Once upon a time, in the early days of the World Wide Web there was a lot of talk of a global community. Connecting to people over oceans, instantly creating genuine global relationships. A community not concerned with nations, borders or laws, utopian anarchy.
These two artists seem to represent where that utopian dream has brought us today. While they both speak to isolation and individualism, Trecartin’s world is chaotic, nightmarish, a blur of surface egos and primary colors, where as Bookchin’s world is a connected, global dance. Both are critical of the current state of the internet and , I would argue that both view the internet as “The Frightful Parent”.
Bookchin has used the individual you tube dance clips as puzzle pieces, claming that despite the individualistic, disjointed performances there is a capacity and desire for connectivity: As she states in her interview with Carolyn Kane “You Tube dancers seem to make small claims for embodiment and public-ness in the face of their seeming disappearance in the disembodied, isolated, screen-based virtual environment of the Web.” Like a colony of ants, we may not always be aware that we are working together towards a common goal (community, connectivity) but we are, and Bookchin’s role as an artist is to show us this, make us aware that even thought we are sitting alone at a computer viewing a dancer who is dancing alone in a room we are connected.
Trecartin’s videos on the other hand are terrifying. Instead of creating unity out of the disjointed reality on the Internet Trecartin amplifies it. What terrifies me about Trecartin’s videos is what terrifies me about mainstream contemporary life: fast pace with no room for air, no time for reflection, no growth beyond the confines of an individual’s self-absorbed mind. It is important to just move on, move forward, do not pause. Saying nothing with chatter is better then saying nothing at all. We become one giant Jr high gym class, teasing the “weak”, forming clicks for protection from our own genuine feelings of insecurity.
All of his fearful horror movie tactics distract me from some other seemingly interesting elements, including what Koestenbaum refers to as his “postsexual” world. His characters are usually both male and female, scratching scrotum and taking pamprine for menstrual cramps. This mudding of our currently inaccurate bianarry system is interesting, however this type of mudding seems to be more about social cache then gender politics. Koestenbaum points out: “The real drug is connectivity, morphability. Orgasm is beside the point. The kids would rather talk; their hands clutch phantom cell phones.”
While both Bookchin and Tillisner seem to be making commentary on the contemporary state of the Internet their approach is as different as astringed siblings. I imagine a conversation about their mutual frightful parent going something like this: Bookchin: Just because our parent is an isolating, disjointed mess of terrifying self-absorption doesn’t mean we need to be. Tillisner: Ya ha, does do, anyway she beat me for like 13 years omg…..
In the last decade or so, the Internet has become not only an means of getting one's voice heard, but can also isolate, insulate, and remove personal (and even sexual) identity. Natalie Bookchin's “Mass Ornament” seemed to illustrate this point. By appropriating numerous YouTube videos of various people dancing and repositioning them as one synchronous dance routine, Bookchin highlights the isolation and simultaneous interconnectivity of these individuals across the globe. Aside from the camera, each of these dancers are alone. At the same time, these people have the potential to be watched by anyone in the world. As Bookchin described it, the YouTube dancers are “performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public [and] is, in its own way, a perfect expression of our age.” The idea of the post-Fordist assembly line where the workers are “linked by technology rather than an assembly line” - all creating or adding to the same product – seems an appropriate summary of much of the Internet culture and, perhaps, the shift away from traditional, interpersonal communication.
Ryan Trecartin's “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” seems to fit with this idea as well, to an extent. The fast-cutting, head-spinning, and vocally jarring video is fraught with images of connectivity and isolation. Most of the characters never really “talk” to one another. As Wayne Koestenbaum puts it: “Conversation succumbs to monologue: Everyone rants, or issues stinging declarations...” (Koestenbaum, 275) Regardless of intent, Trecartin and Bookchin's videos are a product of the “Internet age,” as you will. People are more connected than ever before, but that connectivity lends itself to isolation and a removal of individuality. Nevertheless, the Internet can be a useful tool that is capable of critiquing itself; Bookchin and Trecartin's help to prove that fact.
My initial reaction to Tommy Chat Just Emailed me - wow. For a few reasons. I enjoyed the subtle use of animation and color saturation in some of the shots. The bouncy ball was distracting and annoying, but I can feel that was meant to be it's purpose, sometimes taking a moment to signify a "third eye". Some might even look at the grainy-poor resolution of the graphic that keeps radiating off the baby as a fault, but I think it falls right in line with the vibe of this video, all of the components seem to have been fiddled with and little afterthought was given to the tightness of such elements. The voices so much so that they in a few points become unrecognizable, which I saw as a quick and easy way to add to the melodrama and intensity of the piece. It's interesting to see how the creators of this work banged it out. It has a feel of being shot over a short period of time, but when you take time to look at the costumes, especially the blond wigged character paired with the "girl" on the phone, you can tell these were crafted with intent to some degree. Perhaps this is an odd statement, but I found the baby to be my favorite element in this whole piece. I know the actors are playing roles that require them to act loud and brash, but this piece has such an uneven vibe for me, that the little dude in his weird toddler getup emanating this odd visual form seemed the quirkiest. The second link, "Mass Ornament", is impressive in it's set up and delivery. I enjoyed the syncing of certain moves and the odd audio track to it, almost giving it a sense of the viewer watching a much larger production. What does this video say about us and illustrate that couldn't be said before? These people are allllll desiring to be watched. Some seem to be showing off talent, some look as though there about to lose some clothes in the coming minutes, but they all have set up this camera to put themselves make a little clip of themselves to sail out into the cybersea. I'm sure the creator didn't have any problem getting video clips, youtube is chock full of this kind of stuff, it was keen, though, how she was able to dip into that vast resource and take small moments, choppy frames, and illustrate just how common this sort of thing is becoming. I wonder in what other ways will the internet showcase the similarities of mass culture? the clothes, presumably much of the music, the choice of location, usually in a "private" room (to shoot a video that potentially millions could view), the dancing itself, was all similar in these clips. I am sure that other sets exist with totally different set ups. Until tuesday, ~field
Since the inception of the Internet, individuals have used the content found on the web to create new works of art from any ever-growing pool of information and media. Artist use the media found on the web as their medium. The web informs their art through the use of visual elements, technology and particularly web lingo.
Ryan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-mailed Me” is an amalgamation of all web culture. The film depicts some type of post-nuclear fallout culture, where people never fall asleep or get tired and some have trouble coping with being “gainfully employed”(Koestenbaum 279). It seems that Internet has raised these people; they reject the nuclear family ideal and substitute it with the Internet culture. “I can’t wait till the Internet declares independence”(Koestenbaum 279). The characters in this video are products of the Internet culture.
Natalie Bookchin’s “Mass Ornament” uses clips form Youtube to create original works of art. Bookchin’s arranges these dance clips into a type of montage. I not sure if Bookchin is using these clip to comment on the lack of originality in everyday Internet users videos or to glorify the everyday Internet filmmaker, but what I do know is that when these video clips are arrange in this film, it makes them greater than there parts. Bookchin uses these clips as a source of media in order to create using this new medium.
