Part 1 of a 2-part series
Art of self expression or acts of self obsession?

By Michael Kearns

A cheeky 26-year-old, wearing a T-shirt and a backward baseball cap, flawlessly lip syncs, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” Inspired by a provocative beefcake photo on his bedroom wall, a rather ordinary, yet sexy man of indeterminate age, masturbates his ears with a Q-tip to the point of orgasm. Discount Cruise to Hell, a local musical group with teeth, adorned in gory genderfuck drag, perform “Love Song to The Devil.” GayTube? Might as well be.

The neologism “user-generated content” encompasses multiple forms of self-expression including YouTube, MySpace and blogs, all of which are oozing with homo content.

How will the staggering advances in the technological arena affect established, budding or even dead gay artists? “Technology provides more real estate for artists and aspiring artists to play in. It is fertile ground,” explains documentary filmmaker Michel Horvat of We Are Dad fame.

“Art has been opening up to include, if not represent, a larger and larger set of individuals as it progresses,” Horvat continues. “I think about art as it was commissioned by the very wealthy for their own edification and/or for the sake of the church in Europe. The masses were almost never represented. They had no voice. What we see today is a moment in time when anyone who wants to make a statement can. This is democracy of art. It is utterly representational.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. While David Quantic’s “Eargasm” is decidedly artful, albeit slightly wacky, WonderRobbie’s facsimile of Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of the Dreamgirls aria (itself a facsimile of the Jennifer Holiday original) hearkens back to gay bars of the ‘60s, which inevitably featured a bewigged and bejeweled amateur mouthing every heart-tugging lyric from the Judy Garland songbook.

In spite of the fact that Quantic’s ear jerk has garnered more than 20,000 impressive hits, the writer-director says he has “very low expectations for any work I put on the Web, mostly because I think everyone else's expectations are low as well. No one is going to spend longer than five minutes looking at a crappy-looking clip on YouTube. There's not much room in a small square for beauty and transcendent art making.”

He continues, “Occasionally, I'll see something that makes me laugh, but I rarely feel other emotions like empathy, nor am I challenged that often when I look at the Web. Not in the way that movies or other art forms challenge me. Movies take concentration and emotional commitment. YouTube is like a quickie suck off in an alley: it feels good for a second, but you feel kinda cheated afterwards.”

In his mid-20s, Ian MacKinnon is one of Los Angeles’ up and coming queer performance artists. Discount Cruise to Hell, the group that MacKinnon appears in on local stages, is certainly influenced by their legendary predecessors, including the Cockettes, but their work is not derivative like so much user-generated content. “YouTube got our group some local press attention,” MacKinnon says, “and has helped me network with other gay artists locally, as well as internationally. I have connected with other like-minded artists to collaborate. And it helps to reach out to new audience members.” Carefully chosen tag words to lure the YouTube cruiser to the Discount Cruise To Hell page include gay, goth, drag, theater, tranny and macabre.

Writer Trebor Healey points out, “The Internet seems to be about marketing for unknown people or artists, so it encourages sexiness or weirdness or shock since those are the only things that stand out in a huge mass of material.” The New York Times’ Jon Pareles refers to user-generated content as the “the tsunami of self-expression.”

If baby boomers were identified as the Me Generation, what does that make the current crop of individuals that many would characterize as self-absorbed exhibitionists? Pareles says, “Private individuals aren’t private anymore—everyone wants to preen.”

Horvat says, “All art is ultimately narcissistic. It is about self reflection and self involvement until one finds something in one’s self that one feels worth expressing. Art is freedom, and the more oppressed a society, the more underground and vital art becomes.”

While similarly (and often accurately) labeled as manifestations of inflated hubris, some blogs maintain a subdued personality, often differentiated by a degree of intellectualism. From the erudite political outpourings of gay activist David Mixner to the impassioned revelations of media darling Andrew Sullivan, one can find something other than the typically diary-like (and often diarrhea-like) tell-alls.

“In many ways,” Mixner says, “the blog is the new grassroots politics. It enables any American to be the Thomas Paine of our generations. The art of the blog should educate, inspire and give spiritual comfort to individuals who choose to read it. Right now, it is the surest form we have without corporate ownership to impart information without censorship. For me, it must include political, profound issues like HIV/AIDS, foreign policy, and the beautiful, such as the work of young artists.”

Yet for every Mixner or Sullivan, there are innumerable egocentric eccentrics who occasionally have something piquant to impart but whose ramblings are customarily banal (check out journals.aol.com/makemarc/SoberGayEx-Con/). Healey contends that “no one reads most of them, so there are all these lonely voices blabbering on, and no one is listening, and yet it's all just put out there.”

“Frankly,” he says, “it strikes me as a sort of pathetic expression of Western culture and its elevation of the individual, as well as an indication of how ignored people feel, how much they feel they have no mode of expressing themselves.”

A self-described “queer man, actor, writer and ex-hippie monk in addition to the publicist thingy,” Mickey Cottrell sees it differently. “Making these little YouTube movies and performances puts their makers into the driver’s seat, into the great creative groove. If it makes life more pulsing, vividly still, deep and rich, like creativity invariably does—wow!—this is precisely a far-out thing for spreading some good fun.

“If that rambunctious tube of you feels driven to make stuff that infuses some love for this crazy world and our fellow travelers, even those without a map, I’d say it’s of the most promising hope!”

Michael Kearns can be reached at www.michaelkearns.net.

Blogs and YouTube Clips

The advent of YouTube and various blogging sites is giving voice to the masses, making it easier for “every man” to express himself online. See more of the individuals mentioned above by checking out the following Web addresses:

Ian MacKinnon/Discount Cruise To Hell

www.youtube.com/discountcruisetohell

David Mixner

www.davidmixner.com

Michael Kearns

www.youtube.com/user/KearnsMichael

David Quantic

www.youtube.com/davidquantic

Andrew Sullivan

andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

Wonder Robbie

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPTCVWAvJTk