I have had such a hard time beginning this post.  A 1000 words have come and gone over the past few days but nothing feels quite right.

Feel...the word feel makes me think of emotional vibrations the perfect pitch of prose or cinematic moment that resonates within me which makes me think of string theory which makes me think of physics- which I researched all last week if only to once again attempt to grasp quantum mechanics.  Why quantum mechanics you ask? Well because it interests me is relevant to a bunch of different projects I am writing and I because I can.  I can spend the entire day on 100 different websites attempting to learn about entanglement the schrodinger equation string theory the tenth dimension M-theory and singularity not THE singularity- that is for another post I can read articles download Yale lectures on itunes watch videos.  The grand yet 'quarky' study of the laws that attempt to explain our universe and the possibilitity of others is researchable through a simple click- no libraries or lecture halls needed.  And this phenomenon of the last 15 or so years isn't relegated to simply academia.  Information data content on almost everything by almost anyone is at your finger tips.  All you need is a computer smart phone or tablet and a net neutral internet connection...and the world and its database is at your disposal.  

But you know all this right? Even if you take our digital fountain of data for granted you know that whatever piece of information on whatever topic you are looking to find unless it is classified and maybe even then you will probably be able to find it online.  In a mere nano blink of an eye ie. 18 years human life and its components have become digitized categorized and searchable. You quickly browse through your email twitter facebook and RSS feeds everyday skimming relevant news developments articles that pertain to your life your career and your social world.  We are deeply submerged in an information era where we struggle to keep up keep abreast and pinpoint what's relevant and then add to our personal database of life.  That database like the websites the apps and the data streams we consume continues to exponentially expand as if cells in rapid mitosis. 

So how ironic when I read but I can't for the life of me find the article that information itself is no longer key it is the critical deconstruct of that readily available information and the application of it that is now of value.  As the amount of information proliferates and the number of internet users grow and become mobile in the US and around the world data access and knowledge is no longer a luxury it is a given.  Anyone can win at trivia these days if you have an iphone handy but what it all 'means' is a different matter.  

This notion made me laugh because in high school my stellar grades were mostly due to my ability for rapid and massive information recall.  When I got to college however I was screwed.  It took 3 semesters for me to learn how to actually apply the knowledge I knew to another problem to actually understand what the information's macro and micro relevance was I always prefer the macro view hence the more nebulous nature of my posts.  Outside the proverbial ivory tower however I didn't much care for lofty analysis.  Critical thinking was relegated to the classroom the Lexis Nexis terminal and occasionally the bar during a wine infused debate.  The rest of my life was devoid of critical thought.  It just didn't seem necessary for everyday life.  

Perhaps I didn't want to see the bigger picture. Now I have to. 

Did you know that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has a 50 chance of developing Parkinson's? If you read Geek Monthly ie. Wired you probably do.  Brin has the genetic mutation marker for disease.  He hasn't developed Parkinson's yet but the mutation on his KRRK2 gene suggests a 50 chance that he will. With that sobering knowledge Brin has set out to fight the odds by making healthy changes in his life and by focusing on revolutionizing Parkinson's research...and ultimately medical research as a whole.  He doesn't have a biogenetics or medical degree but he is using computational science and the idea behind that powerful ol' Google search engine he is responsible for to challenge the way in which medical research is done.  

The classical scientific methods of research have been unchanged for centuries: observation hypothesis experimentation results.  In recent decades that traditional approach has been a 6 year process from hypothesis and grant application to peer review and published results.  Brin is challenging this stagnant process with his penchant for algorithms and massive data streams.  He aspires to move towards 'high-speed' science where the process starts not with an observation based hypothesis but with data massive amounts of data.  And it is already being putting to use.  Google has a non-profit research arm where an idea called Google Flu Trends is being tested.  What it mostly entails is pulling key phrases and words from Google searches that point towards a potential flu outbreak in real time and it is supposedly outpacing the CDC's predictions by a two week interval. It is successfully finding patterns in vast amounts of noisy data. As more people go online to self-diagnose to research alternate cures to join online support groups even to sign up for an online diet journal or exercise program more subsets of relevant data will be floating in the clouds for scientists to analyze or as Brin suggests:  

