Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker at Wellesley College: special focus (2014)

This sensationalized story raises several questions. What was the media result? What was its value? Was the coverage a strategic, PR-led media push, or a media pull, a compelling, journalism-led story?

According to what became the standard phrasing, Tony Matelli’s Sleepwalker, a “remarkably lifelike sculpture sleepwalking in nothing but his underpants” in an “eyes closed, zombie-like trance” was placed outdoors “at a busy area of campus” at the “prestigious women’s school.” [The sculpture was installed as part of Matelli’s solo show at the college’s Davis Museum.] Soon after the work’s installation, a group of students launched a "petition" on <change.org> demanding its removal, as "the sculpture is a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault.” As of 5 February 2014, the petition had collected 300 signatures.

The [sensational quotes above], which framed the story, come from an Associated Press (AP) wire release bearing the headline “Mass. College Man-in-Undies Sculpture Causes Stir.” This article was one of at least four AP wires that steamrolled through American media. AP offers its stories to about 1,400 U.S. daily newspaper members and thousands of TV/radio broadcast members, among other news outlets, both for hardcopy and Web usage. (In this case, we recorded more than 750 placements.) Interestingly, the Sleepwalker story was quickly bumped up from “odd news” to “big story,” and information about the exhibition was announced nationally. Images of the sculpture in the snow— perfect for news photo galleries and “photo of the day” features on Web sites— were also offered by AP, Getty, and Reuters, further driving the coverage.

Other news distributors followed suit with headlines like “Statue of near-naked man sparks ‘brief’ controversy” (Internet Broadcasting, more than 45 placements), “Realistic statue of man in underwear freaks out women’s college” (networked, Rick Couri-authored text, more than 40 placements), and “Naked Sleepwalker statue stirring controversy at college campus” (NBC News, more than 50 placements). Nationwide, more than 320 local TV affiliates of the four major TV networks published as many as four articles about Sleepwalker on their Web sites. News outlets in all 50 states carried the story. At the national level, almost every news outlet ran at least one report. In addition to the U.S., the story was reported in more than 90 other countries. As one can imagine, a social media frenzy accompanied the [mass-media performative mix].

Colorful headlines and opinion pieces of all stripes abounded, including “All-Female College Terrified by Creepy Underwear Man Statue” (gawker.com). A Time magazine writer slammed the protesters with “Man up, Wellesley: You’re a generation of sheltered children.” In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, Wellesley College President H. Kim Bottomly slammed back, “None of them have any need to man up, and I hope and trust, for women’s sake, that none of them will ever shut up.” Andrea Peyser in the New York Post gave the following advice: “Girls, relax.”

Later news stories reported that the sculpture now had its own Twitter and Facebook accounts. Tony Matelli spoke out defending Sleepwalker, and Bottomly announced that “after weighing many perspectives,” the sculpture would stay, and “we must do everything we can to support those students who find themselves deeply affected by it” (Boston.com). This decision produced more news coverage, but by then the volume had peaked, and coverage began to trickle out.

The story was reported through diverse news categories, from strange news to arts and entertainment, style, celebrity, big story, trending, and national/world. Equally diverse were the kinds of publications running it, including outlets for arts news, political outlets, PerezHilton.com, Time magazine, and university news outlets— the student-run Wellesley News featured a particularly lively discussion. On U.S. and Canadian radio, Sleepwalker was consumed across formats, including news/talk, soul, country, pop, and rock.

Any press is not necessarily good press. Assessing “tonality” is a key element, and content analysis is necessary. Les Roka, a journalism researcher who examined key sample texts, says, “Overall, Wellesley and Matelli hit a grand slam. On the surface, yes, some phrasing is not ideal. But that’s the price one pays to interest the media and public at this level. In the end, people will remember an interesting sculpture that prompted a public, open debate. It also helps to keep Wellesley College on the radar as an interesting school.”

