celebrity, art, and marketing

FILE TOO BIG TO UPLOAD D:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7w16Blo49N4YzZCTEk4cmtPWjg/view?usp=sharing

Intention

I'm currently debating between two options.

1: Warhol was famous in large part due to his knack for business and ability to market himself as a celebrity. I might make a statement about that by adding arms to his campbell soup can and have it draw a price tag or advertisement onto itself. Or, perhaps, the label will be peeling back to reveal that the thing inside is not actually a can.

http://www.warhol.org/uploadedImages/Warhol_Site/Warhol/Content/Education/Resources_and_Lessons/Images/02212012_EDU_1998.1.2393.2_Large.gif

2: Social media celebrities are famous because they produce media that the world finds pleasing or interesting, which is, in my opinion, a kind of art. To make a statement about this, I would cut up an instgram model's post and arrange the pieces on a schedule (a leg would take up half an hour with a note "shave & wax" next to it, or  something similar)

UPDATE: I started working and realized I wanted to make a video. I looked around for source material and saw Andy Warhol's hamburger video. I found it patently ridiculous that such a thing existed. Thus, I found inspiration for this project: I wanted to make this video as ridiculous to everyone else as it was to me as well as make a statement about Warhol. I personally don't think he was particularly talented or innovative as an artist, but I do think he was extremely good at marketing himself with an "artist persona". He was good at being memorable, and that's something that the internet memes of today aspire towards, so I included them in my video. I also drew a connection between Warhol's lack of talent, in my opinion, and the general consensus that the Kardashian talent has no talent whatsoever.

Context

As I mentioned above, there are many people who think Warhol and Kardashian are famous for no particular reason.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/barbara-walters-tells-kardashian-family--you-have-no-talent_n_1151089.html

http://alexsheremet.com/some-things-of-andy-warhol/

The video is very strongly rooted in pop culture, with memes and Kardashian quotes, because I think that art is strongly tied to its time and to reach a general audience, you may as well embrace the present. I suppose, in the vein of Duchamp, I also wanted to question what makes art art and why people will embrace some works. Thus, I pulled two pieces from generally accepted art: Warhol's hamburger video (which is actually part of a short art film by Danish film maker Jørgen Leth) and Ulysses by James Joyce to be questioned. To contrast and juxtapose, I used common internet memes and Kardashian quotes.

Process

I actually did a lot of work that never appeared in the final product, which I'm a bit disappointed by. My original plan was to have the narrator read a Markov chain trained on Kim Kardashian's tweets as well as Ulysses by James Joyce, but the results were too incoherent to read. See below:

FAVE WHITE AFTER NORTH https://t.co/nBomIwPn3F https://t.co/lVhCRoCm9k ,MY RED CARPET GOWNS 2015 https://t.co/A02mVD067O https://t.co/7PUHV8MglO ,https://t.co/MN89OWLOGl LIVE ,I think was edging to my low pony tail, slicked w u guys there!

We've always if you're there or adders: lightly, the VMAs https://t.co/TeBtWD3cOZ��_ ,@MyleezaKardash I declare somebody to leave knives crossed letters Atty Dillon that one of the sequel to see....

Fila track for the dust grows in mourning for the aftermath....

OSCAR LOOKS https://t.co/BmnLwljfGL https://t.co/nFvpPcos1P ,"RT @TUSK81: If he knew I have to the Kendall when I bundled out tonight, it's fascinating all night b4 I wouldnt it show last night, rendering invisible: the one true heroes _�ժ #fbf #2008 https://t.co/ROxlCWKLS4 ,Star Wars kinda good out at cockshout clattering the bed.

Day!

Another thing I considered was computer-generated text posts, below:

i always try to make a statement with my fashion...thats why today i wore a crop top with a pic of richard nixon captioned: accuse me of betraying homosexuality

at my sleepover we will engage in fun activities. for example we can regret poop emoji

i am trapped in the heinous slime den and i think deeply about 5000 crickets

i love to sin and betray lizards

i only know how to worship poison

do you think shrek would buy gamer gate

i only know how to hate misery?

a little known fact is that there is a worm version of every holiday. for example on worm christmas we give worm related gifts and check out chaos

However, I decided these felt too formulaic and didn't contribute to the overall "feel" of the video.

I also struggled with using iMovie. Apparently, you cannot resize or move around a green screen overlay (I could not make Shia Leboeuf smaller or off to the side), titles are excessively difficult to create, and you cannot have multiple overlays simultaneously.

Product

I used iMovie to put overlays on a sped-up video of Warhol eating a hamburger, with Kardashian quotes on top. An english computer-generated narrator reads Ulysses in the background. 

Critique

I honestly think my video looks ridiculous, so I suppose I accomplished that aspect. I really think it makes you question what art is, what it should be, and what kinds of art people respect.

Personal Reflection

I learned that iMovie is not a program for intensive video editing, If I were to do it again, I would probably start with a clearer goal than "make this video seem ridiculous" and I would probably find a more interesting text to read, possibly one that was created with a Markov chain because I like the idea of procedurally generated art.