Documentary Film, Radio, Photography | Presentation + Production | Williamsburg, Brooklyn » myth project proposal

Productions Stills from Maine Shoot

UnionDocs — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:23:39 +0000

Just a quick sample of some of the footage that was shot on the UnionDocs Collaborative Programs trip to Maine. These scenes will be edited and the journey will provide a narrative to frame the short works that compose the Documenting Mythologies Project.

Man v Woman, “Whatever,” Kennedy

Alan Hui-Bon-Hoa — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:24:51 +0000

The Myth of Man Versus Woman

It’s one of the earliest things we learn about ourselves, a dichotomy so entrenched, it goes beyond natural to a sense of being fundamental to our identities: I am male, or, I am female. And, of course, there is physiological back-up for this binary; our bodies do place us in one category or the other. But with that physiological foundation set, the way we exist within our femininity and masculinity is bound up in mythology… What constitutes male, and what female? It is not simply a matter of our genitals and hormones; there are orders of dress, of mannerism, of patterns of behavior that are circumscribed by a mysterious force. It is not so naturally polarized as the binary dictates. I’m not necessarily speaking here of transsexuality or outright gender ambiguity—though they do present more dramatic challenges to an idea of gender that is divided cleanly between what is male and what is female. We all take our a place somewhere on a spectrum of gender, and wrestle to various degrees with the way in which that doesn’t fit the more rigid binary that culture or history has imposed. From the long-haired boy teased for appearing “girlish,” to the tomboyish girl struggling for a more “feminine” beauty, to someone who feels as if they were born the wrong gender, the battles can range from seemingly insignificant to life-consuming. Other societies have an understanding of gender that is more fluid—or at least more expansive. In Thailand, there is a so-called “third gender” of the ladyboy. In India, there are hijras, people whose gender incarnation is somewhere between male and female. There are a whole host of social roles that come along with these alternative categories— many of them undesirable– but the existence of these “third genders” shows American insistence on an oppositional male/female gender binary to be something culturally constructed, a mythology that is made, not intrinsic to us as humans.

My approach to taking on this mythology of polarized gender would be to visually and aurally present a spectrum. I’d start with representations of our most hyper masculine—like Mr. Stallone here–

in photographs, sounds, videos, and then work my way through towards hyper femininity, seeking to select images and voices to come in between that complicate the categories we begin and end with.

The Myth of “Ordinary” Language, Slang, or “Whatever”

We don’t often question the genesis of our everyday language. It comes out of our mouths, as if fully formed almost without our participation. Slang words can become reflexive, an automatic part of an exchange, unexamined for their evolving nature. To demonstrate, try this exercise: monitor the next conversation you have, and see how often you use the word “whatever.” Before the 1970s, we did not have this fixture of expression to indicate indifference. And now, through a confluence of Valley Girls and Archie Bunker dismissing advice from his wife, it’s everywhere. According to the Oxford English Dictionary’s editor-at-large, the current context of “whatever” first surfaced in 1973, on a Department of Defense document addressed to returning prisoners of war from Vietnam. The OED’s Jesse Sheidlower told NPR recently that “there was a list of various things that they might want to be aware of and one of them was “whatever,” which was defined as equivalent to “that’s what I meant.” By the advent of Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone as a “whatever”-spouting southern California rich girl, it was in our collective mouths with a force and commonality. This year, it topped a study by Marist College of the most annoying words/phrases. And, of course, there are still new mutations of “whatever:” from “whatevs” to, thanks to the reality TV series “Rock Star: Supernova,” simply “evs.” How does a word morph from a minor mention in a military document to something that annoys millions? How does it move through its life from something barely uttered to something ubiquitous? The trajectory of “whatever”—and thousands of other words—reveals what may seem to be a reliable language to be temporal. Nothing, in fact, can be so “ordinary,” when it is shifting so rapidly and constantly.