The story, of course, raised the general visibility of the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, and Tony Matelli. Roka went on to evaluate the impact in six U.S. media markets: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Utah, Ohio, New York City, and Boston. Based on the <artdesigncafe.com> compilation (and assuming text placement on the Web equates to TV/radio broadcast and hardcopy publication), he conservatively estimates at least 39.2 million media impressions, meaning eyeballs in front of a text or broadcast. “If the museum were more of a standard national attraction, this could potentially mean 140,000 additional visits per year,” Roka explains. “If spending were $20 each, that’s $2.8 million from visitors, members, or tourists.” As of February 18, the Davis Museum reported a fivefold increase in attendance (first weekend, 270 per day), but admission is free.

Nina Berger also reports an increase in Web traffic on the museum’s site, which peaked at 10 times more visits than usual (6,300 page views[/day]) before settling in at three times more than average. We located numerous outgoing links in on-line articles on top-powered news sites. Many go to Tony Matelli’s Web site and to that of Wellesley College. Internet marketers dream of these kinds of results because they competitively lift a site’s Google search rankings.

Both Tony Matelli and Nina Berger say they were completely surprised by the full-on media reaction, as well as by the social media onslaught. “I don’t think anyone saw it coming,” says Berger. “I know I didn’t. We did think Sleepwalker was newsworthy— and had invited a photographer from the Boston Globe to shoot the installation— but we had no idea how it would take off. The Globe ran a photo of Matelli’s Josh sculpture the next day [February 4], not Sleepwalker.”

The media frenzy didn’t begin until after word of the student petition started to spread— and Sleepwalker photographed vulnerably in the snow helped. Boston TV and newspapers were the first networked outlets to break the story, which quickly led to text, photos, and broadcast footage for national and international distribution. However, it was a local blog, The Swellesley Report, that first saw Sleepwalker’s media appeal on February 3, [and later announced] the student petition and the sculpture’s social media accounts.

Reflecting on the media frenzy two months later, Tony Matelli said, “I think it’s bizarre. The attention it received was so out of left field, so irrelevant to the work. So, I’m mystified by it really. It was fascinating just to watch it happen. It’s like watching yourself in a movie, like I was viewing all this as a third person.” Has he been able to capitalize on the media attention? “Not yet,” he says. “The art world moves slowly, it seems, especially when something like this happens.”

This article was co-partnered with Sculpture magazine, July/August 2014. The article was sent for hard-copy publication at the end of April 2014.

I had just published an interview of Tony Matelli in the January / February issue of Sculpture, focusing mainly on the work he presented the previous year at ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark. While working at my computer on 8 February 2014, CNN Europe was on in the background. Some sort of artwork controversy was previewed but I didn’t pay much attention. After the commercial, still working, I registered a familiar name. I quickly glanced over and my jaw dropped. Tony was speaking on CNN, in interview with Jeanne Moos, and all I could think was, "Why is he on TV and what on earth is going on?"

This was my introduction to the mass media Sleepwalker controversy, and I had never expected this would happen with a work by Tony Matelli, because he didn’t seem orientated to it. This is even after writing and researching quite a bit on other artists and designers interfacing with mass media over 17 years. Tony was equally surprised by the media response. (But then so was, or claimed, Tracey Emin with her media coverage-generating tent sculpture Everyone I’ve ever slept with 1963-1995.) During a quick telephone call later with Tony, we agreed to let the media dust settle and have a follow-up interview in a few weeks.

R. J. Preece: Tony, what do you think of the media frenzy?

Tony Matelli: I think it’s bizarre.

I think it’s great that an artwork can still generate something like this. It’s been interesting and fascinating although I feel somewhat removed from it. The attention it received was so out of left field, so irrelevant to the work. So, I’m mystified by it really.

It’s also a lesson in how things go viral. I don’t know if this kind of media attention was possible before social media. A lot of the coverage seemed generated by the media but then also generated by social media.

The level of attention was super. It was fascinating just to watch it happen. It’s like watching yourself in a movie, like I was viewing all this as a third person.

R. J. Preece: What did you learn about the media, because this was your first semi-contentious experience, right?

Tony Matelli: Well it was my first, totally immersive experience. That’s for sure. And it was my first experience with so many types of media.

It felt like such a lazy story honestly, because essentially many of these stories were the same one. Taken from the AP, the headline tweaked here and there. The story wrote itself. The headline was really punchy. To me, everyone wanted to put it in their newspaper because it’s easy and the story is semi-salacious.

