Have you ever thought about what the Tenerife Typical would have been like without the showcase offered by the digital universe and its 130,000 followers on Instagram alone?
Clearly not. Social networks in themselves are nothing, they are not good or bad. They are a place where you can find and display whatever you want and it all depends on what you are looking for and what you offer. There are people with brutal creativity, incredible artists, people who do things that fulfill you in some way, whether by making you laugh or moving, or entertaining. In my case, I simply thought of a character and started developing it with tweets; then in comic format and, occasionally, in simple animations. Surely, not feeling immediate correspondence, I would not have thought that anyone would like me. Nor would I have felt motivated to start designing my own clothing items.
Do we canaries have the waist to laugh at ourselves?
I think so; and a lot. At least what I have to live from my perspective. My character satirizes in an exaggerated way a way of being recognizable in many people here (myself included), and I always receive feedback of pure hesitation.
Why have you decided to maintain anonymity in this project?
First of all, to maintain creativity. I feel very good behind the scenes and I feel that it is the place and the way in which I can let my creative concerns flow. And above all because the protagonist is the character and his universe in vignettes and fiction, and he is the one I want to have the focus. And secondly because I value my privacy and I want to be able to clearly differentiate these two worlds.
Do you also like to draw?
I love it. It was always my passion and my hobby, and I considered dedicating my training to it. But academically I went into other areas. Although it makes me happy that I finally managed to give it a professional space and I can reflect this hobby in my designs for clothing items, which is where I truly turn my drawing. The bullet point part is another concept.
Have you managed to obtain any economic benefit from this initiative? I ask this because, despite the massive interaction and use of users, it is still difficult to obtain profitability from digital content due to the philosophy of total free, with a strong impact.
I do not agree that a total free philosophy prevails. Far from it in directing that criticism at the users. In fact, to be on your mobile phone watching Instagram you have already paid for a mobile phone and you are paying one of the most expensive internet fees in all of Europe. If opening a profile on networks is free, it is because our data is worth money, and because we can be exposed for free to what companies decide. Giant companies that, by the way, it is already well known that they trade with them. From what I experience firsthand, and from what I speak with colleagues who are also proletarians of creativity, I would move the criticism of total free upwards.
In what sense?
Even today, many of the proposals to carry out, for example, an advertising action on networks, continue to be presented almost as if they were favors. That condescension like: “Look how funny what this person does! This, since it is nonsense that makes you laugh, it is not difficult.” That translates into little respect for people whose job is creativity, and it means undervaluing a job like any other. Furthermore, before, it was normal for a proposal for action on networks to come already worked on by an advertising agency, or by the client himself who only wanted to link his action to a certain account. Now it is the person behind the account who thinks up the idea, creates the script, proposes drafts, makes corrections, executes it, publishes it, follows up on it, exposes itself, and even uploads the action data. And then comes the long period of almost begging to invoice all this work, most of the time underpaid. Total free exists there. As for my economic benefit, I have been excitedly enjoying my own project for eight years, which is my clothes. It’s my main job.