We all know that the internet is a great tool to connect us to the world. However, I think both of these videos bring up the question “what exactly are we connecting to?” Both seem to have a different answer; just like a single google search can lead you in a hundred different directions The first video I found to be unsettling. I will admit that Trecartin’s video was torturous for me to watch. The overzealous characters in their altered random-pitched voices obsessing with non-sense gossip seemed like chaotic distant world. But as the article suggests these elements come from pieces of the world around us and what may be to come. “All I can do is generalize about this world and point to it with a yearning, stumped pleasure; my pointing finger is the gesture of an outsider, a tourist, gawking at a radioactive carnival I can’t domesticate or quarantine” (275) The internet exposes us to many fads and values systems and it has it’s impact on society in countless ways. I felt the video was showing a world where lost quality connections with people had left these self-obsessed fanatical people. For younger generations being raised with the internet as a source of communication, it can continue to alter their perception and may make the line between reality and the web more vague. So in a sense we are connecting to this chaos. On the other hand Bookchin’s video shows a number of people that have individually posted videos of their personal performances. While all their motives may have been different, Bookchin connects them with numerous other people having similar experiences. “It is enormously pleasurable, even hypnotic, to see people moving in sync, appearing as a part of something larger than their separate selves.” This video shows a more positive role that the internet plays in connecting people. I enjoy how it shows us individual’s living spaces and how they can be very similar but different at the same time. The internet connects people’s common interests. I felt it was much more pleasurable to peak into these individual’s lives then the chaos Trecartin’s depicts, although neither may be an accurate depiction.
Trecartin’s video is both tantalizing and sickening for me. It feels as if it is something beyond my understanding and I can’t wrap my head around it because I’m distracted and made anxious by the evolving and constantly changing personas. Kaizen writes, “Personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next line” (276). I can’t keep up with the characters, being unable to discern what is going on exactly because I can’t assess them and their reactions properly. It really does feel as if the identities are being devoured in the fact that they morph and form into new versions of themselves. It is frightening how fast the transitions are and how much Trecartin’s video is based on and representative of internet identities in general. Considering this, his video makes me anxious due to the encouragement of an awareness in his viewers that people can easily live as multiple interpretations of themselves, existing separately and with no reference back to any sort of core. This frightens me in that it dissolves pre-existing notions of truth and honesty. These fears exist for the most part subconsciously, making my viewing experience simply uneasy. In past years I’ve shied away from spending too much time on the internet; it’s abundance of identities are incredibly overwhelming. Simultaneously though, the sheer number of people using the internet has rendered lesser identities as numbers or pieces that only exist with any merit once they are put together. Bookchin seems to be taking an opposite approach in exploring internet identities than Trecartin. Where he sensationalizes, she mutes. Due to her editorial decisions, personalities are reduced to low quality depictions that are often represented in a large group and are named by their amount of views on youtube. Whereas Trecartin amplifies personalities in a way that creates multiple layers beyond sexuality, Bookchin exhibits her subjects as little more than a gender role. She says, “They often perform utterly conventional gender roles, but the fact that they are performed – repeated, mimicked, and quoted again and again, undermines any pretence of their being real, authentic, and immutable.” She uses these repeated performances to uphold her theme of the “mass ornament,” wherein in bodies are reduced to lines and movements made in synch. It seems as if both poles of internet identity forgo any sort of faithfulness to a reality, but as of today, this is reality and both exist in equal validity. What has the internet created, and where does it end?
Both of these works deal with the internet as a social tool. They use different methods to create their works. Trecartin uses actors to shoot his conception of an almost over-socialized or overstimulated population. Bookchin uses the videos uploaded for public viewing to arrange Mass Ornament. While I think that Trecartin is addressing how the use of the internet might put people’s absorption of media and socialization on overdrive, Bookchin seems to be dealing with the physical isolation that accompanies the social realm of the internet.
Bookchin presents the individual alongside other individuals but she effectively highlights their personal isolation within their own space. She labeled this as reflecting post-Fordism, “...post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world.” (Kane, Dancing Machines) The artist also mentions the dual isolation that occurs when viewers sit alone to view solo dancing bodies. I think that this is a valuable point about the internet as a social tool, the idea that we can readily watch people or contact people without actually experiencing the companionship firsthand. In Bookchin’s work, the Tiller Girls have not completely disbanded because they can check each other’s Facebook statuses.
Regarding Trecartin’s Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me, I agree with Laura Bennett that the frantic rate of transition between personalities is jarring as a viewer. In Situation Hacker, the author reports a similar feeling, “After several viewings, I still can’t keep track of the personalities; they zap in and out, like extraterrestrial desiderata on interactive flying saucers.” (Koestenbaum, 275) I would suggest that by doing this Trecartin is addressing the ways in which people may present themselves differently online. The use of the internet as a socializing tool offers people some sense of anonymity which can enable a user to speak more freely through internet communities or blogs.
These videos are interesting viewpoints on today's society and its availability to connect to one another and to the world. The first video is very "in your face" disturbing with images of how we rely on being connected to the Internet and each other. I think in this video the artist was trying to show us all the ugly side of being connected to each other throught technology. This video is unpleasant with the images of the women ignoring her baby instead to talk nonsense to a woman over the phone. They take the imagery to a rediculous level to show that the stuff that people post online is somewhat rediculous. The second video is less disturbing but is very interesting in my opinion due to these reoccuring actions that are done within the different individuals dance routines. In the interview with Natalie Bookchin she talks about her work and ahs an interesing coment saying, " Since the mid 1990s I have been exploring the ways that new technologies expand our capacity to control, track, regulate, and rationalize bodies." This is a nice observation becasue of what youtube.com is. It is an informational database that is just full of ways in which we track ourselves and track others. Technology is allowing that to happen it is so open, personal and easy to use. People expess themselves through new technology.
Trecartins video, Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me, is very intense in its pitch but doesn't drive home an underlining meaning or direction. In Situation Hacker, Wayne Koestenbaum states," Trecartan's work might be the death of book." Death of book meaning the advancements of the online community of information has surpassed justification for any other media. In the video the characters dialogue content consists of mediated e-mail or text vocabulary with hard-knocked sounds in the background intensifying certain gestures of the characters. This made me feel overwhelmed of the tidal wave of technology that has taken over our society. Koestenbaum also writes about Trecartin's costume work using each character's body as canvasses for abstract paint to disguise race, gender, etc. Since the video had a lesbian aura surrounding every scene the use of male actors were disguised with over-dramatic make-up and wigs. In the second video I was less engaged due to watching it directly after the first one. I should have broken into a meditating-walk-around-the-block intermission but I was stuck in the UWM library with 13 people fighting for the next open seat. So I decided to go forth with the video. I noticed some audio muting during some of the scenes and the last minute or two of the video which I didn't understand. I thought it was an error at first but troubleshot the video and still didn't have any sound. I wanted to comment on the idea of using most races, if not all, and both genders to depict this idea of acceptance. I thought Natalie Bookchin's, Mass Ornament, allowed a voyeuristic viewer a window into a life of preparation. In most scenes/clips the character would be getting ready for a night on the town. The character's would choose the outfit, model in it for them, perform dance routines, among other steps it took them to be ready. I say voyeuristic because although the characters were playing for the camera the shots were private. Shot in the bedroom or apartment performing a routine that isn't talked about or done with a group of people.
After watching Ryan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” I was not completely sure what to think of it. Other than it being a very interesting video to watch it was hard for me to get past how trippy all of it was. Other than the obvious few points I didn’t get anything from it. Even with “Situation Hacker” still did I have a hard time understanding it and what exactly it was about. “Trecartin’s work is unashamedly faggy. He digitally alters voices-pitch raised or lowered- to obscure gender”, it seems as if he is trying to create something that puts aside many descriptions about someone to get to a central point. The only thing is I am not able to find that point. Once I watched Natalie Bookchin’s “Me Dancing” I had a feeling of what it was all about. But after reading through the interview it made much more sense. “I tend to look backwards, to history, in order to speak about the present.” this I could see a little simply with how she had the clips set up. With them being in lines and all the similar movements that they were doing. It almost reminded me of a kick line of some sort, “I have taken up the idea of the Mass Ornament because it is a provocative way to speak about today’s social and economic realities. Kracauer analyzed a dance genre popular in the late 1920s, one that would become even more popular in the 1930s, during the Depression. The dance involved rows of choreographed bodies moving together in synchronicity”. Corbin Manning
Ryan Trecartin and Natalie Bookchin both work with very similar themes surrounding the issue of identity in ‘Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me’ and ‘Mass Ornament.’ Trecartin embraces a morphing identity, while Bookchin’s piece represents a kind of lack of identity in each of the people performing for the camera because of their uniform and repeated actions. What intrigues me the most about these two artists is the unstable authorship of the two pieces. While Bookchin and Trecartin have obviously assembled, edited and/or performed in the videos, it is interesting to consider who, other than the artists themselves, can be considered an author in these two videos. Just as Bookchin and Trecartin are representing a kind of amalgamated, mass identity in their work, they are also representing an amalgamated kind of authorship as well.