"Each of our lives is a potenital contribution to scientific insight.  We all go about our days making choices...generation what is inelegantly called data exhaust.  Any experience ie with a drug all those things are individual pieces of information.  Individually they're worthless they're anecdotal.  Bit taken together they can be very powerful". Sergey Brin July 2010

The details of Brin's new approach towards Parkinson's research is described in the Wired article and is an inspirational read but what is most relevant to this post is that his mission is fueled by research done by Jim Gray a former database software pioneer and Microsoft researcher.  Grey before he was lost at sea three years ago yes a bewildering true story gave a speech where he discussed his hypothosized Fourth Paradigm: an evolving era where an 'exoflood of observational data' is forcing change in the scientific community as this flood threatens to overwhelm scientists.  He argued that the only way to cope with it was through a new generation of scientific computing tools that would manage visualize and analyze the data flood.  Dr. Grey's goal was distributed computing that is clusters of computers linked where all scientific research data and literature the data that is proliferating at such exponential levels is online and ultimately shared.  

Supporters of the missing scientist have compiled essays into a book called The Fourth Paradigm where contributors stress the importance of sharing the massive amounts of data that are being produced and captured by the new breed of computer/ sensors - like the Large Hadron Collider- especially when coupled with reduced computing and communication costs. 

Once again we have this idea of an exoflood of data of information and that we should harness the data share it and find new way to analyze it.  Dr. Jeanette Wing argued that "implicit in the idea of a forth paradigm is the ability and the need to share data". I'm not properly footnoting quotes so consider me sharing.  And Jim Gray himself argued "computing was fundamentally transforming the practice of science".  

Can computing the abundance of data and the ultimate sharing of it transform the practice of art and maybe even art itself? 

In some instances it already has.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt posits that "the creative pioneer of the new era is the DJ the curator the remix artist the person who confronts the superabundance plucks out the gems and puts them together in such a way that means something."

For those who aren't familiar with the Hollywood actor's other artistic pursuits he runs a collaborative production company called hitREcord where people can submit remix and collaborate on creative productions- videos music graphic art poetry text- anything can be a 'record' and any member of the community can remix someone' elses work- nothing is sacred.   From watching him online I can assure you that he believes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts- the end result is a licensed mashup of new work where the 'cream rises to the top' though its final distribution is controlled by the production company with profits being divied out much like any webseries rev share agreement.  His brainchild is pointing to something innovative yet also reminds me of another form of online entertainment one that definitely struggles to be recognized as art- the mashup. 

Ahh the mashup and it's goofy step sister the parody.  From Auto-tune: The News to the Facebook movie trailer parodies to Machinima to Pride & Prejudice and Zombies the mashup and parody is everywhere.   It seems to be our way of commentating on art entertainment and culture...and these videos pop up as soon as something like the Social Network trailer strikes an online emotional chord.  These visual entities exist when content has risen through the terabytes of ho-hum and hits the masses with a bang.  So is it art itself?  People mashup and parody only the content that resonates they target the material that has made millions feel something.  And in giving that material on whatever level script music visuals a new spin it might remind the viewer of the original piece's essence but it now adds a non-verbal commentary often comical but not always that layers in a new level of emotional resonance.  I know we watch these videos laugh then click away or look at the view counts and sigh in frustration as our carefully crafted original content has one tenth of the views...and then click away.  And it's not real art right? It's just a few minutes of entertainment even if some people are monetizing it even if there is a community of fans around it giving it their immediate feedback.  