It was covered thoughtfully by a few people though. I found it strange that the traditional art media barely touched it.

R. J. Preece: Have you been able to capitalize on this media event, in any way?

Tony Matelli: Not yet. The art world moves slowly, it seems, especially when something like this happens. I think the media attention scared people. It may have hurt Sleepwalker in the short term. When everyone saw the media attention, it kitschified the work, almost. Everyone owned it, in a sense. Collectors may have been turned off because now everyone owns this piece because it got so much attention.

It might take a little bit of time for the work to rehabilitate itself, or assert its own authority again, and reclaim some of its own intrinsic power, rather than the media defining what it was. Because the media attention was never about the piece, so I think all of it may have obfuscated Sleepwalker.

Nina Berger, a publicity and media relations consultant specializing exclusively in arts and culture, works with a wide variety of clients engaged in visual arts, dance, theater, music, literary and educational initiatives. She’s been working with the Davis Museum since 2001. Her client roster includes the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Boston Cyberarts, Cantata Singers, the Boston International Antiquarian Book Festival, Handel & Haydn Society and Summer Stages Dance. Before starting her own consulting firm in 1998, Nina was the Director of Public Relations at Boston Ballet for 14 years.

The following is my interview of Nina Berger.

R. J. Preece: Were you surprised by the full-on regional, national and international media coverage?

Tony Matelli. Sleepwalker (2014). Installed at Wellesley College (2014). Overall: 70 in. x 48 in. x 26 in. Courtesy of Tony Matelli and Marlborough Chelsea. Photo: J. Kennard.

Nina Berger: Absolutely! I don’t think anyone saw it coming. I know I didn’t. Wellesley College Media Relations Director Sofiya Cabalquinto and I did think the Sleepwalker, and Tony’s exhibition, was newsworthy, possibly on a national level since New Gravity is Tony’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S.— and had invited a photographer from the Boston Globe to shoot the installation— but we had NO idea how it would take off. The Globe ran a photo of Matelli’s Josh sculpture the next day, not Sleepwalker.

R.J. Preece: There’s something really interesting: sometimes TV stations have three news reports on their websites: via Associated Press (AP) on February 5; on February 6, either via the AP again or a distributed NBC News report (but on all TV network local affiliate sites) or another distributed article; and then an “updated” report on February 8. But the three AP texts are exactly the same.

I’m wondering what this means. Did all of these regional TV stations end up broadcasting it 2 or even 3 days at different times, or is AP text on their sites and broadcasts unrelated? Also, I wonder if this means they released the web-based story through their channels over 3 days.

What do you think?

Nina Berger: As for the local TV stations, they repackaged the story for different newscasts. Initially, some just talked about the story on air, using a still photo that had been posted by another news source. All of our local TV stations did a story on Tuesday, February 5— the day of the snowstorm— that was repackaged for the morning news the next day.

And, then they did another story on February 6 that included footage from the opening and interviews with Tony and the Davis Museum Director Lisa Fischman. They then turned around and fed their footage to national stations. And, what is available on their websites might not be all that they put on air. And, I think the Associated Press story often ran independent from the video pieces on the station’s website blogs.

R.J. Preece: It’s really amazing when you look at regional media markets across the United States. It seems sometimes it was announced by up to four TV stations, radio broadcasts— talk shows, rock radio, etc.— and the newspapers. This is in addition to the national-level media layer, times the internet coverage, and then social media, the comments, etc.

Nina Berger: It is pretty amazing how many different types of media covered the story. Something of a perfect storm.

All this definitely has me rethinking how social media works as a news source. Somehow this story crossed over a lot of usual boundaries, and captured people’s attention.

I’ve been struck by what this whole story says about the changing nature of American, national and international media— both traditional and social media— and the how and why this story was of interest on such a global scale.

I know personally that it sparked numerous conversations about art, gender, feminism, psychology, higher education, and censorship. The list goes on. Although, the contrast of being on the ground and seeing and experiencing the real-time story, in relationship to the media story, are often two different, albeit, intersecting realities. Working in media for the past 30 years, that’s always been the case.

It seems that the real story is just a spark for a broader conversation that’s been waiting to take place.