In ‘Mass Ornament,’ the instability of authorship is related to Bookchin’s use of various YouTube videos and to the direct reference of Siegfried Kracauer’s 1927 theory of the mass ornament. Bookchin not only appropriates the title of the piece, but she also collects various YouTube videos created by their own independent “authors” and shifts their original meaning to represent this amalgamated identity, an identity that further represents our dissolution of personal autonomy in the age of the internet. Bookchin reflects on her process in selecting and working with appropriated media (for this video as well as for other works) in an interview with Carolyn Kane, “Dancing Machines: An Interview with Natalie Bookchin,” on rhizome.org: “The films and installations I made were an attempt to follow the footage, ordering and organizing it in a way that allowed existing narratives and stories that were being told about the world to emerge.” (pg. 3). Bookchin re-arranges these various narratives that were first told by their individual authors and reshapes their meaning to represent a performative, mass identity that is rooted in our cultural upbringing. While Bookchin is representing a mass identity found on the internet, it is important to recognize the various authors involved in the re-telling of these small dancing vignettes. Thus, it is difficult to assign full authorship to one person over another. Is the artist the author? Are the individuals performing the authors? Is this a collaboration of sorts or is Bookchin just appropriating her material? The instability of authorship complicates this piece in interesting and engaging ways for the audience. This collection of sources she uses to create this piece indicates a mass authorship of the video.
It may seem like a farther stretch to claim that the authorship in Trecartin’s video is unstable, but I venture to make the claim anyway, not just because he works collaboratively with other artists. Trecartin’s frenetic personas that morph from one identity to another are, indeed, a whirlwind of identities. Wayne Koestenbaum elaborates on this constant shift in his article, ‘Situation Hacker:’ “One character turns into another by discovering an alter, avatar, or replica. Personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next in line.” (ArtForum, Summer 2009, pg. 276). Because Trecartin appropriates these various identities in a constant flux throughout his videos, he is appropriating and critiquing popular culture, sometimes at its worst, and certainly at its funniest. And we, the audience, are his content-- WE are popular culture. We are obsessive compulsive, manic, need constant stimulation, are constantly bombarded and oppressed by the media. We are gay, straight, transgendered, vain, feel alienated, feel empowered, and have accents. Trecartin finds a way to embody ALL of these characteristics (and more) when he and his cohorts perform for the camera. While many artists are either indirectly or directly critiquing culture to some extent, Trecartin does so by directly embodying his audience. Because his content is rooted in popular culture, it could be considered that Trecartin is collaborating with all of us, and that we are all authors of his work.
Trecartin creates a different world in his videos. I want to focus on the use of voice changing that Trecartin uses in his videos. When viewing Trecartin's "Tommy Chat Just E-mailed Me" I couldn't stop focusing on how he lowered and raised the pitches of the voices. "You never sleep and are never sleepy, unless your voice gets slowed down by QuickTime or some other software I don't know the name of"(Koestenbaum 276). I felt that this was particularly obvious during the last scene of this video. Where all the actors are repeating the previous scene over and over. Now when they are originally acting this out I feel that they are told that there voices are going to be slowed down. I feel this way because even when they are moving there lips they move them slower and more pronounced. I also noticed that he made certain actors have lower voices I think to suggest there relationship with the other actors.
In the second video Natalie Bookchin’s “Mass Ornament” I saw her creating a certain world as well. She created this world by combining a whole bunch of other peoples worlds. Her use of sound was much more sporadic, it had a here and there kind of feeling. At a point when I was viewing it I actually thought I had turned my sound off because for the last minute or so she doesn't have any sound at all. I feel the piece makes more of a statement when she does use the sound. She also overlapped the different sounds from different clips of video. I enjoyed the dancing segment where she had the baby and then the younger child dancing to two completely different songs and then switched out the sound.
Both pieces explore the social aspects of the internet in greatly different ways. Trecartin’s video, with the bright colors, obnoxious audio, and completely strange characters, comes across to me as an amalgamation of all corners of the internet in one bizarre video. Despite its strangeness, it seems to comment on the need for constant connectivity and communication between individuals. The sheer overwhelming qualities and conversations in the video recall the element of distraction discussed in the reading, “They exercise the right to honor their own skittishness – but “distraction” now wears the guise of transformation, mutability. Being distractible intensifies consciousness.” (Kostenbaum, 279) Bookchin’s compilation video on the otherhand is a comment of the private publicity of internet users. As Bookchin discusses in the interview, The YouTube dancer alone in her room, performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public is, in its own way, a perfect expression of our age.” This private publicity also speaks to the same connectivity and sharing that Trecartin does but does it in a much different manner. While the Mass Ornament could be considered a commentary on much of the unoriginal content of the internet, viewing it more in depth and reading Bookchin’s interview clarifies that she wanted to comment about social aspects and interactions among humans through the internet. Mass Ornament and Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me both comment on social aspects of the internet but in different ways. Trecartin’s approach focuses more on the distraction and overwhelming features of constant communication and interaction. Bookchin comments on the private publicity of the internet along with the connectivity that that brings.
Trecartin's piece made me lol. Koestenbaum notes that, "His accents refer to class and attitude as much to region or ethnicity." In this video, the word choices in the mostly one-sided conversations and in particular the text at the beginning of the video refer to a self-absorbed attitude of youth culture through use of internet and text lingo. Using the incorrect "your" makes me think of a hastily written Facebook status. Also, the way that the characters converse with each other leads the viewer to believe they are self-absorbed.
In Bookchin's piece, there is a huge conflict with the idea of individuality. All of the people are expressing themselves in their unique spaces. When it gets right down to it, the interview online points out that they are "appearing in something larger than their separate selves." The repetition of the movements from dancer to dancer makes each kick and wiggle less unique because it appears on another webcam with more views.
The people in the videos strive for connectedness- in order to express themselves. In Trecartin's piece there is a highlight on the individual's concern with himself. Bookchin's selected characters are also concerned with themselves (why else document wiggling in panties on a site where viewers don't have to give their credit card number?), but end up losing themselves in the process.
Imagine a life without Internet, how simple and less stressful it would be. I think that the Internet has created another dimension to modern life. In Trecartin’s video “Tommy Chat just E-mailed Me” creates an altered world in his video, he creates this using the different characters or personas that morph from one another throughout the video. This video seems like the 70’s on drugs. Those voices are just terrible, going from high to low, repeating seemingly random sentences. Koestenbaum sates that; “Trecartan’s work might be the death of book.” Death of book meaning the advancements of the online community of information has surpassed justification for another media. As I watched the video I didn’t really understand it, the meaning was a little hard for me to follow.
Natalie Bookchin’s Mass Ornament (2009) is a lot less intense, and doesn’t heart my head or my ears. It’s interesting, in the sense that she uses several different dance clips from youtube. I enjoy the different perspectives. I feel like a really creepy person looking into all of the rooms of these people dancing. I feel like half those people wouldn’t watch them “break it down.” As Bookchin describes her youtube dance she states; “ They are performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public [and] is, in it’s own way, a perfect expression of our age.” I really think Bookchin makes a point here, because even from my own experiences, you put something semi-private on the internet and don’t ever think about the mass amounts that could wander across your information on the internet.
