Art as Mediation

In my projects this semester I have often dealt with the media. It is difficult not to using Max/MSP/Jitter, actually, unless you are using all your own media. Regardless; I have challenged and questioned the media in many different ways in my pieces.

In “Remix,” (video source was Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and music was Prodigy’s “The Way it is”), I took two different pieces of music media, a music video and a song that were somewhat related but still different, and combined them into one piece. Due to this “remixing,” the meanings of the pieces change. When watching this video, Michael Jackson no longer sings and dances to the music, but he seems to be forced to match another song entirely. This creates a very strange effect. The viewer still feels like they’re watching a music video, but the video does not function like those one might watch on MTV. The viewer is forced to think about this difference, and thus, what makes a music video a music video.

In my most recent piece, which is still untitled, the viewer is able to mix music with video clips of newscasts regarding the RIAA. Additionally, the viewer has the ability to “scratch” the video backwards and forwards in a manner that is similar to how a DJ scratches on a record. My intent with this piece was to completely change the way the news about this subject was seen. The viewer can choose to use no music and simply watch the news, or they can force the person speaking in the video to repeat a word over and over again, or they can attempt to put the news to music, thereby creating their own song. In this case, the viewer is completely changing the meaning of the news for their own purposes. It’s no longer the news, but a sample in a piece of music. And music is what the entire RIAA debate is based around, so the act of remixing the debate itself could be seen as an act of rebellion. It is up to the viewer to decided.