Since Miranda July’s last net-based project kinda pfffted, we knew her latest attempt at topical transmedia looming somewhere ahead. Freshly premiered at the Venice Film Festival, here is the “Somebody” app, commissioned by Miu Miu. Basically, you get strangers with the app to tell your acquaintances things in person instead of you.
The app works best when you’re in a “hotspot” with a lot of users, official ones including the New Museum, Los Angeles County Museum, the Arts Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center and more. Unlike its pitch nonsense — “Texting is tacky. Calling is awkward. Email is old.” — the “hotspots” are sort of nifty parts of the project, providing setting conducive to relational aesthetics pop-ups.
Here’s a sleek/quirky ten minute ad/film directed by Miranda July, featuring cinematically awkward demonstrations of the app in action and precious plays on ethnicity. I can’t wait to see if I can rob a bank with this thing. I mean, “rob a bank” \(｡´∀｀)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