My approach to this mythology of words would be to take the example I’ve turned to here—“whatever”—and trace it’s etymology with a lexicographer. But, instead of just an interview, this piece would flirt with a style that Rip: A ReMIX Manifesto used: demonstration of a point, instead of a mere discussion. We’d start with that Vietnam War era document, travel through clips like this–

Click here to view the embedded video.

through different iterations of the word’s meaning (for example: in Singapore, Whatever is reportedly a non-carbonated soft drink sold alongside another soft drink called Anything), creating through its repetition and trajectory a deconstruction of the ordinary-ness of the word.

The Myth of the Kennedys

The Kennedy family is, in American politics, among the most visible of political families. While not the only American family to have had numerous family members hold elected office, the Kennedys are distinct in that their identity can easily be identified as a mythology. The Kennedy image evokes specific historical, political, and cultural meaning for several reasons. Often repeated in representations of the Kennedy family is Jacqueline Kennedy reference to her husband’s presidency as “Camelot,” understood as a time of happiness, vigor, and optimism both in Washington but also equally applied to the US. “American Camelot” is interesting in that it expresses as a tangible whole the new directions of the 1960s as a specific cultural zeitgeist. However, what is perhaps most interesting about the Kennedy family’s mythology is a certain tension that motivates the desire to produce a political family as a romantic and narrativized whole. It is ironic that a family who largely championed democratic liberalism should be the family on which to inscribe what I would argue is the American post-colonial desire to establish the semblance of an imperial dynasty. In this sense, a political family becomes the vehicle with which to express the anxiety and necessity to claim the affectations of a soft imperialism with a young democracy.

The Kennedys as a whole presents a problematic in terms of approaches to representation. Because there are numerous family members, each informing the idea of “a Kennedy,” one possible way to approach the Kennedy family as mythology is to organize their subnarratives as each their own mythology. In terms of materiality, because the Kennedys were very frequently the subject of photographic and televisual media, I would approach this mythology in terms of visual texts, preferring various photographs over time, which will be organized chronologically.

Myth: Marketing is informative.

Will Martin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:19:29 +0000

Photo by Paul Carlon - www.mynameispaul.com

Much like with the consumption of meat, there was a time in the history of markets and exchange when marketing and advertising were not only important but necessary for maintained health of the economy; that time has clearly passed. In a time when distances were real, that is to say accompanied by time, the dissemination of product information was limited by the spatial exposure of the market. The growth of specialization and international trade lead to a distancing of the consumer from the point of production of goods. Marketing at its best was a form of education, an aid to the consumer who became increasingly unable to “see for themselves” the quality and contents of those things that they were buying. Marketing was an aid to the consumer, a nourishment, an enabler of informed decision making. Marketing hastened product knowledge.

Today the informational landscape of the market is wildly different, and by necessity the form of the market itself has changed dramatically, one might even argue that it has disappeared. In this new arena, the need for marketing, understood in the terms which it was conceived, is increasingly convoluted; however, paradoxically, its prevalence has only increased. This is because the myth of modern advertising still adheres to the antiquated form taken upon its inception. The spaces that we explore both digitally and physically are increasingly encroached upon by advertisements. This change was gradual, and we grew tolerant before we had a definitive opportunity to choose. The ends of advertising remain comparable, the facilitated buying and selling of goods and services, yet the means have changed. The information we receive today is highly processed and abstracted from the essence of the good or service; we passively consume such information and are left feeling empty and unsatisfied, and therefore we agree to take more, and more. Sites, both physical and digital, perceived to be public are now clogged with banner and billboard or worse.

It is true that meat was once an important part of a nutritious diet, yet today the system has dramatically reconceived and repackaged a different product under the same name yet at a greater distance. The new product is not only devoid of substance but also detrimental to our health. Such is the case of marketing in the economy. Just as contemporary meat is no longer food, marketing is no longer information, and both are machines for the gluttonous slow demise of their consumers. Marketing no longer provides for a healthy economy, it subverts it in ways we have yet to see. What we could use are more vegetarians.

Myth: Math is Descriptive.

