e-remediable

Nîmes, 26^th June 2007, I took some holidays from my internship in Morocco to go to Daft Punk’s concert in a small city in southern France. I had heard from some friends who attended other Daft Punk concerts that I was going to spend one of the finest time of my life. Let alone the exceptional premises (ancient roman arena gathering nearly 15 000 people) and warm-up (Kavinsky, SebastiAn and Cassius), and let’s focus on Daft Punk’s astonishing performance.

And what a performance! My friends were not lying. During one hour and half, 10 years were scrolling in my ears. Homework minimal electronic tracks mixed with Human After All electric and Discovery disco-style riffs. A huge remix of Daft Punk artwork, served by Daft Punk themselves. Thousands of cell phones and digital cameras were enlightening the site producing an irrealistic landscape.

To understand the buzz paving Daft Punk tours, just listen to their last album, Alive 2007, recorded during the Paris concert. You will notice the public warming shouts all along the tracks. Public are fully part of the show, and Daft Punk has always been relying on its involvement. Take the official videoclip of Harder Better Faster Stronger from Alive Tour (see below): the director Olivier Gondry gave 250 digital cameras to the public of the Brooklyn concert and asked them to shoot as they feel it.

Asked why they only released an album and not a DVD, Daft Punk answered that nothing could be more realistic (and alive?) than video shooted by fans and posted on the Internet.

Harder Better Faster Stronger (Official videoclip by Olivier Gondry)

As you might have noticed, I have changed the banner of this blog.

I decided today to ask 2 classmates to contribute to e-remediable as co-administrators. Céline and Nicolas are studying Digital Business Strategy in the same master’s degree as me at HEC Paris and ENST. Both of them are experienced in web design, and will bring more in-depth analysis to this blog. On top of that, they are interested in art production, especially music and video. Before joining HEC, Céline was intern at Eyeka, a start-up created by the French serial-entrepreneur Gilles Babinet. As for Nicolas, he is running Streetkiss, a successful blog (in French) about electronic music.

I’m sure this collaboration will allow us to focus on our common interests through original and diverse posts about Digital Economy, Web 2.0, Media and Art Production.

Please join me to welcome Céline and Nicolas on-board!

In this case, you can help me. I’m currently working on a project about musical videoclips and really need some feedback. Could you please fill in this very short survey?

I promise I can tell you more about this as soon as my own idea of it is crystal clear!

Thank you guys.

As I wrote in my previous post, I’m quite admirative of Apple’s marketers. The buzz paving the Iphone relase has no precedent in hi-tech landscape. You might know this fake TV ad broadcasted on Youtube, illustrating perfectly Apple’s Iphone launching strategy:

Note: the soundtrack is Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn & John

I used to be a Samsung addict regarding mobile phones, and my current one (SGH-P300) should have convinced me that design is not as crucial as the primary function: placing calls.

But anyway, I want one…

The genious of Apple guys (designers, marketers, top managers) lies in the irrationnal relationship they built between Apple products (IPod, Computers, and now, even before its relase, IPhone) and customers.

Actually, I don’t want an IPhone because it will replace my IPod, but because I ALREADY HAVE an IPod, and a Mac Book, because I’m expecting to buy an iTV, because I am taking Final Cut Pro lessons. I want an Iphone because I feel part of the Apple community. I agree with their design choices (but who doesn’t?). I am in sympathy with the impertinent flavor of their ads.

Apple is part of the few brands I am really in tune with. Like french TV channel Canal +, Google web applications or Parker pencils, I like it!

Should I hate capitalism because it made me captive of these labels, or be grateful to marketers who designed products that fit me so well?

As a business school student, I must admit that I admire Apple diversification since 2001 and the release of the first IPod. Apple top marketers are exceptionally talented and are the company’s main asset, even before designers. They managed to build a new positionning of the brand, much larger, but still confidential, ensuring, and even intensifying the tribal behaviour of its customers.

This post is the first tagged Apple on e-remediable. I am sure that there will be much more.

As you may know, I am currently in Morocco for my internship in a publishing company.

While surfing on the web yesterday, I got amazed by the breakdown of Youtube servers. For the very first time since I know this site, not a single Youtube videoclip was working (neither embedded videos, nor those on YouTube website). As a customer-care maniac, I was quite upset by this. I tried Dailymotion (which was perfectly working), but unfortunately, the videoclip I was looking for was not available on it.

Investigating the web for more information about this, I learnt that YouTube had been blocked by my ISP. Only Maroc Telecom (the historic telephone operating company in Morocco, subsidiary of Vivendi) customers were concerned, the two other ISPs kept granting access to the website and its videoclips . Resistance against this was organizing, many websites linking to proxies to access YouTube. The buzz around this case was so high (crossing borders to France), that Maroc Telecom brought back access to the website yesterday evening.

To protest against censorship, I show you the dissident video I was looking for, another excellent live performance of Ben Folds (during the concert he gave broadcasted live on his MySpace page):
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9qa_c-UYSs]

En fouillant un peu dans Digg, on tombe parfois sur des perles comme celle ci. Le bootleg video est un des grands progrès contemporain dont on parle trop peu …

Vous le connaissez sans doute par son fait d’armes majeur: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind dirigeant un Jim Carrey au sommet de son art. Peut-être le connaissez-vous par La Science Des Rêves, excellent film, qui sera peut-être l’objet d’un prochain post, et dont la promotion du DVD est en cours. Probablement sans le savoir, vous connaissez forcément ses clips délirants pour Daft Punk, les Rolling Stones, Björk, les White Stripes, Radiohead ou Fatboy Slim.
J’ai vu aujourd’hui Block Party, son documentaire sur ce qui doit être le concert le plus fou de l’histoire du hip-hop. Le concept est simple, Dave Chappelle, le Jamel Debbouze américain, a voulu organiser une petite sauterie dans son quartier de Brooklyn pour fêter avec tous ses amis, voisins, et quelques invités, sa nomination aux Emmy Awards. Au programme entre autres: Kanye West, Mos Def, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott ou les Fugees (reconstitués pour la première fois depuis 8 ans!)

Evidemment, avec une telle brochette, dur de faire un film dégueu … Gondry, qui a suivi Dave Chappelle durant toute la préparation de la Block Party, a réussi à faire d’un concert un long métrage diffusé en salles. Inutile de vous en louer la BO.
Ci dessous, de quoi vous donner envie d’acheter le DVD.