But again it's not art right?  It's not the crafted arched nuanced stories that we endeavor to tell over a number of episodes.  Right it's not.  But what and who defines art? There are quite a few just google or bing the word often nebulous and almost always circular definitions of the noun but I tend to like this one from the mother of all mashups Wikipedia: 

Art is the process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses emotions and/or intellect.  

This definition would seem to be inclusive of the aforementioned mashup and parody work wouldn't it? It would seem to include anything created that elicits a emotional or intellectual reaction.  No definition that I found included the word 'original' in it what is original anyway everything is inspired by or derivative of something but almost all the definitions talked about the 'affect' that said creation needed to have on someone on society.  Just look at the number of commenters on an popular mashup or parody video on youtube...people are being affected.  People are revealing online what moves them and the feedback happens immediately.  By 'Liking' something becoming a fan writing a comment shooting a video response...data is being created because of other data...art is getting created because of other art...and all of this is searchable.

So we can search this ever growing digital database for art for these arranged symbolic elements that move people.  But can't 'arranging symbolic elements' also be called 'creating a pattern'?  Patterns are what allow us to give definition to our physical life we are who we are because of patterns of DNA.  Physicists computer scientists geneticists all work towards deciphering the pattern...wave and particle patterns for physicists amino acid patterns for geneticists.  Sergey Brin and Jim Gray's supporters are looking for answers to scientific questions by looking for patterns in massive data streams...find the pattern find the meaning.

Applying this thought to our creative world what was one of the first art projects you did as a child?  You connected the dots.  And in drawing lines between these seemingly random dots you drew your first picture. You didn't know what you would ultimately find but you had faith that those points of reference when connected would yield something of relevance.  One of the central themes of William Gibson's book Pattern Recognition is the natural human propensity to search for meaning among patterns.  The protagonist a coolhunter a spotter and savant of trends searches for meaning in a set of mysterious fragmented and surreal video clips that are appearing online.  Are they part of a bigger grandiose movie an over-arching artistic statement...or are they simply random? I was excited to find this site last week dedicated to patterns and their creative relevance where they stated: PATTERNS are not yet trends; they are burgeoning themes that result from working across diverse domains and immersing ourselves in business and popular culture. Immersing themselves in the stream to see what the future might bring...

Thus with the copious amounts of data that we now have access to shouldn't we as artists as content creators be taking advantage of the behemoth amount of art available to us online and looking for patterns connecting the dots to what will resonate to what the new definition of art will be?  

There is a collective conscious that is digitized and searchable right now that we can't ignore that we have to mine and acknowledge.  The future media consumers are there and they are wanting to engage and tell you immediately what they think.  Take advantage of this NOW before the walls close in and the web is replaced by the app by the Verizon and AT&T controlled pipes and bandwidth please read the excellent article in Wired on the Death of the Web if you have not already

Technology and its rapid growth is unmercifully affecting our day to day lives.  Unless you want to move to a cabin in the woods you can't ignore it and even then....  Yes it's hard to keep up but you have to the dots are there for you to connect.  Find the pattern before it becomes a trend don't look at what is popular now you're creative figure out what will resonate with the masses a month from now a year from now.  

And I want to point out it's not about emulating on screen the technology that is affecting us.  Hearing a character talk about Facebook or watch a video on their phone always falls flat for me.  It is about capturing and building upon the way that new technology makes us feel.  That's why the Social Network trailer is so effective.  So how do we do that create work that makes us feel in the cool and connected way technology does? If I knew specifically I wouldn't be writing this post I would be selling something for a lot of money.  But it would probably be something along the lines of The Wildernessdowntown project or Lost in Val S'Inistra personalized entertainment experiences where it's not just about the content but about the context.  Don't you feel more connected and affected by a movie or even a performance when you know the personal story behind it? That's why movie/ video commentaries are always an added bonus.  They add to the emotional experience they give more meaning.  So when that added bonus is that you with your digital presence somehow inserted in the narrative your connection to the piece increases ten-fold and you want to share.  Yes the technology behind the WildernessDowntown costs a lot of money but there have to be other ways just check out the number of personal stories in the comments on BlackBoxTV where the viewer is asked a question related to the story or theme of the specific episode. 

