Super 8mm Film, Digital Video
2018
Link to Work Excerpt
Artist Statment
The goals of my experimental documentary, Cowboy Town, are to explore the concepts of community, authenticity, and documentary. Funded by a Research, Creative, and Scholarly Activates Grant through the Office of High-Impact Practices while I was earning my BFA in New Media from the University of Central Oklahoma, I had the opportunity to work closely with my faculty mentor, David Webber, and explore a new medium that I otherwise would not have been able to afford (Super 8mm). Inspired by the histories and theories of avant-garde cinema written by James Peterson in their book “Dreams of Chaos, Visions of Order” and the work of Bill Brown, and in particular his experimental Super 8mm documentary “Buffalo Commons”, I sought to create a work which fits within the history of contemporary video art. Cowboy Town exists as a three channel video installation that documents the Oklahoma City DIY-punk music community, a community that exists outside of traditional music business practices by blurring the lines between audience and musician and the use of non-traditional spaces for performances.
The first channel is a portrait of the outsides of spaces that these shows would happen inside. Presumably, you are not a member of this community and thus, you don’t get to see what the inside of these spaces look like. The soundtrack is a cacophony of various songs by Oklahoma City bands who are a member of this DIY-Punk subculture (including bands by musicians who would eventually form Chat Pile).
The second channel subverts traditional methods of documentary film-making by inviting strangers, played by Chloe Sullivan and Joshua Forster, into the community and focusing on their experience. By emphasizing the strangers I have avoided appropriating the experiences of these amateur artists and musicians into cultural capital which preserves the integrity of the community. Authenticity is questioned as Super 8mm, an expensive and historic medium, is used to document a farce as both strangers were asked to play character interpretations of the punk rockers that surrounded them.
The third channel is a replication of the second, only this time using a digital camera. Instead of hearing the music that they are (because again, you aren’t a member of this community – you’re lucky to see this much! My first idea was a silent film of just a corner of the room), you are listening to an interview with the two musicians pictured answering questions from an online “How Punk Are You?” BuzzFeed quiz.
Cowboy Town made up part of my BFA Thesis and was exhibited at the Melton Gallery at the University of Central Oklahoma in 2018.