Table Top Video

With my video, my motive was to create some type of humor. I titled my video "Last Meal" and used saltines to change the meaning of the word. My video does not contain some hidden political view because I wanted to use limited materials and create a simple video that was just funny. My declaration, I suppose, would be that food can be, and often times is, funny.


After my performance was over, I was not sure if I fully captured the humor I had thought in my mind. The innability to move the camera posed an interesting challenge because the interest had to be presented in front of it, rather than moving the camera and shooting at different angles. Also, I did not want the audience to view the moving of the objects my an outside force. I used a black board over the camera to create transitions from scene to scene. This gave a little more emphasis on the idea that the crackers were moving by themselves, and not a person

The video I fond on youtube.com depicts an actor dressing up as a memorable past American Idol contestant. The way the actor dresses up is similar to Alex Bag's style because he wears many wigs throughout the video. By using the wigs, the actor makes it easier for us to identify the person who he is critiquing. Bag did this by changing wigs for each performance. If she was a college art student full of angst she would wear a short bob and if she needed to portray snotty english retail workers she chose bright neon colored wigs. I also think that the artists share a common goal. Through humor, the videos create a social commentary of the characters. Like Bag comments on the cliche thinking of young students, comedian Eric Schwartz comments on the mania that is American Idol and forces the audience to look at how America responds to entertainment as a whole. Often times we are lost in the hype of television and celebrity. Both videos address issues through humor so that the audience can be drawn in and entertained, but also forces us to think about their motives.

AltheaThauberger

After viewing Althea's presentation, I was slightly surprised by what the class disscussion had to say. It seemed a lot of people were slightly discontent with the answers she gave and her overall presentation. As a former art sutdent I have trained my self to be really objective and to take everything in. Perhaps I was being a little too objective with her presentation. As discussed in out groups, I agreed that she dodged a lot of the questions and would not answer them thuroughly. The main aspect that bothered me was how she would not fully explain her motivation and intent with her work. It seemed to me that she was challenging us all to come up with our own intentions for the works. On one hand, I think this is great that she allows her viewers to interpret the piece and come up with ideas of her intent. But on the other hand I feel that any artist or film maker could put out work without any idea of what it is trying to communicate and say here "interpret". A work that I realy thought was awesome was her last one shown entitled, "Northern". I thought the camera work was really amazing and the whole look of the piece was beautiful. Her choice of location was really unique and once the audience knows that it was quite far from any real town, a bit of isolation comes through. It almost seems as if the people are stranded with no hope untill the helicopter arrives.

In the article "Althea thauberger: Experimentialism is Dead. Long Live the Internet" author Emily Vey Duke states, "She uses characters as a vehicle of emtional identification." I found this quote to be really true to Althea's work. In pieces such as "Songstress" and "A Memory Lasts Forever" the characters use songs as a way of communicatiing their emotions. Especially in "Songstress" Althea chose particular songs and put themin a certain order so that she could direct how the audience would feel throughout the piece.