The idea of this project was to create two-minute video every week and look at the process of collaboration and transformation. “It is geared towards creating collaborative sound/video works which are then subjected to transformations by others, as an abstraction of the way in which the “eternal network” (to quote Robert Filliou) transforms, distorts, re-organizes information in an endless cycle.”
Our original video was a collection of images taken from our group’s friends and their friends Facebook profiles and pages. We wanted to establish a connection between people and reflect on these connections. Facebook is a leading social networking site where people from around the world can connect and share their experiences. The website is a global experience that can be viewed by almost anyone (granted your security setting allow them too), and therefore it also creates a sense of being watched. Although many people don’t view Facebook as a surveillance like feature, it still has that very intrinsic quality built into its system. However, apart from looking into Facebook as surveillance we wanted to present the images a collage that represented common practices of shared experiences. The collage is a very common method of compiling images and we thought it would work best if we created a video collage with these images while also reference different methods of contemporary collage – the canted images, multiple clipping, image behind image, etc. The music that plays in the background creates a sense of nostalgia, bring memories of the past forefront, while also adding humor to the whole project, after all Facebook is supposed to be fun.
The first video we received for stage two of our Phase 4 project was of an old cartoon that showed us that good ideas could also be bad ideas and vise versa. Each group member searched for their own good/bad ideas and passed it down to the other to form a two-minute video that kept the same theme as the previous group. The only similarities that we retained in our transformation were the title cards that we placed in front of every good/bad idea. In my own contribution to the video I wanted to show the juxtaposition between the two ideas by presenting them as being either good or bad and not relative to one another. In my first juxtaposition I used footwear commercial as a good idea, and for the bad idea I put in the footage an Iranian reporter throwing his shoe at President Bush. For my second juxtaposition I used a clip from Rush Hour when Jackie Chan sings “War” and wanted to put that singing about the issue is better than actually being in war, and therefore my bad idea clip was from Hurt Locker when lots of guns are being fired. Overall, I think we stuck to the concept of the group before us and made the video about good/bad ideas.
The second video we received for stage three of our Phase 4 project seemed to be centered on Canadian political themes and patriotism. In the video there was Pierre Elliot Trudeau, celebration of Canada’s Olympic gold medal in the streets of Toronto, which was juxtaposed with audio about native protests. Again for our collaborative teamwork we discussed on the general theme and idea we wanted to center our piece on and decided we would use some of the footage from the existing clip and juxtapose it with Canadian politics and patriotism like the group before us. After one member finished with their piece it was passed down to the other members. For my part I took a piece of video art by Jess Dobkins titled “Sound Check,” which was made in response to Stephen Harper’s proposal to cut down on artistic funds and combined it with a speech that Harper was giving. The audio works together to represent a theme of miscommunication between the artist and political leader. I keyed out the background color of the videos and combined them all together, so that in the background we have the Canadian flag, in the middle ground is the artist, and in the foreground is the Prime Minister.
The third video we received for stage four of our Phase 4 project seemed centered on the idea of animation and drugs (my interpretation anyways). The clip gave off a haunted feeling, which I wanted to continue with. As a group we decided to make this about 3-D animation as well as keep the original audio track and overlay it with another layer of audio that would give the visual imagery a more haunted appeal. We divided our sections and put together the final video. For my part I took a various clips from Deadmua5 music video Ghost’s and Stuff as well as clips from Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. Overall, the video follows a plotline and concept of turning reality into 3-D imagery.
The transformation of our original video from week to week drifted away from our original idea of connection and geared towards creating and representing emotion. We knew once we posted the video that others may not fully grasp our concept, however emotion is also a way of connecting and the fact that idea was transitional in almost all the transformation was interesting. Only general and common ideas get passed down from week to week and that is what I saw happening to our original video. People either totally scraped the original video or kept one aspect of the video before it. Even though mostly all video went through extensive transformation there was still something from the original video that seemed to reverberate in the final transformation.
Manpreet Randhawa 