FINAL: Whatever... A Millennial's Memory of the 1990s

This video is composed of clips I would want to use for the installation I made the proposal on of the same title.  I put them together in a way that I found most interesting.  Not quite a literal conversation but in my mind each clip that precedes the next one comment on each other.

The first problem I had with this project was editing down all the footage I found and wanted to use.  The video I made initially was really long so I cut a lot of it out.  I ended up choosing the clips that either made me most nostalgic or that I found completely ridiculous... because I'm into that sort of thing.  I think I could easily make an hour long video like this.  The next complication was the quality of the audio on a lot of these clips.  Most sounded like they were recorded from a recording.  I was able to replace and edit the sound on some.  The ones I have with bad audio I really didn't want to take out because I liked the footage so much.

Footage that made me most nostalgic out of all these would definitely be the Super Smash Bros commercial because it was played so many times when the game first came out.  As well as all the clips from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr... just the color of that slime makes me feel like a kid again.  The clip I find most ridiculous would have to be the Backstreet Boys music video... they show that guys nipples like four times in a row! And I'm sorry but Nick Carter cannot dance... Also notice that he and the other blonde guy are the only ones that have their shirts buttoned up completely.  I guess their six packs hadn't come in yet.  I think its interesting to see how innocent the N*SYNC video is in comparison to the BSB one... and like ohmygod, baby JT and Lance Bass still make my heart melt.  Another reason I enjoyed creating this project so much is that it finally gave me a chance to use all those cheesy transitions that I would never actually use for anything else.

MAX/MSP/JITTER Project Proposal: Whatever... A Millennial's Memory of the 1990s

My Max/MSP project would be based on being a kid in the 1990s and the patch would consist of four different channels: television, commercials, video games, and music.  I want the audience to participate within the installation so I have an idea of having a Nintendo 64 controller to be reprogrammed as a MIDI controller, though this would get expensive.  I talked to one of my tech friends who said he would charge $150 an hour to do something like this and it would probably take 5 to 6 hours.  Here's an image I made in Photoshop to show how I would want the controller to work:

I imagined this piece to be in one of my favorite San Francisco galleries called Gauntlet Gallery, because they have a great back room.   I think it would be fun to turn this piece into an entire show where I would ask other artists around my age to submit work (paintings/sculpture) that has a 90s theme.  When guests enter the back room they would see the video being projected on the furthest wall.  They would be invited to sit in either a bean bag or inflatable chair and the N64 controller would be on a pedestal in front of them to use.  On both sides of the projection would be shelves holding toys from the 1990s that were either donated or purchased on Amazon or Ebay.  There would be a silent auction in the back of the room where folks could place bids on the 90s toys on the shelves.  All the money made from the silent auction would be donated to Family Builders, an organization finding permanent homes for foster youth in San Francisco and Oakland.

Below is a Photoshop image of what the installation would look like.  I would call this installation Whatever... A Millennial's Memory of the 1990s.

Some examples of the toys used would be: Furby, Tamagotchi, Sky Dancers, Beanie Babies, Nickelodeon's Gak, Polly Pocket, Gameboy Color, Bop It, Super Soaker, Totally Hair Barbie, Moon Shoes, Tickle Me Elmo, Street Sharks, Skip It, and Barney.

Some songs that would be used are: Basketcase by Green Day, I'll be Missing You by Puff Daddy, California Love by Tupac, Nothing but a G Thing by Snoop Dogg, Hit Me Baby One More Time by Britney Spears, Waterfalls by TLC, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, I Want it That Way by BackStreet Boys, Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice, U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, I Want You Back by NSYNC, Wannabe by Spice Girls, and Enter the Sandman by Metallica.

Outside Event 3: The Thing Quarterly and Jonn Herschend

A couple weeks ago I was able to visit the local establishment of THE THING QUARTERLY, which was really exciting for me because I am a big fan of one of its founders, Jonn Herschend.  He came up with the concept with Will Rogan.  Basically its a publication that sends its members unique art (as an issue) that is wrapped and packaged four times a year.  These issues include a record by Rodarte, a pillowcase by John Baldessari, and a cutting board by Starlee Kine.  As you can see the issues include all sorts of different objects, even actor James Franco created this one:

Here's a photo of him writing in the "Brad Forever" with lipstick.

I believe this trip relates to our class because John Herschend was actually there and spoke a bit.  Some of you are probably already aware of his work and how he works a lot with video.  I love the way he uses this medium to present chaos.  His work will start out as a very professional production and soon everything starts to fall apart.  In fact when he came to do an artist lecture at SFSU last semester he was having some technical difficulties and several professors who know him thought it was part of his act.  Jonn also does videos that involve reading text that take the audience members through a story.  The audio in the video also causes a reaction to the text.

 Below I have posted some links to trailers/teasers of his film projects.  Blogger would not allow me to post videos from Vimeo here so I had to resort to links, sorry.  Definitely worth the extra click though. WATCH THEM!

http://jonnherschend.com/projects/nothing-happens-for-long-film-project/

http://jonnherschend.com/projects/more-real-coming-soon/

The links will take you to his official website where you can check out even more of his work.