Response 6

Charlemagne Palestine’s “Island Song” is a shoddy video of him on a motorcycle as he steers his way through an island. During the entire video all the viewer hears is the motor from his bike as well as his raspy chanting. He constantly yells and says phrases like, “gotta get outta here.” The manner in which he was driving made me think that he was searching for something, a way out or off the island. I found this kind of funny due to the fact that he cannot leave the island on a motorcycle alone. The camera angle was interesting as the viewer gets a first person view. We see and hear what Palestine does, almost as we are on the bike with him. The sound of the motor and the sound of his chanting seemed to compliment each other. I personally did not enjoy it and thought that he sounded similar to a pirate. The way he was chanting and driving made me wonder if he was mentally stable to operate the motorcycle. Near the end of the video Palestine ends up at the ocean. The sound of his motorcycle quiets and he stops his mumbling. Maybe this is where he realized that he could not get off the island. His journey comes to an end and so does his song.

Bruce Nauman’s video, “Walking in an exaggerated…,” is a video of him being filmed walking around the perimeter of a square drawn on the floor. Nauman walks very slowly in a step by step procedure. The style that Nauman walks reminds me of how models walk a runway. He had that certain swagger in his step. During the video, there is no sound and the movement is so slow that we can take notice of every single move he makes. After about one rotation, he walks backwards and rewinds his movements. Nauman seems focused only on his walking.

Nauman’s video “Stamping in the Studio” took a similar approach, but was shot using different techniques. Here there is the use of sound and the camera angle is at a distorted overview, as if the camera were looking in a mirror. In this video we see Nauman making short stomps and he seems to be walking in complete random motion. He looks like a lost little kid running around with really no sense of direction. The rhythm of his stomping reminded me of a teacher walking down an empty hall or soldiers marching. For me, the use of sound made this video completely different from the first. It makes the viewer think of similar things that consist of the same sound rather than just focus on Nauman’s walking.