November 26, 2004

Six degrees of separation to ReBlog
by Liza Sabater

I am having a Jon Favreau moment.

Reading through LUSTY LADY, I got wind of Chelsea Peretti's workshop reading of her first one-woman show, FLOATING PALACE.

Now, I thought I had met Chelsea for the first time at the The WYSIWYG Talent Show, in which I read For Love and Turkey. Of course, I kept looking at Chelsea with the kind of dejá vù feeling I almost always get when I meet people. I have a notoriously bad memory for names, although I almost never forget a face.

No wonder why I felt Chelsea was familiar.

You see, Chelsea Peretti is the sister of Jonah Peretti, director of research and development at E Y E B E A M. He is behind Eyebeam reBlog, and is co-creator of Welcome to RejectionLine.com and Black People Love Us!, two projects in which Chelsea has also collaborated. And of course, Jonah and my worse half are part of that little ghetto called the net / new media / software art world.

When I heard Jonah was behind Black People Love Us!, I did not know what to make of it. It is a funny piece but I looked at it with suspicion. I did not know what to make of it because I had no idea of the reasons or stories behind his creating this project. But now that I have seen his sister's act and heard of her experience growing up as part of a couple of bi-racial blended families, I see Black People Love Us! in a completely different light ... and it makes me wonder.

Had I known then what I know now about Jonah's personal history, I would not have felt the work was a calculated piece of agit-prop made to get the creator(s) attention in the art world. There is something to say about transparency and Black People Love Us! is one project I feel demands authorial transparency. This is one of those cases in which even a mission statement would not have been enough --it's the kind of piece that needs the personal to put the political in a much stronger and credible context.

Is it art? No, I don't think so. It is a viscerally funny piece that deals with the clueless prejudices we live by every day. Even mine.

Still, what I most love about this piece is how it just brings together all the tangled webs that connect us. Thanks to Chelsea, I found an incredibly embarrasing photo of Jonah, reminiscent of my hospital experience in For Love and Turkey.

In the end, it all definitely comes together.

Posted by Liza Sabater in Art, Blogs, Comedy, Culture, Humor, Internet, Life, Media, Memes, New York City, Pop Culture, Prejudice, Race, Transparency
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