Will Martin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:11:45 +0000

Often, and too often, I see a mathematical equation is exposed awkwardly and nakedly out of context, that is to say in the place of language. Such equations, composed of annotated variables, or worse, word themselves, might appear amidst a discussion of important abstract concepts. Take the following example which I recently saw: “Belonging + friendship + romantic attraction = Love”. Nobody has trouble “reading” the intended meaning of the structured equation. The concept, in this case “Love”, is a multifaceted concept composed of several necessary elements. We understand the symbols of math and because we know their absolute nature we then extrapolate, forcedly and unexpected, the meanings of the factors, and we then take the outcome, or sum in this case to be necessarily true. We read the equation like a sentence which is the critical error. We unknowingly “concretize” the abstraction without the appropriately primed ability to do so and therefore we frame the thoughts and concepts imbedded in the abstractions in a prescriptive, simplified manner, as opposed to a descriptive, complex manner. To appropriately concretize the concepts holistically in an equation as such would only be appropriate if the we assume that the reader has full knowledge and understanding of the entirety of the abstraction prior to encountering the equation, and therefore the writing of said equation would be redundant and demeaning. The use of language however allows for the subtle evocation of the nature of abstractions in a way which is descriptive not prescriptive like math.

Myth: The City is a Place.

Will Martin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:06:16 +0000

Cities are often contrasted with other places of inhabitants by discussions of speed and rapidity. People move quickly and talk fast. Buildings go up and come down. Neighborhoods flip residents. Populations grow, disperse, and diminish in matters of years. To Speak of change in the city is indeed a cliché. The city is a place of transience, of movement. A plane passes, a train passes, a car passes, a stranger passes, whether or not on choose to stand still or not. In many cities a river passes, and the city itself sits more like an eddy. It is a point, for certain, a phenomenon, yet no matter how forceful or focused the motion, the eddy it is never as solid or as real as the land it flows over or the rocks that divide its waters downstream, such is the nature of the city. City dwellers might return to a more rural setting they once knew – perhaps in their childhood – and be taken back by the sameness of that place. When returning to the city one is hard pressed to find the same sentiment for the city as whole. One may concede that a building or a person remains unchanged, yet the city could never. This nature which I find to be true in all the cities which I have known and known again begs the appropriateness of the term place in any discussion of the city a whole. With the myth of place is crucial to define terms as well as scale, yet on those definitions of place which I will soon dedicated this investigation I find the city to be undeniably deficient. By clarifying the definitions of such rhetorics, the ontological discourse of urban issues might be more appropriately addressed.

Hip-Hop Creation Myth

Robbie Wilkins — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:36:09 +0000

The creation myth of hip-hop is, at its roots, the myth of a group of black and Latino youth from the South Bronx who sought only to create a space in which to party. It was in the Boogie Down that the influence of the Jamaican sound system battle mashed up with kids on the hunt for breaks, in the form of DJ Kool Herc. It was in the basement and street parties of the post-Cross Bronx Expressway that the poor and dispossessed came together to found a cultural movement comprised of music, dance and visual art. The precepts of the movement were codified on the street. Always uprock before downrocking. Don’t go over a burner, unless your intent was to start a war with rival writing crew. Get up. Go all-city. Emcees defeated in battle would not only lose face, but control of the mic. The loudest system runs the streets. The art was purer before the miscegenation that came from white downtown artists bringing their Bronx counterparts to the downtown art culture, the result of which was the commodificiation and appropriation of their work.

The early history of hip hop has largely existed within an oral tradition, but the accepted “creation narrative” in recent years has been formalized by the work of journalist Jeff Chang in his seminal work, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.” In his book, Chang even references his version of the birth of hip-hop as a “creation myth.” Whether the reference is a nod to his inability to state with positive assurance his history as a definitive one, or is just intended as a synonym for legendary, is unclear. Other documents of the early years of hip hop include the academic paper “Histories and ‘Her Stories’ From the Bronx: Excavating Hidden Hip Hop Narratives” by anthropologist Oneka LaBennett of the Bronx African-American History Project (BAAHP) at Fordham University. In the paper LaBennett challenges the male-dominated history of hip hop’s creation myth through oral history interviews with prominent female figures from the culture. Hip hop DJ, activist and historian Davey D maintains a series of articles and interviews on the history of hip hop at his website. In order to document this mythology I would suggest a series of interviews with prominent figures from the era, such as Clive Campbell (DJ Kool Herc) and Afrika Bambaataa. Interview subjects would also include early documentarians of the culture, among them photographers Henry Chalfant, Joe Conzo and Jamaal Shabazz. I would also suggest interviews with historians of hip hop, among them Davey D and Chang, as well as people like LaBennett, whose work challenges the widely accepted history of hip hop.

