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.

I shall bestow you with truth, I hath indeed shared your mother's bed

I shall bestow you with truth, I hath indeed shared your mother's bed from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

Part 2 of The Remix Project. Building on dm.finearts.yorku.ca/​~banruby/​a3/​index.html
-in this video I add photos of nude panhandlers, underlining the montage of contemporary rap videos and a score by Frederik Chopin.

The title taken from the meme of Joseph Ducreux, where rap lyrics are translated into "proper english."

Online Empathy

Online Empathy Remix from Thomas Zukowski on Vimeo.

In this video I juxtapose video/images indicative of the contemporary online cabinet of curiosities in which silly dances, drunk people, and celebrity rants fill our virtual shelves. And in continuation of my interest in the affects of such online technologies on human behavior, I again ask if this archival of memories on this scale through this technology makes us more empathetic or narcissistic.
As a result a juxtapose the visual zeitgeist with a lecture that discusses theories of an empathetic civilizations. In retrospect of the video where, "are we really an empathetic civilization?"