I think change starts with creating more opportunities for minorities in front and behind the camera. It begins with gaining diverse representation amongst studio executives and the creators of content. In a recent article discussing this Oscar controversy, Dr. Todd Boyd, a former professor of mine at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, said “there can't be many nominees until people are given the opportunity in prominent, meaningful roles”. Let's get the “movers and shakers” involved; after all, they create the films the Academy nominates. 

Where You At Nielsen? /  by Roxanne Teti

With Super Bowl 50 on the horizon this Sunday, I was reminded of live broadcasts and the powerful role they play in the media industry. Last year’s Super Bowl scored over 114.5 million viewers—delivering record ratings for the event. 114.5 million viewers is an impressive turnout but this all comes down to money. Ratings are synonymous to currency in the TV programming industry—as billions of advertising dollars are traded every year in relation to primetime broadcast. Since the 1950’s Nielsen has been collecting statistics on TV audience demographics and viewing habits. Today, in 2016, executives of large networks still turn to Nielsen when making decisions about a TV show’s livelihood. 

But what has been going on with Nielsen lately? In 2014, the TV ratings company partnered with Adobe to create an alternative measurement platform for digital content. However this partnership and the analytics it provides doesn't appear to be having a strong impact on Wall Street. All in all, Nielsen has not evolved. They still cannot accurately represent cross-platform ratings or capture the fragmented viewing habits of modern day audiences-thus potentially under evaluating the industry's market potential. 

Nevertheless now that the anticipated merger between comScore (the Internet, mobile measurement mogul) and Rentrak (the movie audience tracking firm) is finalized, the advertising industry is more excited than ever—anxiously hoping for a game changer in our cross-platform society. Nielsen ratings still proves to be decent indicators for live events like the Super Bowl or the Grammy's but we all know viewership of programming is continuing to move in a new direction. With the rising numbers of "cord cutters", how long will it take until media buyers don't primarily rely on Nielsen to make money? I am eager to see if comScore can help revitalize the relationship between the worlds of TV and advertising.

Bowie the Innovator /  by Roxanne Teti

From Station to Station to even a cover album like Pin Ups—David Bowie was constantly inventing and reinventing. He achieved iconic status not by conforming to societal expectations but by daring to be different. Bowie redefined normative boundaries and created his own definition of identity—never apologizing. In addition to providing our world with a diverse collection of timeless work, he also instilled a new sense of artistic freedom for generations to come—giving society permission to endorse individuality with good intention. Bowie's time on earth may be over but his contribution to popular culture will remain eternal.  

“I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me.”
— David Bowie

When I was a young musician and wanted to be like David Bowie.

Welcome to my blog! /  by Roxanne Teti

After spending many hours of avoiding the rain and working on this website- the blog is finally up and running! I chose this shot in honor of Hitchcock's Vertigo -paying homage to a beautiful neighborhood and San Francisco film history. Expect many more posts to come. 

Fort Point, San Francisco.