Mediums, Movement and the Third Rail!!!

Katia Maguire — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:35:46 +0000

Here are three video projects that Ben and I brainstormed this week:

MEDIUMS

NYC is full of media makers, managers, and manipulators. The book, magazine, newspaper, and television news organizations all have their headquarters in NYC. In addition to the traditional media, there is a large population of people involved in sharing information, through psychic abilities. There are also countless psychics, astrologers, and shamans that work as mediums to a world not based on observed truths, but intuition. Their craft their messages by similarly working at the junctions between people and the world. They translate the indecipherable, offer words that we want to hear, and attempt to create truths from a position beyond fact. As a filmmaker and artist working primarily with non-fiction and documentary narratives, their perspective is arresting and challenging to the way that I see the world. I want to start a dialogue about the media with mediums, and try to raise questions about how a psychic sees the physical and psychic worlds.

I think a point of entry into these questions would be to start building relationships with a few psychics. I would like to attempt to engage the mediums in a dialogue about their specific studio spaces and the urban landscape that they inhabit as a way for looking at their relationships to their own bodies as the medium between the physical and world beyond. I would anticipate shooting a series of short videos that are portraits of the individuals, places of work, and their neighborhood. I don’t want psychics making any predictions, nor do I think they will attempt this on camera. I would like to create place specific narratives that can be screened through google maps and perhaps at the specific locations. I would also work to find a way to link the various psychic narratives for a longer work.

MOVEMENT

Like many people before me, it’s slowly dawning on me that my chosen profession is resulting in a lifestyle where most of the day I’m sitting down and staring at a computer. Days, weeks, months pass where my body doesn’t go beyond a set of prescribed movements—down and up the stairs in the subway, up and down from my seat at work, curled up in the same corner of my bed with my laptop on my lap. Even exercise has it’s own set of boundaries, first stretch the right leg, than the left, now the run, one foot after another until I’m out of breath. This long boring list of day-to-day movements makes lathering my hair in the shower and brushing my teeth seem exotic. My body yearns to move unexpectedly, exuberantly. When was the last time I used my body to translate what I was feeling? How would I express the little flutter of joy I get in my belly when I see someone I love? Arms outstretched, a little jig, a little leap? How can these expressive movements be incorporated into my every day life? Sometimes you get glimpses of this—a drunk person on the street dancing and singing, a mentally ill person in the subway talking to himself, gesturing emphatically. But why are these movements okay when you’re incapacitated? And do you have to be a professional dancer or actor to simply use your body to express yourself?

The video below is the T-Mobile advertisement where people spontaneously combust into dance at Liverpool Street Station in London. Now, I recognize that this is an advertisement for a huge corporation that obviously used trained dancers to choreograph this event. But I like what the video represents, and I like to imagine myself in a scenario like that, in the real world. That I’m in a public place, with faceless strangers, and all of a sudden, music comes on and they begin to dance. And through their movements, they share who they really are. And I get to know them, without having a conversation. Then the music stops and we continue on with our day. My thinking for a video project is still in the rough stages, but what I envision right now is setting up a space in a public area, (Union Square for example) where people can “dance” their stories. What the story would be is not yet determined, perhaps it would be a reaction to an event (i.e. How did you feel when Obama was elected?) or just simply, how do you feel today? I’d love to see people walk through this space, express themselves and move on with their day.