Tommy Chat just emailed me felt like insanity to me. Trecartin's "post-sexual" universe really is presented as a morphing fun house that is more scary than fun. Both videos are critiquing technology, identity, and connectivity. Trecartin captures the frightening side of what we are becoming with the aid of technology... on the surface. His video is largely unpleasant to watch due to carefully chosen makeup, sets, digital ulterations, ect. Through the overexaggeration of the genderneutral personalities, he succeeds at stripping away identity altogether. I felt he was successful in showing the lack of real connection between people in his video. The article about the work states that "Conversation succumbs to monologues". Trecatin's use of both voice and dialog make the voice an unpleasant weapon of pointlessness, as the dialog between the peoples fails to really connect them in a meaningful way. I do agree with Field that the baby was the best part of the video. The innocent and blank baby was also the worst part. The abandonment of children is described as " the new sine qua non" in Trecartin's world. This non chalant view toward the child in the video makes me wonder if the child will ultimately be an individual at all, or simply a biological host for the continuation of knowledge, technology, and some mass concocted ego. Mass Ornament was not frightening to me on the surface like Tommy was. People dancing in their spaces was far more visually pleasing. I guess the difference between both videos in the successful portayal of alienation/connectedness could be compared to the difference of seeing a car accident on tv vs in person. While the alienation or separation between people was created in Tommy, it is real in Mass Ornimentation. It is real people dancing in separate boxes put together. Seeing people in boxes like that makes me think we should be nicer to animals. The video is successful in its questioning of identity and the ego. As for its critique of the connection or alienation due to technolgy, I have to refer back to quote "conversation succumbs to monologue". For me it raises questions..do the people in the videos dancing really even want to connect with other people? Do they just want an audience? Do they aspire to grow up and hang with the frightful parent? I do not have these answers.
Trecartin’s video was absolutely painful for me to watch. Call me pessimistic but this kind of movie makes me think, that maybe those crazy people who say art is dead, are right. Don’t get me wrong I don’t actually believe that but it’s just when a video like this comes up I don’t really see how it’s is enjoyable for even one viewing. The so called “actors” or “characters” were way to over the edge for me but some people may look at it as putting on a persona for the performance, as Kaizen stated that “personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next line” (276). I think that the video may have had some meaning in that they could have been showing over zealous people with a fantastical personality trying to be something on the internet. Which is precisely what shows us to what is supposed to be the norm and what is so far beyond it. In the other video Bookchin show people that are actually separate but they are put together for this purpose and instead of having over the top crazily confusing things going on Bookchin silences the noise and make the video more about the form and function of the people in the piece and we start to look to them to create a rhythm and in a way a visual texture that is quite apparent when the separate frames are being move around the screen in the methodical fashion.
I am starting to really appreciate what both Trecartin and Bookchin have done. It took me about 3 views of Trecartin's video to get passed how annoying it was, and start to see his vision. In the reading, it says, "In Trecartin's postsexual world, everyone speaks in a hodgepodge of accents-a composite. Dialects are his acrylics. (279) With all of the accents and the post-production of the voices, we no longer attribute roles of sexuality to the characters. The extreme make-up removes us from thinking this is reality. The abstraction of the script makes this seem that it is about nothing. I know from experience that many of the ways we use technology is about nothing. If that is listening to one side of a phone conversation while sitting on the bus, or reading a couple of comments on a youtube video... what are we talking about anymore? Are we moving any information that is actually valuable?
In the same way, Mass Ornament addresses a similar issue. My favorite part of this is the audio. Removing the audio from these dancing videos makes the ridiculous. The editing is brilliant how Bookchin shows many people, who probably think they are being unique, doing many of the same things. Not being someone who dances in front of my webcam, it makes me wonder why anyone would do this.
It may take me awhile to process what these videos are actually about at their depth, but I would imagine they speak about how we are reacting to all of this change in our technologically driven society. We have these great tools, but because they are so easily accessible, how are we using them for something useful? Or, is the internet a tool that is simply an outlet for all people, even if their message is as simple as "OMG, WTF are you talking about?"
Bookchin's video was very powerful to me. It made me think of the quote, "You are unique, just like everybody else."
While both videos comment on the affect of the Internet on everyday life, I found Bookchins video the more interesting of the two, simply because I couldn’t make heads or tails of Trecartins work. As an artist I like to use found materials, so Bookchins appropriation of videos posted on You Tube automatically appealed to me. Through the compilation of videos the viewer is privy to see the narcissism overwhelming the Internet generation. Not only do these individuals think they look great; but that the world needs to see just how great they look. While slightly horrified by the seemingly endless amount of videos of dancers on You Tube, I found Bookchins work to be quite visually pleasing. Her parallels to the movement of the Tiller Girls and the idea of ‘Mass Ornament’ are striking and undeniable. The artist states, “…If Fordism once described a social and economic system that focused on large-scale factory production, post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world.” This video is a perfect example of the Internet as an equalizer. The millions upon millions of daily Internet users all have access to the exact same resource, for the most part. The individual is able to post a seemingly personalized video, and yet it mimics thousands of works already created; it’s depressing in the notion that everything has been done. Trecartins work, on the other hand, is completely unique. His characters are harsh and pretty frightening, existing in their own candy colored, psychedelic reality. I can’t help but the artist aimed to over stimulate the viewer, simply viewing this video once is as good as not having seen it at all. Overall, both videos comment on our Internet dependent culture in different ways. Bookchin approaches it with subtlety, whereas Trecartin throws it in the viewers face until they can’t take it any more.
Ryan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” was actually disturbing for me. I understand that he was showing how the internet is a part of all of us and it effects us in different ways but the voices, colors, and actions were just weird. The part where the baby was just left in the bathroom and the other room was very disturbing as well. I was confused by this part. I feel as though the artist was trying to get multiple points across with this and the other scenes but it was a little hard to follow in the end. “Reality, in Trecartin’s multiracial social bubble, derives from personality assertion; through body paint, gesture, and dialogue” (p. 277). This describes how Trecartin displayed the piece above. The social bubble that he thinks of is very strange and he wants the viewers to see what he sees it seems. I feel like the next piece was more in touch with how the Internet really affects us and how we use it to display who we are. The videos shown are videos that different people have posted about them. For example, many of them show different people dancing. Most people would not get up and dance around a room full of people. It is interesting to see how many people will show their dance moves when they aren’t in front of a crowd. It’s as if they feel like they do not have the same amount of judgment going on when they are posting their video online. It is like a shield for them. It frees them from the humiliations that we all fear.
These videos are interesting viewpoints on today's society and its availability to connect to one another and to the world. The first video is very "in your face" disturbing images of how we rely on being connected to the internet and each other. I think in this video the artist was trying to show us all the ugly side of being connected to each other through technology. This video is unpleasant with the images of the women ignoring her baby instead to talk nonsense to a woman over the phone. They take the imagery to a rediculous level to show that the stuff that people post online is somewhat rediculous. The second video is less disturbing but is very interesting in my opinion due to these reoccuring actinos that are done within the different individuals dance routines. In the interview with Natalie Bookchin she talks about her work and has an interesting comment saying, " Since the mid 1990s I have been exploring the ways that new technologies expand our capacity to control, track, regulate, and rationalize bodies." This is a nice observation because of what youtube.com is. It is an informational database that is just full of ways in which we track ourselves and track others. Technology is allowing that to hapen it is so open, personal and easy to use. People express themselves through new technology.
Once upon a time, in the early days of the World Wide Web there was a lot of talk of a global community. Connecting to people over oceans, instantly creating genuine global relationships. A community not concerned with nations, borders or laws, utopian anarchy.
ReplyDeleteThese two artists seem to represent where that utopian dream has brought us today. While they both speak to isolation and individualism, Trecartin’s world is chaotic, nightmarish, a blur of surface egos and primary colors, where as Bookchin’s world is a connected, global dance. Both are critical of the current state of the internet and , I would argue that both view the internet as “The Frightful Parent”.
