Hegelian theory links desire with recognition, claiming that all desire is a desire to be recognised and that it is only by means of societal recognition that such desire can be fulfilled.
We have become fixated on our identity within a plethora of hyper-reality, struggling to find definition and balance against the virtual tide of information, disinformation, opinion and emotion. Domestically and globally video has become the phenomenological form of expression, using methods including documentation and appropriation. Whether its use is for a home movie or an anonymous ‘terrorist,’ video acts as a symbolic point of reference.
Regarding online video, it condenses experiences and parodys televisual and filmic technique, creating a new cultural hybrid by-product and a new accepted aesthetic. With its transcient and fleeting subject matter, this culture of parody and imitation exemplified by YouTube, gives us an insight into the herd mentality of the Web 2.0 era. Online video epitomizes the age-old human appetite for approval and recognition.
Within my work I reference YouTube as an analogy that could be seen to represent a huge fragmented narrative. Never before has the world been presented with such a vast antropological and sociological archive of human reactions to, and subversions of popular culture and society. It is the third person who will complete this work, it relies on cultural semiotics which are embedded in our perceptual reconnaissance.
Mimicry and parody have hitherto played a major role in this narrative. Indulging in simulacral states of being becomes a replacement of the ‘real’ experience or live event. Culture feeds on culture through a cannabalistic process of creation, consumption and re-appropriation, which reflects an ecological life cycle of video, as a self reflexive organism which continually or virally feeds itself. Armed with ‘video’ prosumers willingly deconstruct their world, as if attempting to reassemble a broken machine.