“We’re all stuck here” / “Please help me”
Glover’s use of transmedia is a focused effort of creating applicability, that is, taking his exploration of identity and security in the modern age and transiting this exploration to his audience. This is the purpose of his extended connections. The conversational and web-inspired tone of the script, the use of meme font as subtitles for film clips, his pre-release gatherings in homes and parks across North America, and the use of the Deep Web App exemplify this transmedia use to address reality in real time, in metamodern fashion, providing impetus for audience members to explore and grapple with their own world as an extension of their exploration of this world. In exploring his identity and dilemma openly and vulnerably, and giving this material to the world, the dangers of which Glover is well aware of, Glover embodies the creative process he desires from others.
“Eventually all my followers realize they don’t need a leader”
Online sites, such as the discussion forum reddit.com/r/donaldglover, or the website www.foreverchildish.com, are littered with conversations, fan art, and explorations of Glover’s work. On the Reddit forum r/donaldglover, posts such as “[Discussion] Secret Track” delved into the code of Glover’s websites, mining for information that would reveal the files of a song referred to as “Secret Track” in the online script (donald4spiderman).It was on the forum where fans shared knowledge of the coding that finally revealed the secret track, buried within the code of becausetheinter.net (King “Childish Gambino Sends Fans on Scavenger Hunt”).
A lot of the conversations deal with an analysis of what Glover’s work means, when he first started tweeting “Roscoe’s Wetsuit,” his “fans [made] up meanings, spread rumors, and Google arduously for clues,” and Glover himself addressed the interaction fans had with his work when he tweeted a short script as pre-release material for becausetheinter.net, in which he included the following exchange:
SKATEBOARD KID: what the fuck is ‘roscoe's wetsuit’ ?
ARIZONA KID: myles and tinchie be tweetin it. it's some childish gambino thing
(Moore; @DonaldGlover).
In another instance of fan exploration on the forum, one fan discovered that by peeling the lenticular print off the physical album cover, the text “Roscoe’s Wetsuit” was revealed (Raul3871). Following past discussion of “Roscoe’s Wetsuit” as a representation of metamodern identity exploration, as well as the role the album’s cover plays in this process, the result of fan’s literally looking underneath his projected identity, searching for the underlying meaning, is a beautifully connective moment between author and audience. This is representative of the connections sought for throughout Because the Internet, intended to spur deeper examination of the world.
Fan investigation and analysis of Because the Internet even produced a website, Becausethe.com, and although it has been mostly lost due to discontinuation, there is still analysis and conversation recorded on websites like genius.com, where fans decode all of Glover’s work (Polisym; DC26). Acknowledging this, Glover hosted a Q&A on genius.com, fielding questions from his favorite food to cook to the number of shirts (9) he had to maintain The Boy’s outfit (“ask me words”).
Real Life Interaction / Performance Art
Performance art, through the park listening parties, mansion shows, or the Tumblr IRL performance, as well as the Deep Web Tour and Deep Web App, are emblems of Glover’s outreach to audiences. This is a direct attempt at connection with audiences, and grounds the desire for real-world application of ideas. Glover described the album as “being about connection,” so he sought these connections in real life (RevoltTV). Glover built the world, and fans came. At an impromptu listening session in Washington Square Park, one fan described her experience: “My best friend called me, and she’s like, ‘Gambino’s in the park.’ I closed everything, like ran over here,” representative of Glover’s real-life outreach surmounting audiences’ typical web activity (MTV). Using twitter as his announcement tool, Glover hosted listening sessions in parks all across North America, dressed as The Boy, holding the book Dostoevsky, Kierkegard, Nietzsche and Kafka by William Hubben, keying audiences in on the existential influence on his work (Rys). Glover hosted small shows in mansions across America well, thematically playing off of The Boy’s wealth and house parties, bringing audiences into a house for a unified experience that bridged reality and fiction (Revolt’s Blackout). His Tumblr IRL performance, which saw him design a set of The Boy’s bedroom and then perform songs in said bedroom, was a transmedia masterpiece that brought part of the fictional world to life (Opam). These gatherings of crowds served as physical evidence of Glover’s outreach and appeal, as well as the application of his work, in that it brought people together.Also, given all the motivic connections to Buddhism throughout BTI, check out one of Glover’s clearest indications of purposeful performance art in public. When given the option to sit however he wanted, he invariably adopted the pose of the central Buddhist statue in The Temple.