Bookchin has used the individual you tube dance clips as puzzle pieces, claming that despite the individualistic, disjointed performances there is a capacity and desire for connectivity: As she states in her interview with Carolyn Kane “You Tube dancers seem to make small claims for embodiment and public-ness in the face of their seeming disappearance in the disembodied, isolated, screen-based virtual environment of the Web.” Like a colony of ants, we may not always be aware that we are working together towards a common goal (community, connectivity) but we are, and Bookchin’s role as an artist is to show us this, make us aware that even thought we are sitting alone at a computer viewing a dancer who is dancing alone in a room we are connected.
Trecartin’s videos on the other hand are terrifying. Instead of creating unity out of the disjointed reality on the Internet Trecartin amplifies it. What terrifies me about Trecartin’s videos is what terrifies me about mainstream contemporary life: fast pace with no room for air, no time for reflection, no growth beyond the confines of an individual’s self-absorbed mind. It is important to just move on, move forward, do not pause. Saying nothing with chatter is better then saying nothing at all. We become one giant Jr high gym class, teasing the “weak”, forming clicks for protection from our own genuine feelings of insecurity.
All of his fearful horror movie tactics distract me from some other seemingly interesting elements, including what Koestenbaum refers to as his “postsexual” world. His characters are usually both male and female, scratching scrotum and taking pamprine for menstrual cramps. This mudding of our currently inaccurate bianarry system is interesting, however this type of mudding seems to be more about social cache then gender politics. Koestenbaum points out: “The real drug is connectivity, morphability. Orgasm is beside the point. The kids would rather talk; their hands clutch phantom cell phones.”
While both Bookchin and Tillisner seem to be making commentary on the contemporary state of the Internet their approach is as different as astringed siblings.
I imagine a conversation about their mutual frightful parent going something like this:
Bookchin: Just because our parent is an isolating, disjointed mess of terrifying self-absorption doesn’t mean we need to be.
Tillisner: Ya ha, does do, anyway she beat me for like 13 years omg…..
In the last decade or so, the Internet has become not only an means of getting one's voice heard, but can also isolate, insulate, and remove personal (and even sexual) identity. Natalie Bookchin's “Mass Ornament” seemed to illustrate this point. By appropriating numerous YouTube videos of various people dancing and repositioning them as one synchronous dance routine, Bookchin highlights the isolation and simultaneous interconnectivity of these individuals across the globe. Aside from the camera, each of these dancers are alone. At the same time, these people have the potential to be watched by anyone in the world. As Bookchin described it, the YouTube dancers are “performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public [and] is, in its own way, a perfect expression of our age.” The idea of the post-Fordist assembly line where the workers are “linked by technology rather than an assembly line” - all creating or adding to the same product – seems an appropriate summary of much of the Internet culture and, perhaps, the shift away from traditional, interpersonal communication.
ReplyDeleteRyan Trecartin's “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” seems to fit with this idea as well, to an extent. The fast-cutting, head-spinning, and vocally jarring video is fraught with images of connectivity and isolation. Most of the characters never really “talk” to one another. As Wayne Koestenbaum puts it: “Conversation succumbs to monologue: Everyone rants, or issues stinging declarations...” (Koestenbaum, 275) Regardless of intent, Trecartin and Bookchin's videos are a product of the “Internet age,” as you will. People are more connected than ever before, but that connectivity lends itself to isolation and a removal of individuality. Nevertheless, the Internet can be a useful tool that is capable of critiquing itself; Bookchin and Trecartin's help to prove that fact.
My initial reaction to Tommy Chat Just Emailed me - wow. For a few reasons. I enjoyed the subtle use of animation and color saturation in some of the shots. The bouncy ball was distracting and annoying, but I can feel that was meant to be it's purpose, sometimes taking a moment to signify a "third eye". Some might even look at the grainy-poor resolution of the graphic that keeps radiating off the baby as a fault, but I think it falls right in line with the vibe of this video, all of the components seem to have been fiddled with and little afterthought was given to the tightness of such elements. The voices so much so that they in a few points become unrecognizable, which I saw as a quick and easy way to add to the melodrama and intensity of the piece.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how the creators of this work banged it out. It has a feel of being shot over a short period of time, but when you take time to look at the costumes, especially the blond wigged character paired with the "girl" on the phone, you can tell these were crafted with intent to some degree.
Perhaps this is an odd statement, but I found the baby to be my favorite element in this whole piece. I know the actors are playing roles that require them to act loud and brash, but this piece has such an uneven vibe for me, that the little dude in his weird toddler getup emanating this odd visual form seemed the quirkiest.
The second link, "Mass Ornament", is impressive in it's set up and delivery. I enjoyed the syncing of certain moves and the odd audio track to it, almost giving it a sense of the viewer watching a much larger production. What does this video say about us and illustrate that couldn't be said before? These people are allllll desiring to be watched. Some seem to be showing off talent, some look as though there about to lose some clothes in the coming minutes, but they all have set up this camera to put themselves make a little clip of themselves to sail out into the cybersea. I'm sure the creator didn't have any problem getting video clips, youtube is chock full of this kind of stuff, it was keen, though, how she was able to dip into that vast resource and take small moments, choppy frames, and illustrate just how common this sort of thing is becoming. I wonder in what other ways will the internet showcase the similarities of mass culture? the clothes, presumably much of the music, the choice of location, usually in a "private" room (to shoot a video that potentially millions could view), the dancing itself, was all similar in these clips. I am sure that other sets exist with totally different set ups.
Until tuesday,
~field
Since the inception of the Internet, individuals have used the content found on the web to create new works of art from any ever-growing pool of information and media. Artist use the media found on the web as their medium. The web informs their art through the use of visual elements, technology and particularly web lingo.
ReplyDeleteRyan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-mailed Me” is an amalgamation of all web culture. The film depicts some type of post-nuclear fallout culture, where people never fall asleep or get tired and some have trouble coping with being “gainfully employed”(Koestenbaum 279). It seems that Internet has raised these people; they reject the nuclear family ideal and substitute it with the Internet culture. “I can’t wait till the Internet declares independence”(Koestenbaum 279). The characters in this video are products of the Internet culture.
Natalie Bookchin’s “Mass Ornament” uses clips form Youtube to create original works of art. Bookchin’s arranges these dance clips into a type of montage. I not sure if Bookchin is using these clip to comment on the lack of originality in everyday Internet users videos or to glorify the everyday Internet filmmaker, but what I do know is that when these video clips are arrange in this film, it makes them greater than there parts. Bookchin uses these clips as a source of media in order to create using this new medium.
Patrick Walter
We all know that the internet is a great tool to connect us to the world. However, I think both of these videos bring up the question “what exactly are we connecting to?” Both seem to have a different answer; just like a single google search can lead you in a hundred different directions
ReplyDeleteThe first video I found to be unsettling. I will admit that Trecartin’s video was torturous for me to watch. The overzealous characters in their altered random-pitched voices obsessing with non-sense gossip seemed like chaotic distant world. But as the article suggests these elements come from pieces of the world around us and what may be to come. “All I can do is generalize about this world and point to it with a yearning, stumped pleasure; my pointing finger is the gesture of an outsider, a tourist, gawking at a radioactive carnival I can’t domesticate or quarantine” (275) The internet exposes us to many fads and values systems and it has it’s impact on society in countless ways. I felt the video was showing a world where lost quality connections with people had left these self-obsessed fanatical people. For younger generations being raised with the internet as a source of communication, it can continue to alter their perception and may make the line between reality and the web more vague. So in a sense we are connecting to this chaos.
