UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
and 
USC Annenberg School of Communication &
USC School of Cinematic Arts

present

Transforming Hollywood 8:
The Work of Art in the Age of Algorithmic Culture

Presented by The Andrew J. Kuehn, Jr. Foundation

Friday, May 5, 2017
James Bridges Theater, UCLA

9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Tickets will be sold until midnight on Thursday, May 4th, after which they will be purchasable on site on the day of the conference.

Transforming Hollywood 8: “The Work of Art in the Age of Algorithmic Culture,” reframes Walter Benjamin’s oft-quoted essay about technology’s double-edged sword: mechanical reproduction fundamentally alters the original artwork’s unique auratic properties but makes it accessible to the masses. According to Ted Striphas, “…the growing prevalence of recommendation features such as those you find on Amazon.com [signals the] displacement of human judgment into algorithmic form [which] raises all sorts of questions about taste aggregation — questions with which scholars in the humanities …have only begun to grapple.” Streaming on-demand services grant consumers greater choice and democratic access to media content (letting us choose what to watch and when to watch it); however, the terms of this exchange is unfettered access to our consumer impulses via sophisticated surveillance tactics that track our online activities 24-7. Ted Hope, the newly appointed head of Amazon Studios’ film division, lays out the implicit pact we’ve forged with the major tech platforms: “Amazon Studios’ flood of investment in the movie business is designed to revive a market for independent films….” However, at the same time, he observes wryly: “At Amazon, to quote Jeff Bezos, we make movies to sell shoes. The movies are essentially advertising for the (e-commerce) platform.” Welcome to the future of art (as advertising) in the age of algorithmic culture.

While Netflix has received the lions’ share of press and notoriety for disrupting traditional Hollywood given its $6 billion investment in original content and its global expansion to 190 territories, the “big four” tech platforms—Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (GAFA)—have infinitely more capital (and data) to spare when it comes to the risky business of growing a media and entertainment industry. Each has its own core business to fall back on: Google has search and advertising; Apple has its hardware-software business; Facebook has social and advertising; and Amazon has its ecommerce business. Media, it turns out, is the ideal lure to keep users inside of their powerful digital ecosystems as long as consumers accept datavaillance as the price of admission.

As Hollywood and Silicon Valley battle for supremacy, the current crisis in media stems from an unmanageable sea of online content made available by competing subscription-based (SVOD) and advertising-supported (AVOD) streaming services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube Red, Vimeo, Seeso, Crackle, CBS Everywhere, HBO Go, CW Seed, Verizon Go90, and so forth. The streaming music services, such as Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and Tidal, have also joined the original content derby, with Apple’s repurposing of James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke and Tidal’s exclusive streaming of Beyonce’s Lemonade being prime examples. Compounding the existing churn of data-driven content is what’s being generated by millennial-facing online news formats such as Vice, BuzzFeed and Mic; each is disrupting legacy news organizations, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, once revered for their veteran editors who curate the news and seasoned reporters who research all sides of complex issues. The backlash that followed the recent election cycle prompted Wired to report:“There’s a very dark mood in Silicon Valley right now…. Google and Facebook also seem to be feeling a need to grapple with the role they have played. Both have undertaken highly visible initiatives to curb fake news….” While the platforms were able to scale rapidly by giving unfettered access to all forms of third-party-generated content, in their new role as original content producers, the tech founders are starting to reflect on their social responsibility to curate culture. This year’s conference examines the legacy of Netflix and YouTube as influencers, creator-entrepreneurs, and engineers all contribute to the seemingly endless flood of scripted series and short-form, snackable content that vies for our attention. One question looms large: Will flesh and blood experts or data-driven algorithms ultimately control the production, delivery, and reception of our shared cultural knowledge going forward?

Schedule Overview

9:00-9:15 a.m. - The Work of Art in the Age of Algorithmic Culture.  Welcome by Transforming Hollywood by co-directors Denise Mann (UCLA) and Henry Jenkins (USC).

9:15-10:20 a.m. - Keynote Presentation,” by Ted Striphas, “Algorithmic Culture.” 

10:30-12:00 p.m. - Panel One: Playing with Snackable Content in Virtual Marketplaces, moderated by Denise Mann, Professor, School of Theater, Film, Television, UCLA.

Panelists:

• Larry Fitzgibbon, CEO and Co-Founder, Tastemade
• Thomas Jorion, Head of Strategy and Innovation, Havas 18
• Rob Kramer, CEO and Founder, PurposeLab
• Kym Nelson, Senior VP of Sales, Twitch
• Ted Striphas, Professor, Colorado University

12:15-1:45 p.m. - Panel Two: Fake News and Struggles Over Circulation, Moderated by Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor, Annenberg Communication and School of Cinematic Arts, USC.  

Panelists:

• Mark Andrejevic, Professor of Media Studies, Pomona College
• Brooke Borel, journalist and Author of The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking
• Hannah Cranston, host and executive producer of ThinkTank and guest host of The Young Turks.
• Jon Passantino, deputy news director for BuzzFeed News, Los Angeles.
• Ramesh Srinivasan, Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies and Design/Media Arts, UCLA.
• Laura Sydell, Correspondent, Arts Desk, NPR.

1:45-2:45 p.m. - Lunch Break 

2:45-4:15 p.m. - Panel Three: Music Streaming & The Splinternets: The New, Competing Cultural Curators, moderated by Gigi Johnson, Founding Director, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Panelists:

• Matthew Adell, CEO and Founder, MetaPop
• Shanna Jade, Director of Community, Stem
• Alex White, Head of Next Big Sound at Pandora

4:30-6:00 p.m. - Panel Four: Creating Binge-worthy “Streaming Web TV,” Moderated by Neil Landau, author of TV Outside the Box and The Showrunner’s Roadmap.

Panelists:

• Jessie Kahnweiler, creator, The Skinny (Hulu)
• Zander Lehmann, creator, Casual (Hulu)
• Dawn Prestwich, co-executive producer, Z: The Beginning of Everything (Amazon)
• Nicole Yorkin, co-executive producer, Z: The Beginning of Everything (Amazon)

6:00-8:00 p.m. - Reception