END TIMES GIRLS CLUB
Rose Schlossberg
End Times Girls Club is an apocalypse survival guide for dummies. This videoblog teaches viewers how to make survival tools for the imminent end times without being like a total drag. Once you're in the club, you can rest a little easier.
www.endtimesgirlsclub.com
Assuming the confidence and style of a teen-girl YouTube star, the END TIMES GIRL presents DIY methods for creating communication and survival tools in anticipation of a disaster hitting New York City. Inspired by the infrastructure failures in New York during Hurricane Sandy, and a feeling of being disconnected and powerless in the middle of the grid, I aim to dispense serious information about being self-sufficient in a humorous and sardonic way. As a performance, this project explores internet authority and web presence in anticipation of a telecommunications collapse. In addition to the instructional videos, the ETGC website features a webstore where viewers can purchase survival kits, as well as sign up for apocalypse phone alerts.
Background
For this project I was inspired by tv shows like National Geographic Channel's "Doomsday Preppers", and YouTube "haul" videos where stylish young women present the results of their "haul" from bargain clothing stores. I also looked a lot at the popular items on Amazon in the "survival" catagory, at twitter feeds of survivalists and preppers. I also read about the origins of the LDS Church and other American eschatological belief systems, and apocalypticism in other world religions. My inspiration for web video performance was artists like Petra Cortright and Rachel Libeskind. In using paypal and interacting with the public as a seller of a service and an authority, I was inspired by David Horvitz' "Things For Sale That I Will Mail You" where he lists things he will do and places he will go to retrieve things or photos and mail them to you, for a certain price.
Audience
My audience is people with a sense of humor, and girls curious about being self-sufficient. I think it also satisfies anyone with a curiosity or appetite for chaos and disaster fantasy.
User Scenario
Someone discovers one of my videos while researching the end of the world on youtube; they visit my site, are amused, are curious, research survival skills they want to learn, have a sense of humor about it all.
Implementation
See above. Web videos, website, online store, phone alert system.
Conclusion
I learned about making videos by myself that are fun and engaging, developing a brand, web connection, monitoring twitter, generating phone calls from asterisk, ruby, sinatra, online personae.
Background
For this project I was inspired by tv shows like National Geographic Channel's "Doomsday Preppers", and YouTube "haul" videos where stylish young women present the results of their "haul" from bargain clothing stores. I also looked a lot at the popular items on Amazon in the "survival" catagory, at twitter feeds of survivalists and preppers. I also read about the origins of the LDS Church and other American eschatological belief systems, and apocalypticism in other world religions. My inspiration for web video performance was artists like Petra Cortright and Rachel Libeskind. In using paypal and interacting with the public as a seller of a service and an authority, I was inspired by David Horvitz' "Things For Sale That I Will Mail You" where he lists things he will do and places he will go to retrieve things or photos and mail them to you, for a certain price.
Audience
My audience is people with a sense of humor, and girls curious about being self-sufficient. I think it also satisfies anyone with a curiosity or appetite for chaos and disaster fantasy.
User Scenario
Someone discovers one of my videos while researching the end of the world on youtube; they visit my site, are amused, are curious, research survival skills they want to learn, have a sense of humor about it all.
Implementation
See above. Web videos, website, online store, phone alert system.
Conclusion
I learned about making videos by myself that are fun and engaging, developing a brand, web connection, monitoring twitter, generating phone calls from asterisk, ruby, sinatra, online personae.