Just don't make a short TV show for the web that will never be or look as good as regular TV because you don't have the budget and then try to make it interactive- it's like trying to squish a square peg into a round hole.

I honestly believe that the secrets we look to unlock in how to survive and flourish as online storytellers are right in front of us. We know that money is coming into the space that advertising budgets are returning to their pre-recession levels and that a greater percentage of those dollars are now being shifted to the online space as are audience eyeballs.  So we must become valuable and relevant by recognizing and then deciphering remember not just the information but the meaning of it what the collective conscious living in this digital landscape is telling us.  We have to immerse ourselves to find it...and share our finds.  The powers that be haven't done it yet.  The web doesn't recognize their status so the PTB are quick to dismiss it.  But we can venture in to the matrix connect and then become discoverable.  If you already have a great idea don't shut yourself off and work on it in a vacumn.  Use the copious amounts of information and stimulus at your fingertips.  Go online.  Research then research more follow the odd mysterious trail you find yourself on connect with other artists.  Push past your original idea and see what else it can become.  Be your own mashup artist or a renaisssance multi-hyphenate by educating yourself in something that has nothing to do with your work...and everything to do with your art.  

See the big picture. Find the pattern find the future. 

Now one of you please go and write the algorithm.

Be back soon

T

Or better yet share your thoughts...this post craves some conversatio

WEB SERIES ARE HEADING TO SAN DIEGO...

YOU ARE INVITED TO THE 2nd ‘CELEBRATE THE WEB’ EVENT!

Co-Sponsored by:

Technical sponsorship provided in part by

Promotional materials provided by:

Tubefilter and Fig Street Marketing Group

photo courtesy of theonetrueb!X

In celebration of scifi/horror/fantasy/gaming web series and the genre fans that will converge on San Diego during Comic Con web series multi-hyphenates Stephanie Thorpe Taryn O’Neill and Jenni Powell in conjunction with Kim Evey and Jenni Powell’s Celebrate the Web present Celebrate the Web: San Diego!

If you are a web series fan looking to attend an event where creators and talent of some of your favorite online series will be gathered to discuss their creations and mingle this is for you! .

The event will be a live-streamed forum with genre web content creators and talent.  There will be two separate forums: Scifi/Horror  and  Fantasy/Gaming each with a moderated discussion a Q&A section and of course exclusive videos.  There will also be a pre-reception and a post mixer…all to celebrate the growing online community.  

The Forum will included creators and talent from the following shows:

Universal Dead Continuum Riese After Judgment GOLD: Night of the Zombie King A Good Knight's Quest The Mercury Men I<3 Vampires Chad Vadar new addition! Chick A Comicbook Orange new addition! Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog Pryce new addition and The Jeff Lewis 5 Minute Comedy Hour.

3:30: The pre-reception starts with a cash bar outside conference room.

4:15:  A First look at exclusive trailers from upcoming web series.

4:30:  Scifi/ Horror web series panel.

5:30:  Fantasy/ Gaming web series panel

6:30:  Cocktail mixer drink & appetizer specials/ cash bar begins

We are thrilled to now have Blip.tv The Flickcast Tubefilter Fig Street Marketing as well as program design courtesy of What is Webseries coming aboard as sponsors to help make this event an even greater success!

Admittance is by RSVP only!

For More Information head to the official Celebrate the Web site or contact celebratethewebgmail.com

See you in San Diego! 

Head over to my Operation BABE site for a cool little video that suggests a potential way to use new ARG technology to combat obesity...

Oh yeah, and then there's my accompanying rant on related stuff :)

Hope you're all thinking with your innovator caps on today!

