Idea
I thought for some time about ‘re-remembering’ years from when I was younger, based on how much I do or don’t remember from those times. I find it interesting what sticks in terms of memory and was surprised that some big global news events within my lifetime went more or less unnoticed by me of a certain age, whilst much of what I did notice and retain in my mind from these periods were most commonly pop-culture references such as adverts, songs, television programmes and films.
I decided to begin creating a compilation video of news events and pop culture references from the decade 2000-2010. I began with big news stories and used the website – ‘On This Day‘.
I then went on to search for what I do remember from those years; being mostly music and I used YouTube to search for songs with accompanying music videos, however, the videos themselves would have been mostly unseen by me when they were released, as I would’ve more likely heard the songs on the radio or through CDs I had at the time.
Research & Influences
My research for this project hinged around looking into influential artists and movements that shaped what then were the 00’s I remember. From my own five year old perspective on the millennium, my main memories regarding pop-culture at the time were loud, cheesy lyrics to mostly electronic-sounding music, sung by multiple people in brightly coloured clothing with huge smiles on their faces at all times. I am of course here referring to the likes of S-Club 7, Steps, Atomic Kitten, Westlife, and the general pop-band era.
As an adult, researching back over that time, I was quite taken aback with how much global news went unnoticed by me. In terms of artists of the time, the YBAs (Young British Artists) were heavily influential by this point, having begun exhibiting works together in the late 80s, it is my understanding that by the year 2000, artists such as Damien Hirst, Micheal Landy, Tracy Emin, and others were achieving new levels of exposure on their artwork that was bold, new, controversial, and unapologetic.
There was also a big rise in digital art, and video during this time, which I do recall well, having been exposed to the early ages of the internet as I became a teenager myself.
This all influenced my overall vision for the video I set out to create – something fast paced, outspoken, and rapidly changing beyond control. As I was creating the video itself I regularly asked for feedback from peers & tried to ensure I had a range of persons from different age brackets. This felt important to me due to the nature of the piece relating to my own memory. I asked people older than myself who were able to remember events from that era (2000) better than I was. They commented that it was interesting noting how long ago some events they distinctly remember were now. The video then sparked discussions on that time in general. Others who I asked for feedback from, who were not yet born in 2000, commented that it felt overwhelming to watch and listen to, and that a lot happened. I found this an interesting comment as my own perception of things is that there is more going on in the news/ world now than probably ever before.
Re-Remember 2000
ReflectIve Points
I really enjoyed the process of assembling footage in Adobe Premier Pro, although, the time it took to find, and then watch through potential footage was lengthy. After about a week working on this project I realised the overall outcome wouldn’t be as I desired within the time frame I had for this assignment. Despite not wishing to continue with this project at present, I still am interested in something relating to memory as I proceed.
My imagined outcome for this project began as a series of videos, that each compile footage I both saw and missed from the years 2000 – 2005 (possibly considering going up until 2010, if I had enough time to create them), however, it became apparent to me during the process of creating the first video alone – which focuses specifically on news, events, and pop culture from the year 2000, at the turn of our, shared, new millennium – that it was unlikely I would complete all of the montage videos.
I enjoyed the process of researching the year so thoroughly, and both learning new information about a time I was alive during, but have, obviously, little recollection of; as well as piecing together bits of news stories I have heard about or that are still relevant to this day. For example I had perhaps acknowledged, murderer, Dr Harold Shipman’s notorious crimes at some point in the last twenty-five years, and yet I had always assumed it was before I was born. I’m of course aware of recent, and current events and atrocities that are happening in places such as Palestine and Lebanon, and have always been aware of the war/s that occur in that part of the world, however, was mostly unaware of the retreat of Israeli soldiers from South Lebanon, that happened in May 2000, after over seventeen years of their occupation there. There will always be more to learn and this is something that excites me, perhaps a little distractingly-so. Aware that I was spending too much time on the first video and feeling as though it was still missing something, encouraged me to talk to peers and other artists about the work I had created to receive some feedback. Truthfully, I felt a little disappointed with the results as I felt the setting my audience were in was so inescapably now – at the time being in the busy, fairly noisy studio, surrounded by other people creating thought-provoking & eye catching pieces of art. This, in some ways is an ideal setting, if my intention was to focus on modern day (2025) distractions. This really made me consider an overall experience for the audience of my idea. Because I have such visceral images that come to mind when I am considering my youth – full of pop culture references from the time and predating that too, when considering the influences my parents music tastes had on my own – I have now decided that if I am to continue with this project, I want the viewer to be Me. At least for the purposes of questioning and understanding that growing up, almost everyone is lead by different beliefs and values that our parents instil in us.
For this particular piece to work as I see it, I would like the viewer to step into the world of six, seven, eight, nine, ten and eleven year old me, respectively, to acknowledge that potentially everyone has their own sheltered privilege from news as they grow up, and are also saturated at different levels with pop-culture references, depending usually (and perhaps, hopefully) on what their parents do, or don’t, deem appropriate for them.
Although I feel excited for the creation of this piece, I feel I may need to rethink how many videos I can realistically complete. However, it would become the aim to, instead of choosing any / every hard-hitting news story there was from 2000-2005, I may choose to focus on specific events/ memories. Alternatively, I may choose to compile videos differently, so that certain types of news are shown in one way/ on one particular screen.
The following is a loose plan of some further ideas relating to this project –
At this time, as much as I had enjoyed applying myself to this piece, I don’t see an outcome that will work to the scale & timeframe that I have. I wish now to refocus my efforts on the ‘re’ prompt, and therefore hopefully come up with an alternative idea.
Squirrel M. Lambert 