R. Kelly is not exactly a shining beacon of all things good and unique in the art world but I definitely have to give him some credit for all of the attention that he got for his "Trapped in the Closet" series of songs. Michael Bell-Smith's "Trapped in the Closet All at Once" combines all five chapters of R. Kelly's series, overlapping both the images and the soundtrack. Understandably disorienting at first, I found myself automatically focusing on a single scene, picking it out of all the overlapping layers. I could also do the same with the soundtrack, consciously choosing to follow a single line or phrase sometimes and other times hearing a line stand out without making a conscious effort (things like "quickly trying to put on my clothes" tend to stand out).
I'm not sure I understand why Bell-Smith chose to work especially with Kelly's videos though I can see how things like ridiculous overlapping of plot, confusion between characters, and an uncanny number of ridiculously coincidental occurrences, all of which are present within R. Kelly's videos, would be emphasized to a considerable degree by overlapping all of the images. One thing that I thought was most interesting was Kelly's religious following of the same narrative arc. All of the videos started out slowly, reached a peak emotionally and volume-wise about three-fourths of the way through, and ended with a shot of R. Kelly looking forlorn and emotional.
The Super Mario Clouds by Cory Arcangel brought me back to a game that I have not thought about in a long time. I know that it is possible to download Super Mario online and play it with similar graphics to the old game but seeing the old cartridge on the website and being taut how to manipulate such a prominent piece of my childhood was a weird experience.
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