Be back with a new post this week - lots of great stuff percolating.

t

Not too long ago I was seen as a 'Charlotte'. For some reason my lack of confidence and eagerness to succeed in this business along with a subsidized wardrobe translated into being likened to the ubiquitous HBO persona of an upper East Side princess who dreamed of marriage and babies.  Really?  This was as far away from my own truth that I can tell you BUT being told this numerous times and coaching actors about 'knowing your type' I had a headshot taken in a pink Burberry shirt and a headband.  I shudder.  No I will never ever show it to you.  

What is most singed in my memory of that time period however is how at odds I felt with myself.  In acting class I would be given scenes where I would have to rip my soul out again and again.  There was nothing pretty or cute about the roles I was given they were all damaged layered and ugly.  And I would feel both empty and fulfilled when I was through with them as if my dark 'Fringe' parallel universe self had paid a visit and then left without saying goodbye.  And then I would feel like an alien...sitting in a dilapidated red velvet theatre seat after my scene was over at odds with what I had just done on stage and who I was sitting there in my J.Crew cardigan. It was if two separate Taryn's existed.  And this experience this sense of disconnect over who I thought I was supposed to be and what I felt bled over into my auditions.  I had countless amazing auditions for heroine type characters but I rarely booked.  And then I would feel like I was a failure that I wasn't 'enough'.  And I would remember the dark magic that would happen in class and wonder what was wrong with me.  

Heroines aren't supposed to feel that way.  Heroines aren't supposed to be dropped by their managers.  So I started writing and started investigating the foreign darkness residing within me.  And my very first project was to write about a dark tortured young woman who loses everything she loves in the world and then becomes a superhero.  

Today I still feel like an alien...but I embrace and even feed my inner space traveler.  It just took hanging around with it long enough to realize that the dark matter spewed in class was just as much or even more a part of me as my priviledged and polished exterior.  I didn't yet know that it was ok to have that exist in my real life as well as on stage.  And do you know what? In knowing that in forcing myself to accept the alien and bring it to the surface to breathe in some oxygen playing those other 'types' those perky cute polished even perfect types has become a whole lot easier.  Why? Because I'm just playing a part I'm not playing the supposed 'me' and dealing with the uncomfortable face that I really knew all along...it wasn't me. 

So as we move closer to the start of Comic Con the mecca of all things alien and meeting ground for so many of us people who never felt like they quite fit in and who turned to scifi/fantasy storytelling in order to connect at a time when Wonder Woman herself reveals a brand new badassish look above I continue down the path of Operation B.A.B.E.definitely more posts to come on that site It's not the smoothest of paths my powers aren't fully realized yet but I'm still pushing forward hacking off branches in my way and breaking new ground.  I'm not positive where it is heading but whenever I hear 'Alias' might get a reboot that there will be two 'Alien' prequels or when another visceral image of a dark female character assaults my storytelling brain and I jot down script notes I know I'm heading in the right direction.  Maybe one day I'll be all dresses and babies probably not but you never know but right now it's just me my tank top and jeans and my inner alien along for the ride.

What inner alien is it time that you acknowledged and then embraced?  

Be back soon...

t

How does my current reality parallel the webseries world? We may not have monetized the masses or gotten picked up for TV like we all originally hoped not counting you Mark Gantt or Brent Friedman but NOW we know the deal.  You're probably not going to make ANY money back from your webseries. You are not going to become a household name because of your show.  At best you'll land on someone's front page for the day.  That is unless your show is REALLY REALLY good.  Also helpful things we know now: comedies rack up better numbers than dramas they say its easier to sell a show if you shoot a promo but really it doesn't matter audiences like episodes under five minutes the power of You Tube keeps growing Crackle likes webseries that can be cut into a movie My Damn Channel makes comedies with celebs...and you need millions I mean millions of hits to give a brand confidence to sponsor your independent show. We also know that more people are consuming their content online and are eager to become part of a show's online social network. And ancillary web content for a network/ cable show is beginning to become the norm not the exception. So now that we know the 'now' the current status quo we can start to rip it apart. We can chose to be seen as savvy content creators and storytelling innovators learning from our past few years in the undefined trenches instead of as punk kids that are making TV lite. Mainstream hollywood honestly saw us as a joke running around with our borrowed HVXs until a monetizable fan base started appearing online...and the traditional advertising machine the fiscal engine that powered content to the masses started to stall. I can't tell you how many commercial auditions that I've been on as of late that are more 'branded entertainment' than traditional 15 second spots. Well I actually can't tell you because I usually have to sign an NDA. But Hollywood and Madison Avenue know we're entering a new era and they are scrambling to keep up with the digital times. So now we know the rules...thus we can break them.