R.J. Preece: As I mentioned to you earlier, I proposed and curated my first show, in a Hong Kong gallery, right after the handover to China in 1997 with a political activist theme, but by a Japanese artist to create that “acceptable” distance. Hong Kong is a regional media capital, and newspapers, radio stations, and even CNN Asia ran stories. For a long time I was in a daze about it, and it took years to feel like I understood what happened and why. But your experience is 200+ times that.

Nina Berger: Yes, I’m sure that with time, the impact of this story and its coverage will be seen through a new lens and from new perspectives. I don’t remember a work of art ever engendering so much discussion. Maybe it’s the mix of humor & gravitas in Tony’s work that gives people an entrée. His art elicits so many questions! What is art? What is acceptable as public art? How should it be controlled? How do we define public/private space? How should art make you feel? Not to mention deeper questions of our humanity. Already, conversations in the media have evolved to include his Sleepwalker as a touchstone – in larger discussions of academic and artistic freedom versus social justice. And, I’m sure the nature of the conversation will change with time— as will our analysis of the story.

R.J. Preece: What new things did you learn that you will add to your practice?

Nina Berger: I’d like to try out more strategic use of social media for spurring on news coverage. It’s something I’ve been incorporating in my practice to date with some success. But it’s critical to be mindful of timing, image use, language, relevance— and of course, your long-range PR goals.

R.J. Preece: Do you have any advice to PR officers or artists that wake up one day and find themselves under the national— and international— spotlight? I particularly recommend artists getting media training…

Nina Berger: Of course getting media training is very helpful. Luckily, Tony Matelli, and Davis Director Lisa Fischman are very articulate, introspective, and down-to-earth. Tony’s on-campus discussions were critical in diffusing some of the tensions around the Sleepwalker installation and media storm. I always recommend being honest and staying true to your personal values, sticking to simple core messages, knowing your audience, and contextualizing your work and practice.

Also, check out our interviews of White Cube gallery’s PR guru in London: Now it’s Honey Luard’s turn and from Germany, Thomas Girst: Communicating BMW Art Cars.

Please note, this is a tough challenge. I’m as knee-deep in my discourse as many arts people are in theirs. My core academic / practitioner background includes journalism, public relations and media history/criticism. Adding to this, almost everything mentioned below is up for academic debate, as vociferous as anything I can imagine in the arts. So, for the occasional PR/journalism academic that stumbles on this article, please do see the endnotes page.

For everyone else, below is my abbreviated, best guesstimate.

The scope
I chose to look closely at the following media markets: Ohio, where I grew up and earned my PhD; Utah, where I’ve lived and worked for 14 years; New York, because it’s the American media capital and one would expect the widest discussion across media types; Boston, because the media event was located and fueled there. Lastly, I chose Los Angeles and San Francisco because I wanted to sort of compare these two West Coast cities with their East Coast counterparts.

I also looked at the US national compilation, as this is a media coverage layer on top of all of these markets.

Tonality: negative/positive on a scale
Cutting to the core, overall, Wellesley and Matelli hit a grand slam. On the superficial surface, yes, some phrasing is not ideal. But that’s the price one pays to interest the media and public at this level. In the end, people will remember an interesting sculpture that prompted a public, open debate. It also helps to keep the Wellesley College name on the radar as an interesting school.

When one looks closely at the compilation, sees the headlines, and goes into the articles, the controversy inspired all sorts of narratives: it’s creepy, it’s bizarre, it’s unconventional, it’s fantastic. Someone even created a Twitter account for Sleepwalker. It raises issues of appropriateness. It may signify a kind of sub-cultural, generational divide, and maybe an academic divide. And so forth.

The media coverage value
First, please note that addressing this question is a can of worms that has for years resulted in many articles and books about numbers and methodology. It’s like answering the question, “Who is the leading artist of our time? And which artist will be in the future, looking back at our time?”

Having said this, one needs to put something out there to give an indication. It also can be a starting point; in PR circles, hopefully it will attract attention for a healthy discussion. So, here is my best guesstimate, as simply the matter of “raising visibility” for the parties mentioned in the media coverage is not very helpful at all really.

