Anita also uses the lyrics to highlight two games as alternatives (both with women of color protagonists) that help counter the genre’s male dominance: Portal, a first person action puzzle game which utilizes mostly non-violent problem solving strategies, and Mirror’s Edge, a less-violent adventure game involving the navigation of a dystopian city maze.Ī warning before viewing: this remix contains clips of military personal using explicit language, mimicking sexual acts and otherwise being racist bullies. Once paired with the misogynist lyrics, the games’ imagery of guns, swords and chainsaws become hilarious phallic metaphors for patriarchal power inside virtual worlds. Inspired by Sloane’s Star Trek Dance Floor vid Anita Sarkeesian of appropriates the same “ironically sexist” song to critique the male domination, hyper masculinity and glorification of violence in popular video games, using source material from 39 different game titles. If vidders and political remixers have to wait for a DVD release to make their visual arguments then the window for sparking public debate and discussion might have largely passed. Cam or bootleg recording of current theatrical releases make it possible for fans and critics to make their critiques in a timely fashion while films are still fresh in the collective consciousness of the public. I was surprised how many people didn’t seem to think that was a problem, or even that the issue existed.” This video also serves as a strong argument for the use of cam recordings for visual criticism and critique. Abrams had dramatically rewritten so many elements of Star Trek canon – and had largely ignored women. Sloane says of her vid “I was disappointed that J.J. Sloane takes the popular ironically sexist song, “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor” by Flight of the Concords and edits together clips of the largely male Star Trek cast to critique the male dominated storyline. Sloane’s first vid is a hilarious visual critique of the 2009 Star Trek movie re-boot. Music and lyrics can significantly change the tone or emotional register of otherwise familiar images, and lyrics in particular can provide a complicated counter-narrative to common-place visuals. Music Videos – Vidding, AMVs and many political remix videos use music and lyrics to complicate or even subvert conventional understanding of a particular series of images. The following selections were curated and commented upon by Jonathan McIntosh, who describes himself as “a pop culture hacker, video remix artist and fair use advocate.” This is the second in an ongoing series of curated selections of DIY Video prepared in relation to the screening of DIY Video 2010 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and organized by Mimi Ito, Steve Anderson, and the good folks at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy.
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