Remediating the art of music video [in Malleable boundaries - Creative modes of practice and inquiry in the Academy]

Abstract

The concept of remediation implies that new media attain cultural distinctiveness by paying homage to, and refashioning earlier media (Bolter & Grusin, 1999). Having explored remediation in my book David Bowie and the Art of Music Video (2023), I extended this project by employing creative practice research to test the flexibility of this concept. The affordances of several mediums and materials were explored to remediate three images from music videos previously analysed for my book.

Title of painting #1: Remediating Life On Mars? When directing the music video for Life on Mars? (1973), photographer Mick Rock used 16mm film to remediate the materiality and two dimensionality of Pop Art and Japanese paintings of the Edo period known as Ukiyo-e. As an extension of this process, I experimented with the fluidity of watercolour paint to remediate these artforms in relation to the affordances of music video and still photography.

Title of painting #2: Divine Heroes When directing Heroes (1977), Stanley Dorfman sculpted with light and film to remediate Byzantine paintings and sculpture of the Renaissance period. Paying homage to these mediums, and referencing the Divine Mercy paintings of 1934 and 1944, I experimented with the vibrant hues and light-sculpting properties of watercolour paints and gold leaf.

Title of painting #3: Ashes to Dada When directing Ashes to Ashes (1980) an accident with camera settings enabled David Bowie and David Mallet to exploit the affordances of videotape, thus producing a unique remediation of avant-garde films of the 1920s. While using watercolour paint to rework the estranged colours and fuzzy materiality of videotape, my use of the cut-up method pays homage to the aleatory process associated with this video, to the Dada movement, and to the artistic process of Tristan Tzara, William Burroughs and David Bowie.