"Still Life (Betamale)"

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

NSFW: There are moments of stark pornographic imagery, so beware! This even includes furries, so.

~ ~ ~

“Still Life (Betamale)” confronts some of humanity’s newer and more obsessive activities, all things that may be unique to the web (though we’re never sure). The video sets the stage with shots of disgustingly lived-at computer desks covered in bits of food and cigarette ashes, surrounded by energy drinks and dirty dishes. The main character, the fat man with panties covering his face, pointing two guns at his own head, is leading us on a nearly psychosis-inducing stream of various types of fetish and subculture porn — some of the web’s darkest and strangest corners. This is not the safe and corporate internet of Facebook or Google; “Still Life (Betamale)” is drawn from the visually overloaded world of 4chan, as obsessively browsed by a man who lives in his mother’s basement.

-- Ben Valentine at Hyperallergic.com

It's a new vision of nihilistic despair in looking for meaning on the Internet, or something like that.

Comments

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Now I'm hearing Sam Rockwell in Galaxy Quest saying "That's not right, man." over and over.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

You can deny it if you want, but
this is our world today. :p

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

That's the last video I'm watching without tentacles in it. Ever.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

its one tiny corner where various oddballs live. Its not the whole world by a long shot.

But wow, that was... unsettling

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I thought it would be a nice little jolt. :)

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

We have strayed far from the innocent days of lolcats.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

So far.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

What does it say about me that I thought that keyboard was the most disturbing thing on that video? O_o

The other stuff... I mean, it's not real. It's all fantasy, and I guess I can put it aside and think well, it's not real so whatever. BUT THAT KEYBOARD FFS.

/sprays Lysol and backs away.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

*chuckling* I suppose it is a bit of an overstatement,
trying to symbolize the overall 'real life' of the
protagonist-loser. Subtlety was not the card
they were playing in this production, heh.

[oslo.livejournal.com]

Boring, pseudo-intellectual nonsense with a dystopian bent. Also, cliched. When the themes you want to explore, as a video artist, have already been asked by multiple Japanese manga titles at least a decade ago, maybe you need to try at something else.

Putting a bunch of furry porn in a video is not disturbing. Presenting this and critiquing it like it's "art" is, however, enough to make one lose faith in the modern art world.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, they could have used much rougher stuff
instead of furries and bathroom porn and such, but it
may be that they would have had little hope of being able
to circulate in on the mainstream Web if they used those.
As it is, this video got yanked from a couple of places.
Surrounding the furry stuff, though, are some nice atmospherics, I think.
I appreciate the effort and the little chill it delivers.

If there is a lot of better stuff, I have yet to see it.