This youtube link was sent to me by my friend John. Interestingly, I noticed in the video’s comments that a few people mentioned the “Noah’s video was better.” Then a couple days later, Noah’s video showed up at Zeke’s blog and Zeke mentioned that Noah’s video had been watched over 1.5 million times. What kind of fame is that anyway? So I guess these (or at least Noah’s) videos are part of the (inter)national conversation right now.
In any case, I’ll post both here so you can compare (since I’ve just learned how). Basically, both are “time-lapsed” photography: a montage of a self-portraits taken everyday for three years. I prefer looking at the female asian face myself…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55YYaJIrmzo]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B26asyGKDo]
I am also posting a link to Zeke’s post, because he has some good links to other artists and non-artists doing similar kinds of photography. Just because artists borrow mainstream documentary techniques (taking pictures of the family every year in the same positions) doesn’t make them non-artists nor does the family photographer necessarily become an artist. I think it really depends on the intent of the thing – It’s the age-old question, What is art?
I think that is the question at the crux of my thesis: Do Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller stray too close to the world of entertainment and/or tourism? Does their art produce dialogue and change perspective, or does it simply momentarily distract us in a pleasurable way? It exists and relies entirely on the art world, but it definitely pushes the boundaries – it is so much more consumable than Bruce Naumans’s Fat Chance John Cage, for instance (which was shown in a room adjacent to The Paradise Institute at the Corcoran several years ago.)