response #6

Watching Charlemagne Paletine's Island Song was an interesting experience for me. Paletine rode around an island on his motorcycle with the camera strapped to him so the viewer sees everything he sees, hear everything he hears, including his own nonstop chanting. The motion induced by the camera being strapped on him made me feel like I was riding on the back of the motorcycle with him around the island. Being dizzy, disoriented, and out of control on where I was heading, I wanted to smack him in the head, shut him up and make him stop. The soundtrack put me in his world. The motor, the bumps in the road, his voice shaking caused by the bumps. I couldn't make out any words he sang because of how disoriented I was. But he made me feel the calm of his emotions with his chant. As the video neared the end, the view of the ocean and the slow-down of the Paletine's motion showed an obvious contrast, the horn of some ship made me think of Paletine finding his path. It feels like this is end of a journey he brought us on but also the start of his next journey that we can only imagine.
Bruce Naumen's Stamping in the Studio was awkward for me to watch. He rhythmically stumps around the room, resulting in drumbeat like sounds throughout the course of the video while the camera was set up so the image was upside down. The ground was was now the ceiling and Naumen was walking head-down on the ceiling. His walk is seemingly random, he sometimes walks outside the frame but the viewer knows he's still there by the sound of his stumping. I felt like I was invading his privacy by spying on a personally ritual, a contemplation. In his Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square, he v e r y s l o w l y traced the perimeter of the square taped on the floor, one foot directly in front of the other. Even though he walked forward and backwards and changed directions, I was bored and kept on wanting to fast forward through the video and I had to constantly remind myself not to. The video forced the viewer to examine the way in which Naumen moves his body, the lack of emotions, and focus of the sound of the film recorder in the background.