Somebody
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Yesterday I was skimming the digital New York Times and clicked on the second-from-the-right item in the panel below, without noticing the "paid post" superscript:
This took me to an article about a new smartphone app called Somebody:
Here’s how Somebody works: when you send your friend or loved one a message through the app, it doesn’t go directly to them, but uses GPS to locate the Somebody user nearest to him or her. This person (probably a stranger) delivers the message verbally, acting as your stand-in.
I thought it was a bit odd that the piece was listed as "By Miu Miu", but hey. And I still didn't notice the small-font superscript "PAID FOR AND POSTED BY MIU MIU":
Instead, I read ahead in the article, which describes a short film illustrating the app in operation:
The companion film plays out a number of possible scenarios. Jessica — red haired, sobbing on her bed — wants to break up with Caleb. She opens the Somebody app, types the heartbreaking message, and selects ‘Paul’ from a list. Paul’s phone dings; he accepts the Somebody request. He eyes Caleb having a picnic. Paul — three times Jessica’s slight size, and seriously sweaty after a workout — delivers the bad news to Caleb… as Jessica. Paul’s is bawling and his arms are flapping. Naturally Caleb is devastated, and Paul is soon on his way.
Somebody, the app, goes on to save best friends Yolanda and Blanca’s busted friendship. It allows Jeffy to propose marriage to sad looking Victoria, despite the fact that she’s dining alone in a fancy restaurant. And it initiates two prison guards into a sexually enthralling ménage-a-trois with a parched potted plant named Anthony who wants much, much more than just water. “Somebody twists our love of avatars and outsourcing,” says Miranda July. “Every relationship becomes a three-way.”
At this point, I began to wonder whether I'd wandered into a new NYT deadpan social-satire section. Looking around, I discovered that instead I'd wandered into an advertisement for Miuccia Prada's Autumn-Winter Collection. The "post" eventually gets there:
The power of Somebody is quite literally in everybody out there willing to become somebody else.
Clothing, similarly, has the power to create instant transformation. The styling of July’s film for Somebody mixes items from the Miu Miu Autumn/Winter 2014 collection with vintage and street wear. In ten short minutes, action segues from bedroom heartbreak to prim waitresses to erotically challenged prison guards. Ordinary people: me, you and somebody we know.
There's more:
“Technology is like high fashion,” explains July, “It’s revealed to us mysteriously, season by season and we’re not meant to mess with it. But of course it only becomes meaningful when we do. Somebody is really half-human, half-app — I wanted to facilitate the giddy joy that comes from unpredictable, undocumented moments, but the technology depends on a daring human user.
These qualities are central to the hand-made look and feel of the app interface. A mouth button includes actions and directions for your stand-in (‘crying,’ ‘hug.’) The recipient can always decline a delivery (if it’s not a good time.) And users can rate Somebodies on their performance. If you’re feeling bold, “floating messages” are always awaiting delivery (and the rest of us can just read them voyeuristically.)
It took many weeks for Miranda July to think of the perfect name for her new project — it came to her with the perfect tag line: “When you can’t be there…Somebody™ can.”
Does Somebody™ actually exist? I don't want to know.
Noam said,
September 2, 2014 @ 8:04 am
I suppose given that you say you don't want to know, maybe I shouldn't be posting this comment, but it appears to be real, and at least partially described as an art project.
http://blogs.walkerart.org/performingarts/2014/08/28/miranda-july-unveils-somebody/
[(myl) The app-ontological status of an art project subsidized by a fashion house is unclear, in my opinion. The cost of hiring someone to write an iPhone app is small compared to the cost of, say, a featured "paid post" in the NYT, so I expect we'll see a lot more things like this, mostly less clever.
The dystopian possibility is that this app — or some semi-imitator — might be a big success, based on a version of the calculation that makes spam emails and comments plausible. If it costs you nothing to ask a million strangers to ask other strangers for donations, or to make a personal pitch for some commercial or political enterprise, then even if only a thousand of the Somebodies actually take up the task… Or you could ask all the Somebodies to deliver a certain message to one designated person, identified by picture and GPS coordinates.
There's some actual cost for the Somebodies — but what if the originator is (or pretends to be) Beyonce or Justin Bieber or etc.? Or if there's some sort of exchange value, or sweepstakes prize, for serving as a Somebody for an ordinary person?]
MTBradley said,
September 2, 2014 @ 8:21 am
Miranda July does exist, and she will not be ignored.
http://gawker.com/kirsten-dunst-is-winning-those-miranda-july-emails-1109625233
leoboiko said,
September 2, 2014 @ 9:31 am
No mention of Android versions, though, so only iPhone buyers can be Somebody.
Piyush said,
September 2, 2014 @ 12:20 pm
leoboiko: Okay, this one is bad, but I couldn't resist: Do you mean that Android users are Nobodies?
Bill Benzon said,
September 2, 2014 @ 1:36 pm
Well, there is the song, "You're nobody, 'till somebody loves you…"
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deanmartin/yourenobodytilsomebodylovesyou.html
aka said,
September 2, 2014 @ 1:49 pm
Reads a bit like an old Italian movie depicting social interactions in Salacity in mid 1800s.
aka said,
September 2, 2014 @ 2:02 pm
Make that "Sicily".
Gregory Kusnick said,
September 2, 2014 @ 2:27 pm
Piyush: Apple's marketing people certainly want you to believe that, as evidenced by their ad campaigns in which Mac and iPhone users are cool, and everyone else is a hopeless dork.
Keith said,
September 2, 2014 @ 3:00 pm
"C'est en faisant n'importe quoi qu'on devient n'importe qui…" or so says Rémi Gaillard.
My reaction is just "meh". Advertising pretending to be art… seen it before and it wasn't all that interesting when it was almost original.
Now it has been found in a plastic tub at the back of the fridge and has been warmed up in a microwave oven, and we're supposed to
fork out for the overpriced productgush over its freshness and its power to engage with us as empowered participants in a true dialogue with the creators?Rebecca said,
September 2, 2014 @ 3:47 pm
It exists in the sense that it is in the App Store: http://somebodyapp.com
dw said,
September 2, 2014 @ 3:57 pm
If you'll forgive me being a little off-topic on this particular thread, I can't resist sharing a superlative Brit-style headline, combining noun pileup with "mendacity quotes":
Sex with mattress accused 'under terror death threat'
Jerry Friedman said,
September 2, 2014 @ 6:24 pm
In ne with MYL's response to Noam: How much for the app that keeps you from being anybody's Somebody?
Jerry Friedman said,
September 2, 2014 @ 6:26 pm
Sorry, "In line with".
Jason said,
September 3, 2014 @ 2:54 am
Oh god. Sooo hipster douchebag. Like a Faith Popcorn marketing scheme. Apple fanboy level hipster douchebaggery. There's a LL post on how some people throw current buzzwords into a hat, draw out six of them, and create a product based around them no matter how stupid the resulting idea is.
Piyush said,
September 3, 2014 @ 12:59 pm
@Gregory Kusnick: Novell turned that idea on the head even before Android (which is based on the Linux kernel) came on the scene: a youtube search for "Novell Mac PC Linux commercials" should turn up their series of ads.
There is also a Red Hat commercial which took the fight to a whole new level.