Thursday 8 October 2009

Chapter 1 - Past And Current Artist Work

For this I am going to discuss Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' (1996) and 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith (1976). Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' follows a robot's journey's to try to find perfection which leads ultimately to the robot self destructing because of not being able to find perfection. Where as 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith is a town center scene where there is a narrator, telling the audience what the narrator wants to happen. Although it is later revealed that the narrator is telling the audience what has already happened at the particular location.

A main similarity of the two experimental videos is the video tells the audience a lie. In Andy Huang's video this is the TV telling the robot that the image on screen is the perfection that the robot should aim for. However when this image changes again, the robot is again being told what perfection should be, and as before, the robot copies. A similarity occurs in John Smith's video. The narrator is telling the audience what happens, and its worded to make it sound like he is a director telling the set and cast members what to do. After minutes of this happening, the narrator then reveals that he is miles away in a park. The beginning of the film makes it look like we are watching something in creation, in fact we are watching it and assuming somethings happening. The reveal of the narrators true identity comes as a shock for the audience because of the first assumption that he was a director.

A difference between the two films is the way the similarity is played to the audience. In 'Doll Face' the object or person is the TV, this is shown as the most important character because the TV is telling the doll/robot what to do. This is understood almost instantly by the audience. However in John Smith's film it is not instantly understood who takes control of the scene. We (as an audience) have hints and idea's that it be the man talking and narrating the piece, but is later revealed that the man talking isn't who the audience assume he is. The difference is the understanding made by the audience of who each character could be, in one film the understanding is made instantly, in the other film the understanding takes a little longer to be known to the audience.

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