Response 6 - Bruce Nauman and Charlemagne Palestine

Bruce Nauman’s Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square displays a man walking around with “exaggerated” movements on the tape that was placed on the floor of a messy studio. One interesting aspect of the video is the use of a simple white t-shirt and dark pants to blend in with the background of a white wall and dark floor. The random pieces of furniture including a stool and a mirror as well as junk on the floor interrupt this eloquent walk around the square and without these distractions would be bland and boring. This “exaggerated manner” consists of a toe to heel walk with a slow turnover of his leg which eventually leads to a very visible sway of the hips back and forth. At first, the man walks around the square in a forward motion until he appears close to the camera, at which time he follows the same pattern of movements but backwards. This continuous cycle of switching backwards and forwards and his focus on the technique make this video look more like a ballet or gymnastic performance that is to be judged.

Bruce Nauman’s Stamping in the Studio is just what the title hints, a man who goes stamping around a studio, yet the video feedback is inverted. This effect distorts the image’s context and makes it difficult to know where this man is marching. For all we know, this man could actually be stuck to the ceiling. The captivating effect of this video is the repetitive stamping that eventually sounds like the rhythmic pounding of a drum. When watching the footwork of the man in the video, it looks as if he is not making the sounds since both feet are not making loud stamps, but only one, if that. Overall, this video seems to distort the image and sound in order to confuse the viewer as to the origins of the video and to question what and why.

In Charlemagne Palestine’s Island Song, the artist uses the vibrations of a motorcycle that rumble through his voice in order to distort his voice into a harmony with the engine. The camera jumps around just as the man’s voice and motorcycle rumble, which ties the visual and sound aspects of the video together into sort of a song. As the video proceeds through the streets, the voice seems to synchronize with the engine, as if taking its place. This music made with his voice sounds very similar to a cultural or spiritual chant that sounds like an indigenous tribe. The constant line “I got to get out of here” is the lyric or main focus of this chant, as houses and boundaries that he cannot escape while on the motorcycle continuously surround Palestine. In the end, the motorcycle cannot physically escape this “island” as he faces the ocean. It’s interesting how Palestine uses these vibrations and his voice in order to fabricate a song that truly expresses emotion by the tone and nervous repetition of the few lyrics.