Final Wrap Up[5-Final Essay]

Wen Qiu

Professor Harkey

English 1101

7 December 2011

Street Art or Reality TV: Which One is More Real?

Consider two groups of audiences, viewing two genres of art: one is watching the three-dimensional, market-driven and derived Reality TV while sitting on the couch , and the other is enjoying the two-dimensional, inspiration-driven and original street art while passing down the road. Which group of audiences will receive more perception of realness? Although based on theirs names, Reality TV is meant to be more authentic and original, I argue that street art will provide its participants more realness because it is an art form that expresses the very basic and pure information.

Firstly, any three-dimensional show (the making of motion pictures) is a form of “le septième art” (also called 7th art), which means syncretizing the static and the dynamic, time and space. Since the perception of realness not only refers to the physical fact but also to the mental process, the more information one receives, the less space is left for him or her to ponder and link the information with reality. Different from Reality TV, street art is the two-dimensional work that keeps the artists from overloading information and limits them to express nothing but the very essence.  By looking at street art, the audience will be provided with more freedom to relate the artwork with real happening. Moreover, in terms of participants’ involvement, two-dimensional street art is easily approachable while Reality TV shows are untouchable, thus viewers can be involved in street art more than Reality TV. Since “reality” is unique to every single person, only the thoughts and feelings generated from the audience based on his or her own outlook will not result in a digression from concrete “realness”.

Secondly, it is self-evident that Reality TV is driven by the market for profit. In order to survive the competitive environment, directors and editors must select a compelling narrative that audiences are interested in, thus most of the themes and subjects are derived several times from the exciting and scintillating stories, in ways the show turn out to be “a hybrid mutant of documentaries and stories.” (Shields 109) In other words, the quality of so-called “Reality TV” is not determined by how real it is, but by how intriguing it is. On the contrary, street art is purely inspiration-driven, providing viewers the initiative of insightful and provocative thoughts. Although street artists are driven by various motivations and objectives, there is a strong current of activism and subversion in street art, which serves to draw the pedestrians’ attention effectively. Consequently, street art can be a powerful platform to reach the general public, and motivate the audience to think thoroughly about the unveiled side of the society and reality.

Banksy is a pseudonymous English graffiti artist; his street art One Nation Under CCTV shows that the policeman and dog are appreciating the person painting the words without interrupting while the real closed circuit television is being placed there not doing anything.  Although people may have various standpoints about the piece depending on their attitudes towards surveillance and street art, they share the perception about the police, common utility and general public based on their own definition of reality.

Lastly, in the field of Reality TV, most of the shows are reshaped several times from the real stories before they come out to the public. Even producers themselves, claimed that “the program's biggest challenge is creating format twists to maintain originality” (Ross) and “it is important that we go 'outside of the box' to find ways to facilitate treatment with the audience.” (Trites) For example, the American reality show Survivor is derived from Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe that is derived from a true story of Alexander Selkrick on The Englishman. By the time a real story is adapted to a Reality TV show, it no longer resemble the realness. Although all forms of art are not concretely authentic, compared to any other genre, street art obtains the shortest distance from the artist’s inspiration and thoughts to the final piece of work because it is separated from production and adaption. Since the degree of originality and reality is proportional, the most original means the most real.

            Some might argue that majority and popularity define reality. In terms of general exposure, Reality TV is watched by millions of audiences who are not necessarily well educated and extremely intelligent, while street art (usually politics-related and social issues-relevant) is viewed by many people but only appreciated by the limited number passing pedestrians who are insightful and cognitive. Although Reality TV is a form of art that is more generalized because it is easy to be accepted, and that might mislead people to think Reality TV is more authentic and original, David Shields gives the precise and professional definition of what is considered to be real as “a deliberate ‘unartiness’: raw material, seemingly unprocessed, unfiltered, uncensored, and unprofessional.” (5) Street art, which is completely removed from information overload, commercial enterprise, and prevalent derivation, perfectly fits in the description given by Shields. Thus, as it is elaborated above, street art is more real than Reality TV.