In his skillful video, The Machine is Us/ing Us, Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, uses Web 2.0 technology to illustrate the potential that Web 2.0 offers. This proves to be an extraordinarily effective technique. The Machine is Us/ing Us was released on YouTube on January 31, 2007, and it quickly went viral, becoming the most popular video in the blogosphere and the #1 video on YouTube on February 7th.
Wesch’s success is not surprising. His video is visually interesting, compelling, thought-provoking, even moving. Though younger viewers may differ with me on this, his choice of music (There’s Nothing Impossible by Deus) was superb, and it imbued the video with emotion, a crescendo of connection and possibility that leads the viewer to consider a number of undeniably important issues. As XML (Extensible Markup Language) ushers in Web 2.0, Wesch posits that we will have to rethink a few things such as copyright, governance, privacy, authorship, rhetorics(?), even family, love and ourselves. (I hate to be picky, but the use of the plural “rhetorics” hints that a little spell-check might be needed)!
From a design perspective, the Wesch video is successful at leading the viewer in precise and gripping fashion from one visual element to the next. The rhythm of the piece, the speedy movement of text on the screen, and the typographical changes that occur are amazingly complex. Some of the feedback on Wesch’s video suggests that different interfaces and desktops environments be represented in the forthcoming final version. Perhaps this is so, though most viewers will find The Machine is Us/ing Us to be effective and memorable just as it is.
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