The Deep Web Tour and App constitute Glover’s fusion of connectivity, both digitally and in reality. The opening act of the show was a DJ set by Stefan Ponce, and the screen on stage displayed fan’s interaction with the Deep Web App, as they would “deliver tweet-style messages and dick-shaped doodles” to the screen for all at the concert to see (Dionne). While the content produced by fans may seem juvenile (“people draw dicks and swastikas”), the app and concert brought the fans together, creating a metamodern experience of connectivity both in reality and digitally (Glover “Week 1 of 3”). The App capitalized on its propensity for “fresh content to be offered on the fly,” as fans reacted to one another’s content, and the “community-building aspect” of the social use of mobile devices (Miller 328). Glover’s portion of the show began with him, dressed as The Boy, with visual depth created by multiple projection screens placing him in his home in the Palisades, fusing identities in this performance. Transitions between songs punctuated by video clips bridged media forms seamlessly (Glover “Childish Gambino Live at The Deep Web Tour”). Fans could interact with the stage at various points, such as a poll that asked fans how they felt during the performance of “III. Urn,” experientially representing the interplay between audience and artist (Dionne). By creating connections both digitally and personally, Glover creates a metamodern performance, fostering a sense of community and a personalized experience for each individual, as the app gave power to each fan to participate in the show uniquely.
“The thing that will set us apart is our human reasoning and empathy for each other”
-Donald Glover (Deep Web Blog Week 3 of 3)
In “III. Life: The Biggest Troll [Andrew Auernheimer],” the final track on the album and the accompaniment to the end credits of the script, Glover amalgamates fiction and reality, universalizing concerns of the individual, playing on the existential dilemma faced especially by African-Americans on the web as a dramatic representation of the danger felt by all, finding resolution in a sincere plea for help through connection. The bridge of the song repeats, “Andrew Auernheimer, / pulling on her weave, it’s that Andrew Auernheimer,” alluding to the hacker Andrew Auernheimer, known on the web under pseudonym “weev,” thus simultaneously addressing the web danger of hacking as well as the stereotypical violence seen previously on “II. Worldstar,” connected through their exposure of identity. White supremacist Auernheimer gained notoriety for revealing the information of AT&T customers, attacks on LiveJournal accounts, and countless other claims of internet terrorism (Zetter; Schwartz). Through the double connotation of “weev” and “weave,” Glover connects the images of an African-American woman’s weave being pulled and Auernheimer’s internet menace. Important to note is the notion of weaves as a construction of identity, as these wigs enable women to modify their appearance connected with hair, symbolic of sexuality and emblematic of racial identity (A. Johnson et. al.; Bryant). Threats to African-Americans and individuals on the web intertwine, and racial prejudice acts as an accelerant of these dangers. The danger here has devastating potential, serving as a representation of the threat facing humanity in modern times. Glover’s response is the metamodern, the sincere plea to connection and each other, the call for earnest exploration.After a long-winded verse in which Glover re-examines thematic elements from Because the Internet and provides audiences with questions and motivations to explore, the outro finishes the album. Glover, his voice fading, pleads: “You're here now / You have to help me / You have to help me / I need you—you have to help me / You have to help me / You have to help me / Please help me / Please help me / Please, please help me / Please—” in a vulnerable and sincere call to action (“III. Life: The Biggest Troll [Andrew Auernheimer]”). Glover, the comedian, astutely aware of the irony in being so straightforward after crafting a world full of double entendre and innuendo, combines sincerity and irony in a metamodern appeal for connection. This is a call for connection, for aid. Opening himself up through exploration of identity and means of connection, Glover reaches out to audiences, the vulnerability and fading of his voice revealing the very real dangers posed by the internet, while it is the same internet that gave him the tools and outreach to create this world. After his plea, there is a repetition of the loading sound heard on the opening snippet of the album, “The Library [Intro],” keying in on the repetition and cyclical nature of the work that evidenced its metamodern sensibility, and reminding audiences of the start. This is an appeal to the whole, to the entirety of the Because the Internet experience, as inspiration for action, conversation, exploration, and connection.