Talking To The Unknown - SOWT #1
How to communicate with an audience before they exist?!?
I asked myself this exact question before writing this stack; how do you communicate with an audience before they exist?!? I scoured the internet and came back empty-handed or dissatisfied with the answers until I found the work of Walter J. Ong - I will get to that shortly.
Who am I talking to ? or who's reading this? What do they look like? Where are they from? Websites like YouTube and other writing platforms provide fairly precise data about a page's audience. Breaking them down by age, gender, location, and more. (GAL 1)
But what if you are starting from scratch, on a new platform, with a new idea in mind?
Some writers prefer to envision their audience as similar to themselves, which is understandable. People tend to connect better with materials created by individuals they can relate to, making it easier to understand the message being conveyed (with exceptions, of course). But I am sure not all my readers will be 24-year-old brown men with a beard living in Vancouver. Additionally, one of my goals for this stack is to be as inclusive as possible; I explain why on my About page.
Looking For Answers
After reading through tons of articles and watching a bunch of YouTube videos where all they talk about is building a relationship with your audience by collecting a bunch of data and targeting / catering posts for them, I was left unsatisfied. I didn't want to alter my materials to suit a "buyer persona." That would defeat the entire purpose of starting this work. At the same time, I don't want to completely disregard the algorithm and write for the bottomless pit of the internet. It's a delicate balance and a slippery slope that I need to learn to navigate.
I figured I would go back to my old university days and look for published journals, and that's when I found Ong's "The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction"1 . It's a short research article that discuses this very issue I am facing. Summarizing the paper, he argues that the writer's audience is always fictional, meaning the writer creates an imagined reader or audience for their work. This imagined audience can shape the writer's choices in terms of language, tone, and content. He believes the audience is not an actual entity but rather a projection of the writer's thoughts and ideas about who might read their work. By creating this imagined audience, the writer can better understand and connect with their readers, and the work itself can become more impactful and meaningful.
“For writing is itself an indirection. Direct communication by script is impossible. This makes writing not less but more interesting” Ong discusses how we all wear masks from birth to death. In the workplace, with family, with partners, on public transport, at social gatherings, we all put on a facade. These mask doesn't necessarily have to be something terrible. I believe it's just a way for us to deal with our inherent tribal nature and sometimes works to our benefit; for example, putting on a professional mask at work can be beneficial. You don't want to talk to your clients like you speak with your friend or vice versa.
It is very difficult to bring out your full authentic self and thats okay. As long as we trying we are moving forward.
Answers Or More Questions?
This answered my question: "How do I communicate with an audience before they exist or even after they exist?" The answer is simple: there is no way of knowing, especially in the context of the internet where information can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Your readers could be anyone, reading from anywhere at any time - on the metro, next to a beautiful beach during sunset, in an industrial hellhole town - there is no way of knowing.
If I keep trying to tailor my materials according to what I believe my audience to be, I will keep chasing a moving target. As an artist, I believe it is important to work on what you really like, not what's trending or what's up next. This way, you will be more satisfied in the long run as you do things for yourself and not others. But how do you find out what you really like? A few seconds ago, I said we are all wearing a mask and it's very difficult to be authentic; well, I will dive more into that on the next SOWT»
This section will highlight the things I tried this week and it worked.
I got this CAA map in the mail and wanted to make something out of it. The saturated but harmonized colours looked very cool to me. The black circles have textures underneath them (using whole wheat, card cuttings, etc.). They look raised in real life. I also curved the canvas on the left to create some oddity. The top right corner still needs to be developed (I don’t know how). This work is about how city roads are just like the veins in our bodies. A nice little win for the week. It might work, might go to the dump, who knows.
This section will highlight the things I tried this week but failed. The idea is to take failure as it is and try to get something out of it. Move on!
I wrote this 2000-word blog post with art, graphics, and photos titled “The Conflict Of Western Values.” It started off well, but since I didn’t have a proper outline, it didn’t have a good direction. I was running fast but totally blind. In the end, it feels like a jumbled mess of thoughts. I don’t think it came out as I had hoped. Had to can it. But I got some cool art from it and learned a few things. Also, here is what the Québec government gave me when I first landed in Montréal…..non of my white friends got this…weird. This was part of the article.
This section will highlight cool things I found in the week. It could be a film, video, photography, music, mixed media, etc. Relating to culture, politics, or nothing. It is essential to expose yourself to different forms of materials constantly.
Watch till : 1:27
Full music video!
This section will consist of street photography I take every week. I would like to post at least 3 per week but this week is an exception (I hope)
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I did my best to make this information both interesting and valuable. I acknowledge that there's always room for improvement and I am committed to continuously experimenting and making changes. Although it may not be perfect, I am determined to make it better with each iteration.
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Have a nice weekend :)
Ong, Walter J. “The Writer's Audience Is Always a Fiction.” PMLA, vol. 90, no. 1, 1975, pp. 9–21., doi:10.2307/461344.