The T-Mobile Dance

THE THIRD RAIL

When waiting on the platform for the subway, and staring onto the tracks, I watch the rats as they go about their business and my mind always wanders to the same few thoughts—what’s it like down there, in that gutter that I spend so much time inspecting as I wait for the train? Sometimes when I see something that sparks my curiosity, a crumpled up flyer that I’d like to finish reading, an item of clothing, (is it a sock or a hat?) I feel like I could just hop down onto the tracks, pick up what I’m looking at, crawl back up to the platform, and go about my day. In the back of my mind, there is always the slight urge to drop down below to what is universally known as an off-limits space, and answer the little questions I have. To inspect the third rail, what’s that really like? Can you get electrocuted if you pee on it? Are the rats aggressive? How many of them are there, really? And then there’s always the little surprise, when you’re down there late at night, and you hear voices coming from the tunnel. Are those the conversations of the rumored colonies of people who live in the tunnels? Then from the darkness emerges a light, one that has to belong to a human as it bobs up and down, slowly coming closer, so unlike the train lights that rush towards you, steadily. The voices are closer, more confident, and a pair of construction workers emerge. I’m always surprised at their confidence and lack of urgency. “Quick!” I want to shout, “Get up on the platform before the train comes!” I watch them nervously until they swing their legs onto the thick yellow painted line that indicates that they’re safe. And then the tracks belong to the train again, it can arrive now. You hear the rumble first. At Lexington there must be a vacuum effect because there’s a strong wind that whips my hair across my face and tugs me towards the dark mouth of the tunnel, and then it’s all of a sudden there, cars shrieking into the station, claiming it’s space.

On youtube there’s quite a lot of videos where people actually invade this space and jump onto the tracks. It’s so shocking and seems unreal to see the space crossed, and yet it also satisfies some sort of curiosity to see someone breaking the rules. I’d like these videos to be the principle element in a longer piece. The style and tone will be meditative and slow, with long wide shots of the empty platforms, and voice over from interviews conducted with people waiting for the trains, sharing their stories and mythologies about the tracks. This will be inter-cut with the youtube videos of people actually crossing the tracks, perhaps these below:

Crossing the tracks, just for fun.

Crossing the tracks, to save a kid.

Looks like they turned it into a commercial.

Online Persona

Robbie Wilkins — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:31:02 +0000

Individuals have the power and/or option to create one’s own persona. One’s actions, consumption, lifestyle etc. create an evolving persona which, when interpreted by others, becomes that individuals own identity. With the advent of online social media, one currently possesses the power and or option to create a complimentary persona of their choosing. This actively constructed personality may enhance or redefine one’s persona. This self-constructed online persona can be updated and manipulated by the individual at any time and is supported by other individual online persona interaction.

One definitive illustration of online persona is the far-reaching experiment of Facebook. It is this platform of updateable personal sharing that enables the individual simple and effective persona construction tools. Online persona is documented in a many ways on Facebook. Often the most powerful persona shaping occurs in user status updates. A collection of these interactive status updates illustrates a calculated example of ones intentional persona creation.

Hair, Names, Heels

Shawn Wen — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:45:23 +0000

After meeting a few times for the collaborative project and brainstorming about modern myths that have a hold on us, these are three topics that Hyatt and I have come up with:

Hair

Delilah cuts off Samson’s hair in his sleep. When he awakens, he has lost his physical strength. Rapunzel’s hair is a stepladder for the prince to reach her. It is her ticket to love and freedom from her prison in the tower. The WB show “Felicity” saw its ratings plummet when its star actress trimmed her curls. The WB changed their policy so that no performer could change their hair without permission from the studio. We will take a magnifying glass up to hair and tease at the roots, the grays, the split ends. Our hope is to examine the narratives of hair, its cultural caché, and the myths surrounding it.
This piece will feature montages of found and original footage of hair and hair commercials. A voice-over will read an essay that weaves together the biology of hair, narratives where hair plays a key role, and other stories.

The Naming of Ourselves

Our names are at once everything and nothing. They are arbitrary. They reveal nothing of who we are. And then they are how we identify ourselves. Our brain waves pick up when we hear our names. They link us and differentiate us. People seem to grow into their names. Elizabeth seems like an Elizabeth. What is it then to purposefully change your name? Does it alter your identity? Does it reveal that you have something to hide.

This narrative will follow the stories of Hyatt Michaels, formerly Michael Hyatt, Shawn Wen, alternately Wendy, and Marilyn Monroe, formerly Norma Jeane Baker. It will feature found footage, old photographs, and interviews with Shawn and Hyatt’s friends.

