How much faith do you have in facts? This experimental video artwork, Dada News, invites audiences to question modern news media. The work is bookended by a man in front of a screen – a pastiche of Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha, engaging similar questions about enlightenment in a modern age of technology and media echo chambers. The news stories feature voiceovers overlaid against scenes of highly contrasting content but fitting narrative structure. This technique draws from the work of Omer Fast to explore how perspective can drastically change meaning. Another reference to Fast – his CNN Concatenated – are the spliced news presenters which highlight the malleability of the information we consume. Finally, the glitches that clinch the piece together reference the modern Dadaist, Rosa Menkman, emphasing absurdity in today’s news media.
Documenting the Iterative Process of Creating Dada News
01.10.2021
To-do
- Compile feedback
- Brainstorm
- Draft practice and concept
- Begin crafting
- Find feedback
- Write artist statement
- Finalisation
| What do you like about the project? Use the assessment one criteria alongside your own opinions and suggestions. | How could the project be improved? Use the assessment one criteria alongside your own opinions and suggestions. | Any other suggestions? These could include additional resources, texts or potential influences, etc. |
| Great experimentation, clearly a lot of time was spent on it. A really interesting response/aspect to media journalism, especially since it is something you are interested in and have knowledge about. | Perhaps a clearer concept could be defined, seems to be an undercurrent of politics and what they show us vs what they actually mean in the media | |
| Equal parts hilarious and unsettling. The experimenting with distorting and remixing news broadcasts is very professional and incorporates Eve’s journalism studies really beautifully, and creates a both a satirical and meta work that questions the validity of mainstream news outlets. It is very poetic and well researched. | Its not so much about improvement but rather combining the already created elements into a larger piece of work | |
| I love the concept of glitching, you are messing with the medium of news to tell a story and lots of the ideas you mentioned could work really well together, | Just isolating how you’re going to bring it all together will be important. As we mentioned in the breakout room, using the chopped up bits of newsreaders could be a great way to explore all these different ideas you have and using glitch both visually and in sound would be great to navigate your way around the stories. | Maybe try and convey a more specific point through all of these ideas. Showing the absurdity of current news and media is great but doing this through a narrative could make the project really strong. |
07.10.2021 – Compiling Feedback
I was happy with the peer feedback I received regarding Homage to the Hall of Mirrors – my development through iterative experimentation. The ideas I will continue with include:
Homage to Hugo Ball’s Dada Manifesto (and his daughter Rosa Menkman)
Will keep
- Elements of this video experimentation draw from Dadaist Hugo Ball and the glitch artist Rosa Menkman, who works in his legacy
- The creation process of corrupting the files in Sublime Text
Homage to Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha
Will keep
- The concept of an individual watching their recording as a pastiche of Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha
Triptych Homage to Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best
Will keep
- Just as Omer Fast’s used voice over with a strangely different visual story 5000 Feet Is the Best, I will continue to play around with news story voiceovers overlaid against scenes of highly contrasting content but fitting narrative structure.
Homage to Omer Fast’s CNN Concatenated
Will keep
- This video experimentation was drawn from Omer Fast’s CNN Concatenated, where I have compiled and spliced news media to highlight its malleability
16.10.2021 – Brainstorming
My thoughts after compiling feedback and having helpful conversations with peers and my tutor, Justin Harvey:
- Format?
- Separate segments, or
- Whole a whole video – peer favourite
- Pros of segmentations – it could have interactive elements on a webpage
- Allow for random comments
- Another experimentation could have been drawn from the Johnny Cash Project
- Using experimental concepts to create a news brief type video or a video of someone consuming news
- Beginning/ending with TV Buddha style set up of someone watching themselves
- Interspersed CNN Concatenated as the way the news is introduced
- Triptych Homage to Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best as the body of the “news coverage.”
- Interspersed Rosa Menkman glitching, perhaps as the character reads something on his laptop
- Which Australian news stories?
- Bush fires vs need for coal
- COVID restrictions vs space race
- Australian submarine deal vs take over from the Taliban
- Other stories?
20.10.2021 – Drafting
Draft Scene Order
- Wide of a man reading on the couch in front of a television, drawing from TV Buddha
- Close up pan the set, finishing on him paging
- Titled over the shoulder, pointing down of him paging through something, then picking up the remote and turning on the television
- Straight on over the shoulder of the television turning on, then slow zoom as it becomes the full screen
- Spliced introduction drawing from CNN Concatenated
- First news story drawing from Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best (Stopping the Spread is Best)
- Spliced interlude drawing from CNN Concatenated
- Second news story drawing from Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best (A Balanced Discussion is Best), with Rosa Menkman style glitching
- Spliced interlude drawing from CNN Concatenated
- Third news story drawing from Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best (Defense is Best), with more Rosa Menkman style glitching
- Spliced closing drawing from CNN Concatenated
- Zoom out to reveal the TV
- Glitch of the man watching himself
Draft Concept
- Exploring modern news media
- Spliced news presenters drawn from Omer Fast’s CNN Concatenated to highlight the malleability of the information we consume
- The news story voiceovers overlaid against scenes of highly contrasting content but fitting narrative structure drawn from Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best. They explore how perspective can drastically change the meaning
- The glitches draw from the artist Rosa Menkman, who works in the legacy of Dadaist Hugo Ball. I work in the dada lineage, questioning modern sensibility and highlighting elements of absurdity in news media.
- The Menkman style glitches – in the modern and technological media scape, how accurately is reality being captured? How much of what we see is a glitch, a mistake
- Introduction and closing shots featuring a man in front of a tv create a pastiche of Nam June Paik’s TV Buddha, similarly questioning enlightenment in a modern age of technology and media echo chambers
30.10.2021
The first step I’ll take is making my news briefs, from Triptych Homage to Omer Fast’s 5000 Feet Is the Best, more succinct – so they fit within the 3-minute video.
Now that they’re all around 30 seconds, I’m going to have a play around with corrupting and glitching the last couple on Sublime Text.
I’m really happy with the effect on the videos!
03.11.2021
I’m now looking into creating the spliced news intro, interludes and closing from my experimentation with CNN Concatenated.
Done! Next, I’ll look at compiling all this into a dada news brief.
I’ve layered the glitched news stories under the clear originals, so now I’m cutting out where I want to show the glitch underneath.
A slight sound effect might make the glitches more clear.
To heighten the effect, I’ll add visual and auditory static.
Those additions make it quite cohesive!
07.11.2021
I filmed today on a borrowed Olympus OMD EM10, and the process was quite streamlined. I’ll now start compiling the rushes.
Now to put the image into the tv… Firstly, I created a mask layer, then keyframed the two images so they would scale together. And the reverse to create the zoom out at the end.
To conclude the TV Buddha idea of watching oneself, I’ve played with opacity and static.
10.11.2021
Brainstorming title ideas
- Dada news
- Dada news today
- Today’s news by dada
- Today’s news. Your news. Dada news.
And finally, completing my Artist Statement – which can be found at the top.
[…] Extra time indoors has also been great for spending quality time with… my degree! I’ve loved learning more about media production – trying out cinematography and experimenting with video art. […]