Leisure time for everyone
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Nora Lynn Hartlaub (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Ron Laboray
Abstract: The social function of recording devices provides the subject of my thesis, and
takes form in an installation titled Leisure Time for Everyone. The art work consists of
four projected videos and one non-projected work shown on a vintage television set. Each
of the works addresses the role and influence of media in the formation of filmic
representation and socially accepted behavior. The chronological assimilation of the
camera into American culture from the 1950’s to the present provides the framework for
my exploration. Feminist theory and the implication of surveillance provide further
contexts for my investigation.
The works aim to expose the power structures of Hollywood cinema latent in my
family’s amateur film collection, and the extension of those structures into the
contemporary social role of the camera. Two of the projected works consist of digitally
manipulated vintage films, and the other projected works consist of footage I shot with a
digital camera. These works address the shift from private to public spaces, also reflected
in technological advancements of recording devices. The television set plays an audio
recording paired with blurry found photographs, which speaks to the personal impact of technology and representation on memory. Organized chronologically, both the
exhibition of the works as well as this paper explore the history of representation and its
formation of social norms.
The approaches I employ in exposing the role of the camera include digital
manipulations of film or video that analyze the function of narrative. Humor and
innuendo also provide methods for addressing the role of narrative and representation.
The suspension of diegetic function within the works also likens them to the history of
experimental film and still photography. This paper will further examine the social role of
the recording device and the influence of media and surveillance on representation within
the private space of the home as well as in the public space.
Leisure time for everyone
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Created on 12/1/2012
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2012
- Subjects
- Installations (Art)
- Video installations (Art)
- Amateur films -- Social aspects
- Photography -- Social aspects