So what does this all mean? Fck if I really know. I ask questions and draw parallels I don't know all the answers. When it comes to my own situation I realized that in throwing myself passionately into the webseries world and putting my acting my shows my blogs my tweets out to the interwebs to be consumed and even judged I had the power to redefine myself professionally and creatively. I can't tell you how many hours of thought and soul searching I spent last year on new media related blog posts. I didn't know what was going to come out of them and I'd feel ridiculous when I had but two comments made after six hours of electronic musing but my original All Things T blog defined MY VOICE. It taught me that I was enough something that is really important as an actor and I still sometimes struggle with and that I had endless creativity trapped in my brain. From that experience I felt confident to start script writing and then started Operation BABE talk about putting yourself out there when you're a girl wanting to really get in shape! which then inspired me to have the Bui Brothers take some badass shots and then cut to today where I've had the good fortune of playing a few badasses. And hopefully many more in the future. But is it good fortune or just strategic branding and hard work? I would like to think I redefined my paradigm. I would like to think we can take this opportunity to all redefine or at least scrutinize and then articulate our own paradigms. What stories do we want to tell and what is the most innovative and engaging way we can do that in this new universe of digital content? How do our fans and the industry perceive us? What are our strengths and unique qualities that distinguish us or our shows from everyone thing else? I know that there are a bunch of you out there that already know these answers and are kicking ass or are about to. The better we get at what we do the quicker we will jump to the forefront of that google tv / xbox/ playstation/ roku/ boxee/ ipad screen that will soon be in everyone's living room.

I write this on my birthday where I trust the work I am doing and the passionate nature in which I engage with it will create forward positive momentum towards my more lofty goals. I am thrilled to be co-producing the 2nd Celebrate the Web Event in San Diego during Comic Con. It is incredibly important to myself Stephanie Thrope Jenni Powell and Kim Evey that genre webseries be celebrated during an event that showcases and supports the power of the super fan. We are nothing without our fans and we can't wait to host a webseries event where fans from all over the globe can interact with the creators and stars of numerous different webseries.

Last fleeting thoughts? Umm none I really have to get back to work!  Well maybe 'breathe and be grateful...I have that written up in my office and it helps when things seem to be spinning out of control and I need to ground myself.  And along those lines I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone for all the birthday wishes- I feel very lucky to have so many talented and kind people to count as friends.

Let's go redefine the storytelling paradigm shall we?

Be back soon... t

What a year. I can't believe that a year ago next week, Michael Davies, Stephanie Thorpe and I launched our scifi webseries After Judgment and in doing so dipped our toe into this world of new media that I would now like to consider home. In less than a year, webseries and the platform upon which they exist, have become my life. I have been fortunate to have After Judgment embraced by the community and the critics; being nominated for a Streamy was such a thrill. I have been a part of two new webseries recently (as an actor) and have five new shows in development or pre-production, two of which I have written. I don't think that would have been possible if, a year ago next month, I had not launched this blog. I had no idea what I was doing or what I would write about but I knew that it would challenge me to define my own voice, give me a platform to explore ideas that were meaningful to me. And so birthed All Things T.