>>23873944>>23873944RE to a 4chan post earlier today that got deleted:
Someone linked me to a thread where the OP said something along the lines of…
"He takes an extremely simple everyday or obvious idea and then adds some elaborate backstory or anecdote, dresses it up a bit and throws in a few phrases like "mind fuck". And asking why people find my posts/videos watchable/somewhat interesting.
Now I'm not gonna say the stuff I write/videos I produce are good/bad/art or not, in fact, I'm not even going to talk about my content.
But off-putting and devaluing something just because whatever it is expressed is "mundane" or "simple" is missing the boat.
Isn't this what most art comes down to? Re-expressing the everyday? In fact one of the key components of art is taking the familiar and de-familiarize it while still making it recognizable enough to be relatable.
The more mundane a thought (not to mention most of those thoughts are actually quite disturbing) the more comfortable and compelling it is to just let it sit inside your mind… so sometimes those are exactly the kind of thoughts that could be interesting to spell out precisely because they seem insignificant...and that act in itself can be an act of originality.
So sometimes it's not the content expressed that's original, but the fact that you choose to recognize the (in)significance of these nuances that makes it original (and the way you express them counts too, of course).
Not comparing myself to him or his style but James Joyce, the stream-of-consciousness writer did exactly that : writing down every mundane thought that one has on a second-to-second basis, describing behaviors like pooping and walking and breathing as if they are utmost important (which if you think about it, they are).
Personal example: Here's a video portrait I did of Elliott:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRZkZMICcCoEverything depicted in there can be said to be "basic" and "simple", yet these elements are exactly what made the video work.
ps. I'm posting this video again because 99 percent of the people missed the guerrilla in the pool.