On the other hand Bookchin’s video shows a number of people that have individually posted videos of their personal performances. While all their motives may have been different, Bookchin connects them with numerous other people having similar experiences. “It is enormously pleasurable, even hypnotic, to see people moving in sync, appearing as a part of something larger than their separate selves.” This video shows a more positive role that the internet plays in connecting people. I enjoy how it shows us individual’s living spaces and how they can be very similar but different at the same time. The internet connects people’s common interests. I felt it was much more pleasurable to peak into these individual’s lives then the chaos Trecartin’s depicts, although neither may be an accurate depiction.
-Kelly Shinabargar
Trecartin’s video is both tantalizing and sickening for me. It feels as if it is something beyond my understanding and I can’t wrap my head around it because I’m distracted and made anxious by the evolving and constantly changing personas. Kaizen writes, “Personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next line” (276). I can’t keep up with the characters, being unable to discern what is going on exactly because I can’t assess them and their reactions properly. It really does feel as if the identities are being devoured in the fact that they morph and form into new versions of themselves. It is frightening how fast the transitions are and how much Trecartin’s video is based on and representative of internet identities in general. Considering this, his video makes me anxious due to the encouragement of an awareness in his viewers that people can easily live as multiple interpretations of themselves, existing separately and with no reference back to any sort of core. This frightens me in that it dissolves pre-existing notions of truth and honesty. These fears exist for the most part subconsciously, making my viewing experience simply uneasy. In past years I’ve shied away from spending too much time on the internet; it’s abundance of identities are incredibly overwhelming. Simultaneously though, the sheer number of people using the internet has rendered lesser identities as numbers or pieces that only exist with any merit once they are put together. Bookchin seems to be taking an opposite approach in exploring internet identities than Trecartin. Where he sensationalizes, she mutes. Due to her editorial decisions, personalities are reduced to low quality depictions that are often represented in a large group and are named by their amount of views on youtube. Whereas Trecartin amplifies personalities in a way that creates multiple layers beyond sexuality, Bookchin exhibits her subjects as little more than a gender role. She says, “They often perform utterly conventional gender roles, but the fact that they are performed – repeated, mimicked, and quoted again and again, undermines any pretence of their being real, authentic, and immutable.” She uses these repeated performances to uphold her theme of the “mass ornament,” wherein in bodies are reduced to lines and movements made in synch. It seems as if both poles of internet identity forgo any sort of faithfulness to a reality, but as of today, this is reality and both exist in equal validity. What has the internet created, and where does it end?
ReplyDeleteLaura Bennett
Both of these works deal with the internet as a social tool. They use different methods to create their works. Trecartin uses actors to shoot his conception of an almost over-socialized or overstimulated population. Bookchin uses the videos uploaded for public viewing to arrange Mass Ornament. While I think that Trecartin is addressing how the use of the internet might put people’s absorption of media and socialization on overdrive, Bookchin seems to be dealing with the physical isolation that accompanies the social realm of the internet.
ReplyDeleteBookchin presents the individual alongside other individuals but she effectively highlights their personal isolation within their own space. She labeled this as reflecting post-Fordism, “...post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world.” (Kane, Dancing Machines) The artist also mentions the dual isolation that occurs when viewers sit alone to view solo dancing bodies. I think that this is a valuable point about the internet as a social tool, the idea that we can readily watch people or contact people without actually experiencing the companionship firsthand. In Bookchin’s work, the Tiller Girls have not completely disbanded because they can check each other’s Facebook statuses.
Regarding Trecartin’s Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me, I agree with Laura Bennett that the frantic rate of transition between personalities is jarring as a viewer. In Situation Hacker, the author reports a similar feeling, “After several viewings, I still can’t keep track of the personalities; they zap in and out, like extraterrestrial desiderata on interactive flying saucers.” (Koestenbaum, 275) I would suggest that by doing this Trecartin is addressing the ways in which people may present themselves differently online. The use of the internet as a socializing tool offers people some sense of anonymity which can enable a user to speak more freely through internet communities or blogs.
-amber parsons
These videos are interesting viewpoints on today's society and its availability to connect to one another and to the world. The first video is very "in your face" disturbing with images of how we rely on being connected to the Internet and each other. I think in this video the artist was trying to show us all the ugly side of being connected to each other throught technology. This video is unpleasant with the images of the women ignoring her baby instead to talk nonsense to a woman over the phone. They take the imagery to a rediculous level to show that the stuff that people post online is somewhat rediculous. The second video is less disturbing but is very interesting in my opinion due to these reoccuring actions that are done within the different individuals dance routines. In the interview with Natalie Bookchin she talks about her work and ahs an interesing coment saying, " Since the mid 1990s I have been exploring the ways that new technologies expand our capacity to control, track, regulate, and rationalize bodies." This is a nice observation becasue of what youtube.com is. It is an informational database that is just full of ways in which we track ourselves and track others. Technology is allowing that to happen it is so open, personal and easy to use. People expess themselves through new technology.
ReplyDeleteTrecartins video, Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me, is very intense in its pitch but doesn't drive home an underlining meaning or direction. In Situation Hacker, Wayne Koestenbaum states," Trecartan's work might be the death of book." Death of book meaning the advancements of the online community of information has surpassed justification for any other media. In the video the characters dialogue content consists of mediated e-mail or text vocabulary with hard-knocked sounds in the background intensifying certain gestures of the characters. This made me feel overwhelmed of the tidal wave of technology that has taken over our society. Koestenbaum also writes about Trecartin's costume work using each character's body as canvasses for abstract paint to disguise race, gender, etc. Since the video had a lesbian aura surrounding every scene the use of male actors were disguised with over-dramatic make-up and wigs.
ReplyDeleteIn the second video I was less engaged due to watching it directly after the first one. I should have broken into a meditating-walk-around-the-block intermission but I was stuck in the UWM library with 13 people fighting for the next open seat. So I decided to go forth with the video. I noticed some audio muting during some of the scenes and the last minute or two of the video which I didn't understand. I thought it was an error at first but troubleshot the video and still didn't have any sound. I wanted to comment on the idea of using most races, if not all, and both genders to depict this idea of acceptance. I thought Natalie Bookchin's, Mass Ornament, allowed a voyeuristic viewer a window into a life of preparation. In most scenes/clips the character would be getting ready for a night on the town. The character's would choose the outfit, model in it for them, perform dance routines, among other steps it took them to be ready. I say voyeuristic because although the characters were playing for the camera the shots were private. Shot in the bedroom or apartment performing a routine that isn't talked about or done with a group of people.
After watching Ryan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” I was not completely sure what to think of it. Other than it being a very interesting video to watch it was hard for me to get past how trippy all of it was. Other than the obvious few points I didn’t get anything from it. Even with “Situation Hacker” still did I have a hard time understanding it and what exactly it was about. “Trecartin’s work is unashamedly faggy. He digitally alters voices-pitch raised or lowered- to obscure gender”, it seems as if he is trying to create something that puts aside many descriptions about someone to get to a central point. The only thing is I am not able to find that point.
ReplyDeleteOnce I watched Natalie Bookchin’s “Me Dancing” I had a feeling of what it was all about. But after reading through the interview it made much more sense. “I tend to look backwards, to history, in order to speak about the present.” this I could see a little simply with how she had the clips set up. With them being in lines and all the similar movements that they were doing. It almost reminded me of a kick line of some sort, “I have taken up the idea of the Mass Ornament because it is a provocative way to speak about today’s social and economic realities. Kracauer analyzed a dance genre popular in the late 1920s, one that would become even more popular in the 1930s, during the Depression. The dance involved rows of choreographed bodies moving together in synchronicity”.
