After re-visitng We Feel Fine under the context of Foucault’s What Is An Author?, I began to see many different definitions of an “author.” Foucault argues that the definition of an author stems from the author’s “functioning of certain discourses within an society.” (Foucault, 108) He then questions “how can one use the author function to determine if one is dealing with one or several individuals,” which immediately made me think of We Feel Fine (Foucault, 110). The four criteria for an author that Foucault quotes from Saint Jerome are what seems to discredit Jonathan Harris’ We Feel Fine project as one of a story with an author. We Feel Fine seems to break against all four of Jerome’s criteria. Foucault concludes from Jerome’s four criteria that an author is “defined as a constant level of value…as a field of conceptual or theoretical coherence…is conceived as a stylistic unity…is seen as a historical figure at the crossroads of a certain number of events.”(Foucault, 111) But because of the consistent manner in which We Feel Fine goes against Foucault’s definitions, one might conclude that it is this nonconformity that defines the author of We Feel Fine.
None of the blog authors of We Feel Fine share common ideals or opinions (not on purpose, anyway). In fact, the blog authors contradict each other all the time. But all the blog authors’ works are being gathered for a common reason: they all feel. This also speaks to the third criterion, in that each blog author has their own, distinct style. It is these distinct styles that lets the reader know that these blog authors are individual people with their own set of feelings, instead of an emotion-spouting, standardized computer. Finally, We Feel Fine’s blog authors are not single historical figures, but many figures existing in many different periods of time standing at many different crossroads simultaneously. They are all unified because they are standing at these crossroads, and writing about them.
I haven’t forgotten the first criterion. In fact, its probably the most important in defining We Feel Fine’s author. Foucault describes an author as “a constant level of value.”(Foucault, 111) Although there are many different blog authors who contribute to We Feel Fine, one is not valued more than another, because it is their being there together that gives the project its value. True, one blogger may seem more intelligent than another, based on the content and/or style of their post, but each blog resonates differently within each reader, based on the reader’s own context, perspective or experience. It is from everyone’s differences, readers and writers alike, that We Feel Fine draws its strength and poignancy. Its not They Feel Fine, its We Feel Fine.
In the “mission” section of We Feel Fine, Harris states that “We Feel Fine is an artwork authored by everyone.”(Harris, Kamvar) I interpret Harris’ “everyone” to mean all the people who’s blog posts contribute to the We Feel Fine database, Harris and Kamvar as creators of the database, and the people who explore and interpret We Feel Fine (the readers). Without any of these people, We Feel Fine cannot exist. We Feel Fine is a project that celebrates the individuality of the human race, and it is this individuality that defines its many, many authors.
You raise a host of questions here regarding authorship; I think repurposing Foucault’s use of St. Jerome’s four criteria is especially productive. Especially when you talk about distinctive style:
I wonder if we can consider the algorithm of We Feel Fine to be an author with a distinctive style. Not that database per se, but the algorithm used to access and structure the information in the database. This is something will look at more closely in class.