Palestine / Nauman

I found Charlemagne Palestine’s Island Song to be kind of obnoxious because his vocalizations were not the most harmonic and the shaking of the camera’s angle throughout the video made me a bit dizzy. I guess it could be described as an interesting concept the way Palestine tried to blend his voice into the sounds of the engine and the vibration of the motorcycle as he made his trip around the island. His desire to get off the island as he repeats “I gotta get out of here” seems a bit ridiculous because he is after all riding a motorcycle, not a boat or an airplane. The way the video is set up, with the audience being able to see only the path ahead of Palestine, reminds me of a racing video game. The fact that we never get to see the driver of the motorcycle keeps his identity mysterious and the viewer is unable to make any judgments from observing Palestine’s demeanor or expressions.

Bruce Nauman’s Stamping in the Studio was also annoying to watch. The stamping sounds reminded me of Joan Jonas’s rhythmic tapping in Vertical Roll and really hurt my head. The fact that the image was upside down was also disorienting. It got a bit repetitive after a while and I am not sure what point Nauman was trying to make. His pathway was arbitrary and improvised so it seemed like he was simply experimenting a bit. Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square was not much more interesting. Nauman simply struts slowly back and forth around the square. Nauman seems emotionless as he walks, exaggerating the sway of his hips, only looking down periodically to make sure he is still on the line. The angle of the camera is interesting because there is one corner the viewer is unable to see. Although we can assume Nauman is continuing to walk slowly around that corner, there is also the possibility that he is actually cheating and taking a break there before heading back into view of the camera.