Textual Poaching

Project:
http://youtu.be/239nt_djIM0

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Artist's Statement:

Though this assignment didn’t come as easily to me, in the end it was a lot of fun to put together. As it says in the description of the video, I decided to combine Rush’s “The Spirit of the Radio” with clips of Mozart conducting from Amadeus (1984). I did this for many reasons: first, because Mozart was much like a rock star in his own day. He was radical, used drugs, and wrote emotional, sometimes dark music. Secondly, I listened to Mozart and other classical composers at a time in my life when I should’ve been listening to pop or rock music. Mozart and his operas and symphonies were my rocking out music—to me they were attention grabbing and toe-tapping. By combing Mozart and classic rock, I enhanced the history of Amadeus and reflected my own experience and personality in Mozart’s compositions. I’ve revised an excerpt from Jenkins’ “How Texts Become Real” to reflect my own experience: “[My] investment in [Mozart’s music] will give it a meaning that was unanticipated by the [composer], a meaning that comes not from its intrinsic merits or economic value but rather from the significance the [I] bestow upon the commodity through its use” (51).

This video reflects my identity as a musician. I come from a very musical family and grew up listening to classical music and small-time children’s bands. Classical music could never be boring to me, and I view it almost as others view rock music. A piece of outside art that influenced my project, besides of course the fabulous movie Amadeus and its portrayal of Mozart, is an album called “Hooked on Classics” by Louis Clark, which is a CD of classical songs remixed with a drum set underneath them. As a young child it changed my perspective of classical music and made it accessible to me. I am also (more recently) a huge fan of 70’s and 80’s rock, hence the Rush song and the emphasis on electric guitar and drums.

This assignment emphasizes how personal a piece of art becomes once it is consumed by someone other than the author. “Fans draw texts close to the realm of their lived experience” (53), and by doing so take the authorship from the creator and make it their own. A piece of art is never viewed or valued the same by two people, simply because we all loan unique experiences and perspectives to the art when we consume it.