Case Study on Carles of Hipster Runoff and Identity Construction Experiment
EMAC 4326
At the same time this project was assigned, I was also becoming increasingly suspect of the identity of a very popular music and indie lifestyle blogger, Carles (of Hipster Runoff). Carles shares as an anonymous male figure that focuses his energy on staying furiously up to date with music blog “buzz” and alternative trends. His overly critical, ironic view of “hipster” lifestyle critiques these trends and appeals to their audiences simultaneously. The blog balances a fine line of awareness with 3rd party criticism– the topics discussed are largely only relevant to a small niche community, while the critiques lie more in a public, outsider realm. Interestingly enough, Carles often breaks news and helps foster audiences for many of the artists he is judging. Carles even created an identity questioning meme t-shirt which reads: “I Am Carles”.
This careful constructed anonymous figure does not force any incredible questions about identity in our generation alone, but upon further digging there are quite a few fascinating characteristics about Carles.
Although Hipster Runoff has been actively blogging since 2006, the indie community has yet to confirm this secret identity. While many heavily suspect artist Tao Lin, he has continually denied this connection in interviews. I am among the group that strongly believes Tao Lin and Carles are the same person. Tao Lin’s personal work is satirical, ironic, often monotone and focuses on similar niche culture that Carles obsesses over.
The connection between the two identities becomes increasingly clear when examining a third constructed personality– Bebe Zeva. At only 18 years old, Bebe stands a prime example for the new generation utilizing emerging communication avenues for their personal benefit. When she was only 14, she contacted Hipster Runoff directly from a fan perspective. Inspired by her potential, he proceded to send her t-shirts and advice to mold her persona–then rewarding her with mentions on his blog.
Her relationship with Carles became more personal and in 2009, he even officially introduced her to his audiences as the new alternative “it” girl. She has now solidified herself as an Internet personality–with an active fashion blog, and even posting extremely monotonous videos of herself on the Internet (which of course, have thousands of views despite the subject matter). Carles hand molded Bebe Zeva and then Tao Lin also chose to make an experimental documentary about her life.
Filmed entirely using a Macbook in a fairly short period, this documentary is very similar to the rest of Tao Lin’s work. There are many moments that are extremely monotonous, but because of the fact that Lin has chosen them to exist in the film, he is automatically making a commentary on the simple, repetitive, rather boring nature of Bebe Zeva’s existence. Tao Lin also appears in the film and even he lacks a certain heart or interest. Both are constantly concerned with maintaining a consistent identity–which lacks a human quality in a very fascinating way. Because Tao Lin chose to make a documentary about a person that “Carles” has heavily invested in only hints more towards the fact that they are indeed the same person.
Fascinated by the way Carles molded Bebe Zeva, I attempted to make a similar character with potential for his involvement. Inspired largely by my old roommate, Hannah Weir, the new character is a 19 year old living in Tacoma, WA. Hannah Silva spends a majority of her time taking photos, listening to music and trying to learn new things. I purposefully made her character vague. There are not many photos that feature faces, and none that outright admit the subject is Hannah. At first I created a tumblr, but then realized that only posting photos does not imply authorship (as I had hoped). I started to create more text based, testimonial posts and at the same time created a twitter. Ultimately, the character development was not necessarily a reflection of my own personal desires, but rather what I thought would be an ideal person for Carles to mold. There are several posts on each platform, and both profiles are linked in the signature of the email.
After a few days of attempting to make these profiles look real, I wrote an email to Tao Lin and sent it to both available emails for Carles and Tao Lin. The email sounds slightly immature, but is essentially a plea for Tao Lin to construct this new identity like he did for Bebe Zeva and himself.
The email:
bb tao,
i extremely admire your ability to construct identities (see: carles, bebe zeva) and i look forward to any opportunity to be molded into “the” face for a new trend, style, music, hipster icon, etc. the internet is your medium and it’s unfortunate that for your art to be successful, it must remain anonymous. but i confidently believe that your first construction was yourself, as an artist. your multi-faceted face of alienating audiences while also forcing a sort of human identification is quite fascinating. i can definitely identify with your stories about acid trips and sex, even if they aren’t true. i think i might like them more if they are fake actually. there is no solid ground with your personal identity, despite your internet persona that dictates otherwise. it seems unlikely that you and megan boyle were ever married, more so a construction for internet fans to gawk at. (not tryin to say you weren’t in a relationship, you might have been, but your choice to publicize the matter came across as entirely sincere, yet i’m sure it was furtherest from.)
also, even though you and the rest of the internet says otherwise, i am 89.5% sure you are carles. you have applied the same style of identity construction to this character.
i thought all of this was just fine and dandy– until i realized you constructed bebe zeva. if you are interested in creating more female indie web celebrities, choose me. i will make whatever twitter handle you want. tacoma is sort of boring, but i could always move. bebe did! i will make up a new fashion trend. i will design my own high socks! i can ironically combine two pieces of art to create something new and relevant! i am 19 and inspired by your work. the potential is there for real.
lets gchat?
– Hannah Mercedes Silva
http://ruvibin.tumblr.com | @buzzedvibes
Ultimately, this was an interesting experience but I consistently felt very creepy and inappropriate. Anytime I chose photos to represent this character, I was afraid that he would recognize the person and the entire identity of Hannah Silva would immediately fail. I attempted to localize content to try and make this character more believable. Scouting Tacoma craigslists and twitter pages was interesting, but I slowly realized that for a truly believable character, there must be public interaction. Hannah Silva has no Tacoma friends and no interaction on Tumblr or Twitter.
I am quite unsure whether Tao Lin/Carles read the email, but I have not received any response. If he did respond, I would anticipate a fairly sarcastic, rude email. It is extremely difficult to construct a believable identity in two weeks and show it to a master of identity construction.
pondering and wandering 