Video Art Appreciation_Odin Burris

Video Art Appreciation

(I was not in class for this assignment so hopefully these were all the correct videos.)

Video 1: Migration (2009), Doug Aitken

• Editing such as fades from black, jump-cuts, zooming in and out, etc.

• Lots of different shots ranging from extreme close-ups to wide shots

• Common theme of wild animals inside human-made structures, like hotel rooms

• Ambiguous and calm music

• Video plays on a billboard-like structure and is filmed outside of those boards, creating a sense of being inside 

• The title “Migration” implies a sense of traveling, perhaps relating to how humans travel between hotels (where a lot of the animals are seen in)

Video 2: Love Always Wins (2018), Michael W. Smith

• Opens with a title card on top of monotone footage

• Handheld camera

• Lots of shots including people walking/standing in line

• The song reflects the footage seen, regarding the homeless and helping them out

• Most (if not all) footage is in slow motion

• Slow zooms on a lot of shots

• I’m not a huge fan of the song, but it’s got a good message

Video 3: Primarily Speaking (1981-1983), Gary Hill

• Analog-style video

• Lots of flashing colors and clips

• Clips are maintained in the two squares in the center of the screen whilst the background plays a different video

• Clips include images, videos, words, etc.

• Cool and funky. I like it

Video 4: Mine (2009), Liz Magic Laser

• Interactive installation

• Shows a process of going through and damaging belongings

• No audio

• Only a few angles are shot from, with the camera seeming to move like one of the robotic arms

• Feels almost surgical 

• Very much has a “fish eye” feel to it

• Unbalanced lighting

• The title disturbs me :’)

Video 5: The Nightwatch (2005), Francis Alys

• Surveillance footage

• Multiple cameras displaying multiple angles at the same time

• Watches over an art museum installation 

• There’s a fox present

• Very still, not much movement from the cameras

Video 6: Lyrica (2012), Shana Moulton

• Starts off like an infomercial for a medication

• Quickly turns into a psychedelic sort of video with lots of editing and seemingly random images

• Lots of spinning animated objects

• Plain background with little to no angle changes

• Oddly feels like a Teletubbies episode

• Weird medical themes

• This makes me wildly uneasy.