Corbin Manning
Kate Brandt's response, Part I:
ReplyDeleteRyan Trecartin and Natalie Bookchin both work with very similar themes surrounding the issue of identity in ‘Tommy Chat Just Emailed Me’ and ‘Mass Ornament.’ Trecartin embraces a morphing identity, while Bookchin’s piece represents a kind of lack of identity in each of the people performing for the camera because of their uniform and repeated actions. What intrigues me the most about these two artists is the unstable authorship of the two pieces. While Bookchin and Trecartin have obviously assembled, edited and/or performed in the videos, it is interesting to consider who, other than the artists themselves, can be considered an author in these two videos. Just as Bookchin and Trecartin are representing a kind of amalgamated, mass identity in their work, they are also representing an amalgamated kind of authorship as well.
In ‘Mass Ornament,’ the instability of authorship is related to Bookchin’s use of various YouTube videos and to the direct reference of Siegfried Kracauer’s 1927 theory of the mass ornament. Bookchin not only appropriates the title of the piece, but she also collects various YouTube videos created by their own independent “authors” and shifts their original meaning to represent this amalgamated identity, an identity that further represents our dissolution of personal autonomy in the age of the internet. Bookchin reflects on her process in selecting and working with appropriated media (for this video as well as for other works) in an interview with Carolyn Kane, “Dancing Machines: An Interview with Natalie Bookchin,” on rhizome.org: “The films and installations I made were an attempt to follow the footage, ordering and organizing it in a way that allowed existing narratives and stories that were being told about the world to emerge.” (pg. 3). Bookchin re-arranges these various narratives that were first told by their individual authors and reshapes their meaning to represent a performative, mass identity that is rooted in our cultural upbringing. While Bookchin is representing a mass identity found on the internet, it is important to recognize the various authors involved in the re-telling of these small dancing vignettes. Thus, it is difficult to assign full authorship to one person over another. Is the artist the author? Are the individuals performing the authors? Is this a collaboration of sorts or is Bookchin just appropriating her material? The instability of authorship complicates this piece in interesting and engaging ways for the audience. This collection of sources she uses to create this piece indicates a mass authorship of the video.
Kate Brandt's response, Part II:
ReplyDeleteIt may seem like a farther stretch to claim that the authorship in Trecartin’s video is unstable, but I venture to make the claim anyway, not just because he works collaboratively with other artists. Trecartin’s frenetic personas that morph from one identity to another are, indeed, a whirlwind of identities. Wayne Koestenbaum elaborates on this constant shift in his article, ‘Situation Hacker:’ “One character turns into another by discovering an alter, avatar, or replica. Personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next in line.” (ArtForum, Summer 2009, pg. 276). Because Trecartin appropriates these various identities in a constant flux throughout his videos, he is appropriating and critiquing popular culture, sometimes at its worst, and certainly at its funniest. And we, the audience, are his content-- WE are popular culture. We are obsessive compulsive, manic, need constant stimulation, are constantly bombarded and oppressed by the media. We are gay, straight, transgendered, vain, feel alienated, feel empowered, and have accents. Trecartin finds a way to embody ALL of these characteristics (and more) when he and his cohorts perform for the camera. While many artists are either indirectly or directly critiquing culture to some extent, Trecartin does so by directly embodying his audience. Because his content is rooted in popular culture, it could be considered that Trecartin is collaborating with all of us, and that we are all authors of his work.
Trecartin creates a different world in his videos. I want to focus on the use of voice changing that Trecartin uses in his videos. When viewing Trecartin's "Tommy Chat Just E-mailed Me" I couldn't stop focusing on how he lowered and raised the pitches of the voices. "You never sleep and are never sleepy, unless your voice gets slowed down by QuickTime or some other software I don't know the name of"(Koestenbaum 276). I felt that this was particularly obvious during the last scene of this video. Where all the actors are repeating the previous scene over and over. Now when they are originally acting this out I feel that they are told that there voices are going to be slowed down. I feel this way because even when they are moving there lips they move them slower and more pronounced. I also noticed that he made certain actors have lower voices I think to suggest there relationship with the other actors.
ReplyDeleteIn the second video Natalie Bookchin’s “Mass Ornament” I saw her creating a certain world as well. She created this world by combining a whole bunch of other peoples worlds. Her use of sound was much more sporadic, it had a here and there kind of feeling. At a point when I was viewing it I actually thought I had turned my sound off because for the last minute or so she doesn't have any sound at all. I feel the piece makes more of a statement when she does use the sound. She also overlapped the different sounds from different clips of video. I enjoyed the dancing segment where she had the baby and then the younger child dancing to two completely different songs and then switched out the sound.
Amber Blanchard
Both pieces explore the social aspects of the internet in greatly different ways. Trecartin’s video, with the bright colors, obnoxious audio, and completely strange characters, comes across to me as an amalgamation of all corners of the internet in one bizarre video. Despite its strangeness, it seems to comment on the need for constant connectivity and communication between individuals. The sheer overwhelming qualities and conversations in the video recall the element of distraction discussed in the reading, “They exercise the right to honor their own skittishness – but “distraction” now wears the guise of transformation, mutability. Being distractible intensifies consciousness.” (Kostenbaum, 279)
ReplyDeleteBookchin’s compilation video on the otherhand is a comment of the private publicity of internet users. As Bookchin discusses in the interview, The YouTube dancer alone in her room, performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public is, in its own way, a perfect expression of our age.” This private publicity also speaks to the same connectivity and sharing that Trecartin does but does it in a much different manner. While the Mass Ornament could be considered a commentary on much of the unoriginal content of the internet, viewing it more in depth and reading Bookchin’s interview clarifies that she wanted to comment about social aspects and interactions among humans through the internet.
Mass Ornament and Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me both comment on social aspects of the internet but in different ways. Trecartin’s approach focuses more on the distraction and overwhelming features of constant communication and interaction. Bookchin comments on the private publicity of the internet along with the connectivity that that brings.
-Rebecca Margis
Trecartin's piece made me lol. Koestenbaum notes that, "His accents refer to class and attitude as much to region or ethnicity." In this video, the word choices in the mostly one-sided conversations and in particular the text at the beginning of the video refer to a self-absorbed attitude of youth culture through use of internet and text lingo. Using the incorrect "your" makes me think of a hastily written Facebook status. Also, the way that the characters converse with each other leads the viewer to believe they are self-absorbed.
ReplyDeleteIn Bookchin's piece, there is a huge conflict with the idea of individuality. All of the people are expressing themselves in their unique spaces. When it gets right down to it, the interview online points out that they are "appearing in something larger than their separate selves." The repetition of the movements from dancer to dancer makes each kick and wiggle less unique because it appears on another webcam with more views.
The people in the videos strive for connectedness- in order to express themselves. In Trecartin's piece there is a highlight on the individual's concern with himself. Bookchin's selected characters are also concerned with themselves (why else document wiggling in panties on a site where viewers don't have to give their credit card number?), but end up losing themselves in the process.
Allison Lindner
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteImagine a life without Internet, how simple and less stressful it would be. I think that the Internet has created another dimension to modern life. In Trecartin’s video “Tommy Chat just E-mailed Me” creates an altered world in his video, he creates this using the different characters or personas that morph from one another throughout the video. This video seems like the 70’s on drugs. Those voices are just terrible, going from high to low, repeating seemingly random sentences. Koestenbaum sates that; “Trecartan’s work might be the death of book.” Death of book meaning the advancements of the online community of information has surpassed justification for another media. As I watched the video I didn’t really understand it, the meaning was a little hard for me to follow.
ReplyDeleteNatalie Bookchin’s Mass Ornament (2009) is a lot less intense, and doesn’t heart my head or my ears. It’s interesting, in the sense that she uses several different dance clips from youtube. I enjoy the different perspectives. I feel like a really creepy person looking into all of the rooms of these people dancing. I feel like half those people wouldn’t watch them “break it down.” As Bookchin describes her youtube dance she states; “ They are performing a dance routine that is both extremely private, and extraordinarily public [and] is, in it’s own way, a perfect expression of our age.” I really think Bookchin makes a point here, because even from my own experiences, you put something semi-private on the internet and don’t ever think about the mass amounts that could wander across your information on the internet.
