by Dragan Živančević
selection committee member

What is a popular video today?

The title is so abundant in associations that it can direct one’s thoughts to at least two directions at the same time: one is the music video production, video clips of famous performers; the other is the artistic direction whose most prominent representative is certainly Andy Warhol. However, the cruel non-artistic reality responds to the technological revolution differently from the way the artists such as Nam June Palk or Warhol would.
Dominant aspects of popular video today are still the long lasting phenomena categorized as kitsch and pulp. Yet, over time a new hypertrophied tide wave of human transgression has emerged, imposing the urge that it need be recorded at any cost. We have seen numerous sensations, wars, death, and bizarre events, causing in audience unquenchable thirst, which by an extension has led to the continuation of the search for new sources. In order to obtain them, it is no longer sufficient to wait patiently for thy neighbor to fall, but the event needs to be provoked and made real, as opposed to its being accidental or performed. If the concept of recorded bizarreness was realized as a simulacrum, we would be dealing with amateur video, which unfortunately is not the case. Criminal subjects - independent video makers – are not alienated strangers whose deviations come as a result of their not having been loved or having been abused in childhood. Quite the opposite, in accord with general circumstances (and by this I mean primarily the responsibility of the sensationalism-hungry media), a common passer-by with a camera in his cell phone, regardless of the resolution, turns into an urban headhunter or a hunter for the trophies alike. His or her prey will easily be distributed via CDs, DVDs, the internet, etc., although a door-to-door campaign has also proved quite efficient. Children in primary school, fully equipped with mobile technology, produce works featuring horrifying bizarreness and while they are proud of their own creation, it’s hard for anyone including their parents to believe what they see. Sex and violence go hand in hand and, unfortunately, constitute the essential part of popular video today not only in Serbia: if you google today, 19 July, 2008 at 4:12 AM, the phrase “pop video”, you will mainly get Youtube links.

YouTube - POP VIDEO AWARDS CELEBRITY MESSAGES MESSAGES FROM VARIOUS CELEBRITIES WHO WERE UNABLE TO ATTEND ...2 min 38 sec
Along with music, a popular poitical theme also appears:
I Got a Crush... on Obama by obamagirl -- Revver Online ... A video by obamagirl - Hey! We're the feature video today on Revver with......... The Obama Campaign song! "I Got a Crush on Obama.
revver.com/video/298339/i-got-a-crush-on-obama/

This search can definitely be taken as an indicator of politicians’ sovereign status of super-stars, but it can also be misleading for its lacking in explicit violent and pornographic contents. Hoping that this text will be read in the spirit of the Coen brothers movie No Country for Old Men, I need to revisit two points in the remote past: in 1928 Andy Warhol was born and indeed this festival edition has to be to a large extent dedicated to the memory of the great artist; in 1965 Warhol made Outer and Inner Space, his experiment in video technology, in which he used now forgotten Norelco video system – at that time better quality and more expensive than other portable video technology (see the text 9th Videomedeja, Portapak: 40 Years After). What is interesting is that a considerable amount of video material Warhol recorded will never be available precisely due to the fact that the tape used in the abovenmentioned system is nowadays impossible to playback for the lack of the appropriate equipment. Thus, the only saved material of that type is that incorporated in the 1965 movie because the author basically recorded it on the 16 mm film, obviously intending to fuse the two exciting media. Creative mind tends to use new knowledge (in this case technological) for communicational purposes and as a means of construction and dialogue, as opposed to destruction and chaos. It is most certain that Warhol, if he were alive, would direct his creation toward the internet, quite possibly attaining maximum visibility and presence through websites such as YouTube. It is also reasonable to believe that he would surprise us with the simplicity of motives and freshness of expression. The question remains, however, whether he would be seen by anyone.