Remix assignment

For this assignment I chose to create two videos and one still image.

Part 1:



The above was a remix of several Alice in Wonderland themed media, including Tim Burton's 2010 film Alice in Wonderland, Avril Lavigne's music video for "Alice", and Paramore's "Brick by Boring Brick." As well, there are clips from a short entitled "The Fairies of Blackheath Woods", which is not about Alice, but is another example of the little girl archetype who runs away into the forest and gets lost.

The still image is meant to create a space where the fantasy world collides with reality, and to work as a transition piece between the two videos. The top portrays elements of time and correlates to the first video about childhood fantasy, which is something that typically has a limited shelf life and is eventually grown out of. However, the middle is a confused time and space that is existing between fantasy and reality. Tea parties are real but this one is mad; a girl who is living in a fairytale and running towards a castle; a woman is trying to escape her life through the looking glass.
The lower part of the collage correlates to the second video. It depicts a version of reality in which these girls were thought to be insane because of their wild imaginations, and eventually were confined to The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls (a book by Emilie Autumn).
The castle that is central in many fairy tales is meant to be juxtaposed with the asylum;  in many cases they look very similar from the outside but are obviously very different places inside.

Part 2:



The final piece is all about madness - and how the fantastical worlds and dreams these little girls experienced never went away, and as they grew up they were deemed insane because they did not behave exactly as young women 'should'.
It cuts back and forth between childhood and adulthood.

Nuit Blanche

My experiences with Nuit Blanche every year are basically the same - tonnes of build-up; extreme letdown. Every year features more and more people than the last, most of whom are out to see the spectacle of the city being open all night, as opposed to actually appreciate art. 

But since every year I say I'm going to look up specific installations and travel around to them rather than aimlessly wander all night and see where I end up, and every year I fail to do so, I guess I can't complain. 

The large crowds make it really hard to navigate anywhere or stop to look at anything for too long, and when I do get a chance, I find a lot of of the works pretty random ... (and not necessarily in a good way.) 

Like this one: 

"Meeting Point: After a planner whose search for new forms pays tribute to existing and familiar places."

Whereas I was like, "There's a giant brick of cheese in that field!"

However, one of my favourite creations of the night was Matt King's Streetfigher II: 

Performers play an altered Nintendo game with modified controllers that play instruments and run a video projection.

                   Incredible! 

I would have never thought it would be possible to rewire a Nintendo keyboard to hook up to a drum set and a keyboard. Duking it out Streetfighter style while playing musical instruments is kinda legendary. 

Video games and music in combination this way is a really awesome remixing of art forms, something more classic with something more contemporary.