Overall, I conservatively estimate there were at least 39.2 million media impressions in the six Designated Marketing Areas (DMAs), meaning eyeballs in front of the text or broadcast. (This is for the “first wave” of coverage that occurred in February 2014.) Here, for argument’s sake, I’m assuming that web publication on a TV, newspaper and magazine website is translating into hard copy publication and TV and radio broadcast. This is also based on the practical limitations of the data set. A more thorough and expensive compilation would specify Internet publication and audience— as well as hard copy publication and audience, and TV/radio broadcast and audience. I’ve taken the former and applied the publicly available data of the latter. Again, for argument’s sake.

If the museum were more of a standard national attraction, such as a national history museum or aquarium, 39.2 million media impressions could mean potentially 140,000 additional visits/year. If spending were $20 each, that’s USD$2.8 million from visitors, members or tourists.

Again, you can imagine the debate that can occur in PR circles about this guesstimate. Imagine a group of burlesque show PRs in Las Vegas. The feathers would definitely be flying.

Now, let’s look at the individual markets.

Boston Designated Marketing Area (DMA)
Guesstimate: at least 4.0 million media impressions. In Boston, the 7th largest US media market, there was quite a bit of variety in the story angles— which then went national via distribution channels. I found it intriguing they went into more detail about the controversy and how the college was responding. The coverage was quite balanced with follow-up stories, as opposed to other DMAs that opted for simply the initial oddity or weirdness angle. There was discussion about the artistic value and merit, and there was a response by the artist in the media coverage.

New York City DMA
Guesstimate: at least 12.4 million media impressions. In the New York City DMA, there also was a full discussion, as one would expect, given the established interest base via AP (Associated Press), and the elements of a controversy involving a public sculpture, an elite women’s college, the student response, and New York being the US media capital. (FYI: it’s important to look closely at the “US national level” of the compilation; many of these “national” media outlets are New York-based, as well as Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.)

Ohio DMAs and Utah DMA
Guesstimate: Ohio - at least 5.3 million media impressions; Utah - at least 1.3 million media impressions. These DMAs appear to be highly reliant upon what AP correspondents offered in their coverage, based on the compilation. In addition, in Ohio, there appears to be more usage of the terms “creepy” and “odd” and “realistic”. So it seems to have been treated, overall, more as a novelty, versus the various coverage tones in New York and Boston.

Does this say something about audience sizes in Ohio? Or, those who are interested in certain kinds of coverage defer to national outlets—or those in other places? A worthwhile discussion point.

I particularly like looking at the Salt Lake City DMA. Make it here and your message is tightly projected across the entire state, even spilling over the border. Curiously, the Deseret News ran the headline “’Sleepwalker’ braves the cold at Massachusetts college”. This newspaper is based in Salt Lake City and is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the readership extends through this “channel” internationally (with an impressive top 5700 website traffic-ranking according to Alexa, comparable to the Miami Herald). While the story mentions the sculpture appearing nearly nude, the headline was as vanilla as it could possibly be with this story. This compares to others like “man-in-undies”, “tighty-whities”, and “nearly naked man”.

Los Angeles DMA and San Francisco DMA
Guesstimate: Los Angeles - at least 9.5 million media impressions; San Francisco - at least 6.7 million media impressions. What’s interesting here is that, overall, at first the coverage appears very AP-driven and in some ways, comparable to Ohio and Utah (minus the Deseret News). However, look closely at the US national layer. Here, many pop/celebrity culture websites are based, or centered, in Los Angeles. Then you have major Internet companies headquartered in the San Francisco area that distribute news nationally and internationally in multiple countries. So these two didn’t seem to take on the story to the level of New York and Boston, but this highlights that the national layer must be looked at when examining any of the DMAs.

Lastly, the university-affiliated news coverage across the DMAs was interesting to examine. One example was at the University of San Francisco. The Foghorn (student publication) ran a piece that was as detailed, thoughtful and balanced as any I saw in Boston or New York.

Conclusion
So here you have my best guesstimate. Many artists sometimes make great sacrifices for developing their art. So do some media relations evaluators. Now I’ll go back to my core disciplines, ready to dodge any academic or practitioner arrows that fly my way at any moment…

Click to see the endnotes for this article.