Inochi is one of the best pieces of video art I have ever seen. It effortlessly combines directorial authorship with industry craft to create a conceptual commercial campaign capable of containing and critiquing the Freudian psychological complexes of an entire nation (Japan). I totally just got my alliteration on.
As much as I love this video, I was hugely disappointed by the new Kaikai Kiki animation in his retrospective. Korean and Japanese cartoons have dealt with fecal matter as subject for quite some time. The only thing new he is bringing to this is that he is showing normal subject matter from that part of the the world to Western audiences. He could have just popped in a DVD of Doggy Poo. The book that film was based on was written in 1968. Don't even get me started on Dongchimee. I'm only using Korean examples because I know them better; there are plenty of Japanese examples out there.
The "trailer" for his new live action movie looked way off as well. For one thing, it was at least 6 or 7 minutes long (trailers are exactly 2:30 or less) and it was nothing but amateurish atmospheric shots. I'm going to reserve full judgment until I see the whole video, but if a trailer is supposed to make you want to see the movie, this one failed.
His video for Kanye West (bootleg shot in MOCA):
I'm not sure how this is anything more than entertainment. Murakami seems to have stopped trying to insert any kind of Freudian psychological discomfort or tripped out post-nuclear narrative into his video work (its still deeply embedded in his painting and sculpture). In my book, after Inochi, he pretty much earned the freedom to do anything with video and get my attention and respect. He instantly squandered that. It's as if he sees video as only capable of being the commercial. He has dropped the conceptual aspect of it all together. Video as a medium is not a logoless Louis Vuitton bag waiting to have a design put on it.
Another artist whose work slides between acting, performance, and performance art is Ryan Trecartin. His small but growing body of videos displays an ability to use overly dramatic acting that does not become hammy or overly ironic. In a Family Finds Entertainment Trecartin bounces between vloggeresque direct camera address (Skippy locked in the bathroom) and large ensemble dialogs. His ability to weave the vlog into soap-operatic grand narrative is both intuitive and masterful. The way he uses his body on camera bridges the gap between acting and performance. He strikes a balance between clowning it up for the camera and discussing the serious issues of a young gay man in a web 2.0 world, but of course everyone is clowning it up in front of the camera these days. I can't praise Trecartin enough for his willingness to put his videos on YouTube. I just wish he had more hits.
I've realized my more specific problem with Tamy Ben-Tor is that I see better acting from YouTubers like LisaNova, Smosh, and HappySlip everyday. If they are professional amateurs then Ben-Tor seems stuck in the amateur amateur mode.
LisaNova has a long list of characters that she does, this one is Teenie Weenie (notice how she doesn't ram the character down the viewers throats):
I can't believe that I'm writing this but the following video displays how much better or maybe about equivalent the acting skills of Smosh and Ben-Tor are:
In fact, now that I'm looking at HappySlip again I think I've found a performer that could teach Tamy Ben-Tor a thing or two. HappySlip aka Christine Gambito makes videos that use humor to illuminate different aspects of life as a first generation American immigrant. Her acting isn't that different from Ben-Tor's except for the fact that she has the ham-factor seriously toned down in comparison.
I think we're seeing a moment in video art where YouTubers might be doing the job of certain artist better than the artists.
Here is a wonderful introduction to internet celebrities on YouTube called Internet People by Dan Meth:
It is becoming abundantly clear that there is a very strong relationship between YouTube and the variety theater. Henry Jenkins explores the similarities in this blog entry: YouTube and the Vaudeville Aesthetic
Here are some quotes from his blog:
"As the name suggests, the variety stage was based on the principle of constant variation and diversity. It represented a grab bag of the full range of cultural interests and obsessions of an age marked by dramatic social, cultural, and technological transformations. In the course of an evening, one might watch a Shakespearean actor do a soliloquy, a trained dog act, an opera recital, a juggler or acrobatic turn, a baggy pants comedian, an escape artist or magician, a tap dance performance, and some form of stupid human tricks (such as a guy with hammers on his shoes hopping around on a giant xylophone or an act where baboons play musical instruments). Similarly, YouTube brings together an equally ecclectic mix of content drawn from all corners of our culture and lays it out as if it were of equal interest and importance, trusting the individual user to determine the relative value of each entry."
"Second, vaudeville performances were short modular units -- usually less than 20 minutes in length -- and much was written about how the demands of economy -- get in, score big, and get off -- impacted the aesthetic choices made. There was no time for elaborate characterization or plot development. Every element had to pull its own weight. Nothing that wasn't necessary for the overall emotional impact could survive. Again, one of the characteristics of YouTube has been this similar push to conciseness. In theory, content can be of any length. In reality, the stuff that gets passed around the most is short and streamlined. YouTube viewers get restless if anything lingers too long. And there is thus a similar emphasis on the immediate emotional impact."
Below are some exemplary vaudevillian and neo-vaudevillian videos:
Of course by this point OK Go! is old news on YouTube but this video still represents a band using the aesthetic of YouTube to get their promo video through the clutter. One of the strongest elements of vaudeville was the musical performance.
Here is Eddie Cantor performing a comedic song from 1923.
The Evolution of Dance is the most viewed video on YouTube with a current count of over 67,000,000. This performance would have fit right in on the vaudeville stage but would have had little place on broadcast television.
W.C. Fields performing a juggling sketch from 1934.
Smosh with their video Transformers Rap. Smosh are the most subscribed to channel on YT. Their brand of comedy appeals perfectly to suburban upper middle class white males, a demographic they fit very comfortably into.
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