HD/SD video on DVD -in 4 parts - 7:37
My video One addresses Metallica’s legacy to the
world of digital copyright. The video compiles one hundred perfectly
synchronized YouTube® videos of boys and young men showing off their technical
mastery of the metal instruments (guitar, drums and bass) as they cover
Metallica’s magnum opus One. By taking Metallica’s music as my
subject I instantly became suspect of copyright infringement — even though the audio that coincides
with the video is not being played by the aging musicians in the celebrity
metal band. Instead, the audio track showcases the combined efforts of one
hundred passionately involved amateur musicians, each slightly out of tune and
out of phase. Each one of these musicians is suspended in his bedroom or garage
in an extended state of intense absorption during the 7:42 duration of the
video. Each one is fully engaged, making the most of this chance to show off
his technical chops for the world to see. Thanks to the alterations I have made
to this appropriated Youtube footage, these private moments exist simultaneously
in an artificial space. Coming together as a hundred-strong chorus, these
isolated individuals become a strange, painfully sincere musical community that
exists only in a technologically mediated parallel reality.
My companion
pieces Black and White address related issues of authorship and ownership. Black and White are paired columns made up of compact discs containing
illegally downloaded files containing the music of Metallica’s “Black Album” and
the Beatles’ “White Album”. To access the music one has to insert the disc into
a computer, uncompress the file, and load the songs into iTunes before listening.
Following these steps might make
the listener an accomplice to copyright theft. However, the exact perpetrators
of this alleged crime are difficult to identify. Is the more guilty party the
person hosting the free music on the Internet, or the end user who put it onto
his or her computer? Black and White exist in an unlimited edition and are made freely available so
that members of the public can “steal” the bands’ music.
