Rainbows, Study No. 5

The following is Rainbows, Study No. 5, which is intended to be an interactive video/installation. In its physical form, the work consists of six separate DVD discs, with each label coloured, and placed on a sqaure of coloured paper. The content of five of these discs consist of a single shot of a person (very much inspired by Andy Warhol's screen tests, and Sharon Lockhart's Pine Flat) who is backdropped by various colors and set to five very different pieces of music; namely a punk/hardcore song ("World Up My Ass" by Circle Jerks), a jazz piece of music ("John McLaughlin" by Miles Davis), an electronic piece of music ("IO" by Autechre), a classical piece of music (Debussy - Preludes Book 1, "Danseuses De Delphes", performed by Michelangeli) and a rap song ("Night of the Living Baseheads" by Public Enemy). The use of these pieces is an integral part of the work, which is focussed on the notion that music plays an important and powerful role in conveying, suggesting or supporting emotions or ideas relating to its subject matter. Here, the use of different pieces of music suggest different attitudes about, and representations of, the subject, who is meant to be a symbol of youth culture. The sixth disc, in the works physical form, is the credits. A viewer is invited to pick out from the six discs and play them in a random order. Playing any particular DVD first, the viewer builds up inevitable preconceptions and attitudes towards the subject based on the soundtrack. These preconceptions and attitudes are challenged and mutated by playing further DVDs. Adding an additional DVD of credits is an attempt to subvert conventional chronological narrative, through the chance of it being played at any other point other than at the end by the viewer who is randomly selecting the playing order of the DVDs.

I've added six videos below to emulate the way in which the work was originally intended to be experienced, as well as adding a video that consists of all six parts. Over the next couple of weeks, this work will be further developed on an interactive level.

Watch the work as they were originally intended in separate videos.

Part I



Part II



Part III



Part IV



Part V



Credits






Watch the work in one video: