In the suburbia exhibition, I found my self instantly drawn to the work. Maybe it’s my natural hankering (actually more like obsession) for reality shows, but I really enjoyed an exhibit that gave me glimpses into people lives. What I found to be the most creative was the fact that the scenes were, for the most part simplistic, but the captions made them come alive, made them complex. One minute I’m laughing at the picture and caption dealing with a woman’s mother-in-law, and the next I’m silent while reading about an African American woman’s longing for more exposure to her native culture. I felt like the creator wanted to illustrate that although something may seem simple or mundane, there is actually a lot of complexity in most people’s lives. We tend to think about the “good ol’ days” being simple, this exhibit illustrated, via pictures and captions, that life was still just as complex, that life back then was….life.
Now on to the electronic media gallery exhibit, which was a bit more creatively challenging for me. With the Buoy film, creatively- it was trying to communicate the barren feeling the desert can often bring, but the picture effects detracted from those feelings. I was distracted by the camera or editing effects, more than by the picture itself (which maybe was the goal all along). With Deserts, the shots of the desert reminded me of the countless bad camping experiences I had growing up in Arizona. However, the angles and light use I felt really brought a feeling of abandonment and warmth all at the same time. I noticed that so many of those shots were of places that had no people or signs of living (the desert, the empty parking lot..etc…), which may or may not have been part of the goal of his film. Also, the music made something simple like a man eating soup the creepiest thing on earth. I feel like I could easily get into the zone of –not making any sense- when trying to analyze these movies, so I will end this before anyone gets hurt.
I feel exactly the same way about the EMG. I remember just sitting in there hoping that no one else would come in and think I was some weirdy creeper watching this huge face try to explain the utter loneliness of the desert. And then Deserts came on and at first it was strangely reminiscent of 20,000 leagues under the sea. The music was distracting. It was like something you'd see in an old horror film. So, I had a hard time trying to pay attention to the scenes being shown.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the Suburbia exhibit changed my whole perspective on the notion of suburbia. It was a really cool experience.
The picture with the African American girl stuck out to me too. It's interesting how she says she likes Suburbia, but the one draw back is being over-exposed to the Caucasian culture. I think suburbia is different now (at least outside of Utah). There is growing culture among the suburbs where I lived in Seattle.
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