Time Project

The sources I have used complement each other very well. Umberto Eco's article is about the perception of television and how that affects the would around it. Written in the seventies, the article is still interesting in relation to how the world is still today affected in the manner he speaks about. Instances that are video documented are changed by the mere presence of the camera. Soccer balls are now black and white instead of brown leather due to being televised. The power of the camera to form a new world is demonstrated and it is intriguing.

While researching videos I was interested by Chris Rock. His humor is dependent on changing structures by implementing new rules. I was originally more interested in George Carlin. Carlin's humor is even more dependent on restructuring language and rules that govern perception, but his material was not emotional enough. Enter Chris Rock, his humor mimics Carlin's but is of the MTV generation, it's quicker, less intellectual, and a has a stronger punch which I could easily contrast.

The common motif they share is how the world is changed by the mere presence of self. The use of the appropriated video was intended from the start, juxtaposing clips to loosely illustrate a feeling of space and time. Simple views were selected to enhance the focus of the relationships between the scenes. While listening to NPR, after creating the video, Laurie Anderson was speaking and mentioned that her lyrical style lately employs the use of jump cuts to create imagery instead of straight narratives. Which, brought to a higher level my awareness of what I was doing in the film.


Sources:

Never Scared. Dir. Joel Gallen, Keith Truesdell. Perfs. Chris Rock. Video Stream. HBO Home Video, 2004.

Umberto Eco, "Event as Mise en scéne and Life as Scene-setting," in Robert Lumley, ed. ,Apocalypse Postponed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), 103-107.