THIS IS NOT A JOKE: AWB vs. JR
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Hugh Upsher is a Michaelis Graduate/ Barman/ Practicing Artist/ Desktop Publishing Student
" 'the DJ and the programmer are the twin figures of popular culture' - Bourriaud" - Linda Stupart
Most contemporary art enthusiasts are well aware of the idea of the remix in art production. Artists do this by taking a pre-existing image or concept and reworking it to bring out something new and relevant. The term remix is originally a DJ term but now it can be applied to almost any cultural production involving the reworking of existing content. The Internet is a breeding ground for all forms of remixes due to the rapid accessibility to unthinkable amounts of content. Although this theme could be taken in many directions, I would like to investigate a rather obvious use of the term remix in the form of the Youtube remix. A practice involving heavily reedited online content with the addition of a high-energy dance track. This process is almost as old as Youtube itself and can be applied to literally anything posted on the site.
In an attempt to make my content relevant and local I will use an AWB interview conducted yesterday on E News as my example. The footage was posted on Youtube and has received 59 100 views last time I checked. It was almost immediately downloaded, diced up and shoved into the painfully popular local track ‘Show Dem (Make The Circle Bigger)’ by South African musician JR. The online video ‘(Don't) Touch Me On My Studio [Mo's Circle Mix]’ utilizes a crude yet typical process of sampling inappropriate content to an upbeat dance track. On one side you have the disillusioned General Secretary of the AWB storming out of a televised interview blurting out schoolboy threats. The other side being the local party song themed around inclusiveness (Make the Circle Bigger) sung by black and coloured musicians.
Both videos are ridiculous enough by themselves but clashing these two separate worlds into one video work is genius on every level. All those South African video artists out there might want to take notes on how to make work that isn’t boring, self indulgent and/or meaningless. It’s nice to know there is a sense of humour out there in this time of little faith.
posted by Hugh Upsher at 9:58 PM
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