ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

For much of my life, I have shown a great fondness towards absurd musical entertainment. Now, thanks to the glory of The Internet, I have an almost unlimited supply of musical absurdities at my disposal!

In more recent months, I have stumbled upon oddities from different times and places that immediately piqued my interest and exploded my mind. The temporal and geographic barriers of these video gems (Belgium, late 1980's) seem to increase their entertainment value, and the only way that I can connect with these masterpieces is through such impersonal viewing experiences as YouTube.com.

For this, my Final Project in DTC338 - Spring 2011, I have embraced the spirit of the mash-up in order to create a glorious amalgamation of four of my most beloved music videos found on YouTube. Consider this a loving homage to that which inspires me the most.

Using Pro Tools, I edited each musical track by cutting them into numerous pieces, which could then be remixed all about the timeline. Luckily, three of the four songs have essentially the same tempo; the one song with the wrong tempo was "sped up", but with the pitch left intact. I was able to match the beats very accurately, and at any given moment in the song (save for the very beginning and end) there are at least two different audio sources playing at the same time. My goal was to reach the "pop song" length of 3-4 minutes, which I succeeded in achieving. Some clean-up was needed on certain audio tracks, and Pro Tools offers the resources to do so. The final song is a faithful compilation of those four different songs, with no other audio sources being used.

For the video portion, I utilized Adobe Premiere and laid the audio track down as a foundation. From there, I matched many video clips to the appropriate audio and filled in the blanks with properly-synchronized dance moves from the different videos. Much like with Pro Tools, I spliced the video tracks into many small segments so that I was prepared to pick and choose what should go where. In addition, I enhanced the video wherever possible and added a few additional effects, such as text. This was mainly used to compensate for the difference between full- and widescreen presentation: instead of leaving black boxes flanking the central viewport, I added the "Clean and Heavy" text.

As you will see, the final piece is a seamless presentation of nonstop dance moves and strange spoken-word manifestos. Watch as a spandex-clad robot playing a synthesizer joins forces with a couple more bad-asses in leather jackets, one of whom also plays THREE synthesizers, whilst three additional studs tear up the mirrored dance floor, all while a strange man in a tiny leather jacket and a smiley face shirts, along with his young fan club, dance around various statues. I have never seen anything so beautiful in all of my life.