High Heels

an instrument for your feet

You hear them before you see them. The sharp clicks are unmistakeable. When you catch a glimpse of the sleek shoes making music on the floor, the heels are hard to ignore. These shoes are made to draw your attention. Lost in the illusion, we all feast on the aesthetic perfection the shoes create, but ignore the expensive price the wearers pay.
Though high heels have always projected a picture of glamour and beauty, they also work as a form of punishment for women. Through we will create an audio slideshow featuring images of shoes and interviews with their owners. We hope to delve into the myth of heels and discuss them as a modern form of foot binding

Prayer, Little Fountains, City Slogans

Joshua Gen Solondz — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:06:38 +0000

Pinder and Solondz met on Thursday, discussed individual ideas, reached consensus on three myths. Each myth results from the collision of individual interests, subject’s visual presence, and signified/conceptual ambiguity.

Prayer

Prayer comes from a recent interest in hobbies and pastimes, actions whose moral/ethical/economic value are based on commitment and temporal continuity. Prayer, in its institutionalized form, occurs according to predetermined set of actions over a regular schedule. Analysis of the body’s actions during the action and questioning of action’s actual value will be pursued.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Approach on the subject is very open-ended as of now. Research at a public library is logical, focus should be on determining actions that constitute prayer. Religious comparison is not a goal. Since the body in pursuit of abstraction is subject, one must find relations in which bodily representation comes with specific guidelines and subjection to the abstract. Media of prayer may yield rich fruit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Miniature Fountains

Another entry into valued and wasted time is in the act of making miniatures, collecting miniatures, and focusing on miniatures. Miniature fountains are a ripe example, seeing as that a little self regulating device can soothe stress, delay aging, and cause urination. Fountains originally served a very practical purpose—to supply water for drinking and other functions of daily life. The fountain’s role has metamorphosed over time; it has since become a conduit for play, memory, hope, and now, peace. The observer’s experience of the fountain is often influenced and shaped by the stated intention of the object. In the case of a miniature fountain, its currency lies in being able to relax and calm the observer. However, this value is inextricably linked to the fountain’s particular meaning in time and culture.

In terms of approach, we would use video and/or film to create a meditative piece on the act of creating a miniature fountain and on the perceived value of spending time in its company.

For reference:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,998289,00.html

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/kib/kib6694.htm?source=froogle

Click here to view the embedded video.

City Slogans

Baltimore. Get In On It. Las Vegas. What Happens Here, Stays Here. Cleveland. Cleveland Rocks! Peculiar, MO. Where the Odds Are With You. Moreno Valley, CA. Where Dreams Soar. Dallas. Live Large, Think Big.

Our third topic explores city re-branding and the mythologies these cities attempt to create and erase in the process of assigning new taglines. So often, these pithy phrases (sometimes crafted by faraway agencies) are meant to essentialize a city, providing a fundamental clue to the place’s character and perhaps more importantly, attracting tourists and new denizens. The slogan stands as a signifier for what the city hopes to be (Where Dreams Soar) or in some cases, it represents a relative ambiguity around a city’s identity (Get In On It). Last week, the national press picked up a story about the politicking that mired the selection of new slogans for two Nevada cities, Reno and Sparks. The proposed slogan for Reno—“A Little West of Center”—was meant to bring in a younger, edgier crowd but was quickly shot down by the city’s 71-year-old mayor. The debate spurred slogan creators to muse on the purpose of their work:

“A good slogan should elicit an emotional response. Unfortunately, a bad slogan does the same thing,” said Pete Ernaut of R&R Partners in Reno, the Nevada firm that developed the naughty but wildly successful “What happens here, stays here” slogan for Las Vegas. Good slogans are like capturing “lightning in a bottle,” some said.

Using video and potentially film, we could follow a story of one city going through this process of re-branding, exploring questions like: What is the process for creating a slogan? How does a city’s true identity intersect with the slogan chosen? In what ways are actual residents involved in re-branding their own city? Do slogans actually have any demonstrated value?

For reference:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-11-02-city-slogans_N.htm

http://www.taglineguru.com/citymottosmonikers.html

http://reidontravel.blogspot.com/2009/06/top-8-questionable-us-city-tourism.html