The Human Experience

For my video tryptich, I decided to try and express emotion in connection with place through various sounds. In order to do this, I used some of the general themes we’ve explored throughout the class thus far (technology, culture and human).

My first video revolves around school. This vine contains multiple frames of school with shouting, groaning, and general noises of disagreement scattered throughout the video. Although this is a personal reaction to school, it’s also probably a reaction many people share and can there therefore relate to. One thing I found really interesting about this choice of location was my immediate reaction to school paired with the amount of time I spend here. From this I would draw the conclusion that the more time you spend somewhere, the less enjoyable it becomes. School also clearly fits into a larger category of Culture. We spend a lot of time throughout our lives in school, so much that until we’re 22, we’ve spent no more than three months outside of school at one time. This is where we become cultured.

The second video in my tryptich portrays popular restaurants, especially with the students of SPA (including myself). The audio in this video is me saying ‘YAAASSSS’ whenever a new restaurant pops up. For those who don’t know, there’s a viral video spiraling around called ‘YAAASSSS GAGA’ right now. I decided to use this variation of the word ‘yes’ in order to connect some really popular restaurants to a really popular video. This took two parts of personal enjoyment (tasty restaurants + internet sensations) and combined them. I wanted to give the impression of combining personal enjoyment to enjoyment that others get even around the world. I figured this would be a way to combine the human experience and a cultural experience.

The final video is from a clip from the first Lord of the Rings movie. In this clip, Frodo and Gandalf are riding on a carriage into the Shire. The rolling hills of green grass are flowing in the wind as they pass fields and fields of beautiful greenery. This is what I titled my ‘wishful place.’ Having grown up watching Lord of the Rings, I’ve explored the movies and books in every way possible. Between memorizing half of the movies to buying merchandise from multiple different places, I’ve tried to envelope myself into the culture of the movies in many different ways. However, one way I’ll never be able to truly explore these movies is by actually living in the world that Frodo and Gandalf get to (although this may not be a privilege when we think of what they have both gone through). Therefore, I decided to deem this video ‘my wishful place.’ One thing that I really found interesting about this particular video was that the one place I would love to go is a place that lives truly only through technology. Although there are so many beautiful places on earth, with amazing sights to be seen and experiences to be had, this is a place that will never truly exist for humans. The same could be said for those Harry Potter fans who want nothing more than to go to Hogwarts, or the Twilight fans who want to live in a house with the Cullens. Often, the places we want to be most are the places we can only access through technology.

YAAASSS GaGa Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pn0JKmy5-M