Beethoven Love = iPhone Love

What does it mean when we love something, specifically when we talk in reverence of music or art. The frequency at which we "love" things in turn places works like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on par with the brand new iphone which we too say we "love." There's something problematic and unsettling about this (note: there are more unsettling things in the world than this). Surely the same language can not be used to show our appreciation for two completely different things. After all one is "Art," a cathartic and euphoric out of body and border line spiritual experience, and the other is simply a tool when seen in retrospect of technological innovation is no different than a cutting knife. But maybe they are on par. After all I am just a human being whose DNA is 98% exact to that of our chimp counterpart. Hence, maybe they are no different, as our consumption of "Art" is no different than our consumption and desire of all things shiny, just like that new iphone. Maybe that feeling of catharsis is no different than that shopping high we get.

The Illusion of Catharsis Remix

The Illusion of Catharsis from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

Part 3 of a collaborative Remix Project. In this video I react and build upon a video of a music video and film mash up of "cathartic" and emotional moments. I overlay a doctored Mastercard logo, in an attempt to raise questions of the cultural consumption of art and all things "cathartic." My guiding question stems from an earlier rant/blog entry (amarkmaker.blogspot.com/​2010/​06/​ilusion-of-catharsis.html). What role does "art" truly play? Here I suggest that "Art" has largely become a kind of fuel consumed to quench one's thirst, a thirst for catharsis, a thirst for meaning, to feel connected and somehow "whole." A thirst that returns and can never be entirely or permanently satisfied.