Final Project

link to video

            During the trip, I began to wonder why tourists take photos and videos. The conclusion I came to is that people are scared of losing memories of unique experiences. However, I also realized that every moment I tried to capture, I also lost as an experience. I am interested in exploring this topic as well as how photos and videos of a place (or souvenirs of "lost experiences") can be assembled to create a new experience (different from the original place). In my own piece I used film from my grandparents as well as my own footage. I purposely left my footage "tourist-y", which was shot on my iPhone. I left it this way because I wanted other people to relate to my footage, as if they could have taken it themselves, instead of something that looked shot by a professional. I want people to think about tourism, and ask the question of why they take photos or videos themselves. By juxtaposing my footage with my grandparents (which is also "tourist-y" of that time period), I hope to complicate these questions further. What happens to these tourist photos and videos over time? Has photo/film/video taking become a ritual and tradition in visiting these places as much as other centuries old traditions and rituals (throwing coins/cleansing with water before entering)? I do not think these questions have definite answers, but I think they are important topics to be conscious of and think about while visiting a tourist site. On a more personal level, my piece is also about trying to connect to my grandparents and the places they visited through time and space. I feel that there are definite moments of connection as well as disconnection, which I tried to highlight in my video. The center panel of my video is one of water and koi fish, which I used to symbolize the passing of time but also a constant presence. I structured the panels like the paths through a Shinto shrine - a walkway in the middle with two water channels on the side. The "tourist" footage takes the place of the water channels (in which the water is always moving, but always present as well) while the video of water and koi is a constant, uncut shot (in terms of video content) which symbolizes the steadiness of the path, but also the ability to look between both channels while the channels themselves can not "mix" with the other.