Tommy Chat just emailed me felt like insanity to me. Trecartin's "post-sexual" universe really is presented as a morphing fun house that is more scary than fun. Both videos are critiquing technology, identity, and connectivity. Trecartin captures the frightening side of what we are becoming with the aid of technology... on the surface. His video is largely unpleasant to watch due to carefully chosen makeup, sets, digital ulterations, ect. Through the overexaggeration of the genderneutral personalities, he succeeds at stripping away identity altogether. I felt he was successful in showing the lack of real connection between people in his video. The article about the work states that "Conversation succumbs to monologues". Trecatin's use of both voice and dialog make the voice an unpleasant weapon of pointlessness, as the dialog between the peoples fails to really connect them in a meaningful way. I do agree with Field that the baby was the best part of the video. The innocent and blank baby was also the worst part. The abandonment of children is described as " the new sine qua non" in Trecartin's world. This non chalant view toward the child in the video makes me wonder if the child will ultimately be an individual at all, or simply a biological host for the continuation of knowledge, technology, and some mass concocted ego.
ReplyDeleteMass Ornament was not frightening to me on the surface like Tommy was. People dancing in their spaces was far more visually pleasing. I guess the difference between both videos in the successful portayal of alienation/connectedness could be compared to the difference of seeing a car accident on tv vs in person. While the alienation or separation between people was created in Tommy, it is real in Mass Ornimentation. It is real people dancing in separate boxes put together. Seeing people in boxes like that makes me think we should be nicer to animals. The video is successful in its questioning of identity and the ego. As for its critique of the connection or alienation due to technolgy, I have to refer back to quote "conversation succumbs to monologue". For me it raises questions..do the people in the videos dancing really even want to connect with other people? Do they just want an audience? Do they aspire to grow up and hang with the frightful parent? I do not have these answers.
Trecartin’s video was absolutely painful for me to watch. Call me pessimistic but this kind of movie makes me think, that maybe those crazy people who say art is dead, are right. Don’t get me wrong I don’t actually believe that but it’s just when a video like this comes up I don’t really see how it’s is enjoyable for even one viewing. The so called “actors” or “characters” were way to over the edge for me but some people may look at it as putting on a persona for the performance, as Kaizen stated that “personality is always transitioning: One identity devours the next line” (276). I think that the video may have had some meaning in that they could have been showing over zealous people with a fantastical personality trying to be something on the internet. Which is precisely what shows us to what is supposed to be the norm and what is so far beyond it. In the other video Bookchin show people that are actually separate but they are put together for this purpose and instead of having over the top crazily confusing things going on Bookchin silences the noise and make the video more about the form and function of the people in the piece and we start to look to them to create a rhythm and in a way a visual texture that is quite apparent when the separate frames are being move around the screen in the methodical fashion.
ReplyDeleteI am starting to really appreciate what both Trecartin and Bookchin have done. It took me about 3 views of Trecartin's video to get passed how annoying it was, and start to see his vision. In the reading, it says, "In Trecartin's postsexual world, everyone speaks in a hodgepodge of accents-a composite. Dialects are his acrylics. (279) With all of the accents and the post-production of the voices, we no longer attribute roles of sexuality to the characters. The extreme make-up removes us from thinking this is reality. The abstraction of the script makes this seem that it is about nothing. I know from experience that many of the ways we use technology is about nothing. If that is listening to one side of a phone conversation while sitting on the bus, or reading a couple of comments on a youtube video... what are we talking about anymore? Are we moving any information that is actually valuable?
ReplyDeleteIn the same way, Mass Ornament addresses a similar issue. My favorite part of this is the audio. Removing the audio from these dancing videos makes the ridiculous. The editing is brilliant how Bookchin shows many people, who probably think they are being unique, doing many of the same things. Not being someone who dances in front of my webcam, it makes me wonder why anyone would do this.
It may take me awhile to process what these videos are actually about at their depth, but I would imagine they speak about how we are reacting to all of this change in our technologically driven society. We have these great tools, but because they are so easily accessible, how are we using them for something useful? Or, is the internet a tool that is simply an outlet for all people, even if their message is as simple as "OMG, WTF are you talking about?"
Bookchin's video was very powerful to me. It made me think of the quote, "You are unique, just like everybody else."
While both videos comment on the affect of the Internet on everyday life, I found Bookchins video the more interesting of the two, simply because I couldn’t make heads or tails of Trecartins work. As an artist I like to use found materials, so Bookchins appropriation of videos posted on You Tube automatically appealed to me. Through the compilation of videos the viewer is privy to see the narcissism overwhelming the Internet generation. Not only do these individuals think they look great; but that the world needs to see just how great they look. While slightly horrified by the seemingly endless amount of videos of dancers on You Tube, I found Bookchins work to be quite visually pleasing. Her parallels to the movement of the Tiller Girls and the idea of ‘Mass Ornament’ are striking and undeniable. The artist states, “…If Fordism once described a social and economic system that focused on large-scale factory production, post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world.” This video is a perfect example of the Internet as an equalizer. The millions upon millions of daily Internet users all have access to the exact same resource, for the most part. The individual is able to post a seemingly personalized video, and yet it mimics thousands of works already created; it’s depressing in the notion that everything has been done. Trecartins work, on the other hand, is completely unique. His characters are harsh and pretty frightening, existing in their own candy colored, psychedelic reality. I can’t help but the artist aimed to over stimulate the viewer, simply viewing this video once is as good as not having seen it at all. Overall, both videos comment on our Internet dependent culture in different ways. Bookchin approaches it with subtlety, whereas Trecartin throws it in the viewers face until they can’t take it any more.
ReplyDeleteRyan Trecartin’s “Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me” was actually disturbing for me. I understand that he was showing how the internet is a part of all of us and it effects us in different ways but the voices, colors, and actions were just weird. The part where the baby was just left in the bathroom and the other room was very disturbing as well. I was confused by this part. I feel as though the artist was trying to get multiple points across with this and the other scenes but it was a little hard to follow in the end. “Reality, in Trecartin’s multiracial social bubble, derives from personality assertion; through body paint, gesture, and dialogue” (p. 277). This describes how Trecartin displayed the piece above. The social bubble that he thinks of is very strange and he wants the viewers to see what he sees it seems.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the next piece was more in touch with how the Internet really affects us and how we use it to display who we are. The videos shown are videos that different people have posted about them. For example, many of them show different people dancing. Most people would not get up and dance around a room full of people. It is interesting to see how many people will show their dance moves when they aren’t in front of a crowd. It’s as if they feel like they do not have the same amount of judgment going on when they are posting their video online. It is like a shield for them. It frees them from the humiliations that we all fear.
These videos are interesting viewpoints on today's society and its availability to connect to one another and to the world. The first video is very "in your face" disturbing images of how we rely on being connected to the internet and each other. I think in this video the artist was trying to show us all the ugly side of being connected to each other through technology. This video is unpleasant with the images of the women ignoring her baby instead to talk nonsense to a woman over the phone. They take the imagery to a rediculous level to show that the stuff that people post online is somewhat rediculous. The second video is less disturbing but is very interesting in my opinion due to these reoccuring actinos that are done within the different individuals dance routines. In the interview with Natalie Bookchin she talks about her work and has an interesting comment saying, " Since the mid 1990s I have been exploring the ways that new technologies expand our capacity to control, track, regulate, and rationalize bodies." This is a nice observation because of what youtube.com is. It is an informational database that is just full of ways in which we track ourselves and track others. Technology is allowing that to hapen it is so open, personal and easy to use. People express themselves through new technology.
ReplyDeleteAlex Ninneman
http://vimeo.com/5403546
ReplyDeletecheck it out! hd and with sound!