Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Hotel Rot

I find that Aimee Bender has this almost silly, breezy style with dark, dark topics. The contrast is really refreshing to me.

I love the themes in this, the way these strange hotel ballrooms mirror the way we try to possess the natural world in a way that ultimately makes it the opposite of natural. The janitor's wife's perfume is the perfect illustration of this.

We could talk about this as a story alone, but I wonder what you all think of the multi-media design of this. I am so interested in multi-media (perhaps my Laurie Anderson/Negativland influences showing again) as anyone who has seen my former band play knows. I find it interesting when art forms combine to create something new. In this case we have the fiction, the drawings which are then animated, and the design of the whole.

David Lynch made a short film called "Six Men Getting Sick" which he really intended to be a sort of moving painting more than a film. The question is when art forms combine, can the pieces sustain independently or are they reliant on each other to be considered art. In other words, am I only enamored with this story because of the flashy pictures?

2 comments:

Michele Coash said...

Here is a link if you did not get my email.
http://locusnovus.com/lnprojects/hotelrot/

Also, because I first read this on a computer sans speakers, we also have the soundtrack.

Michele Coash said...

Hi, All -- it seems I may never figure out the blog thing, but I feel compelled, now that I've finally had
a chance to read this story, just to say how very interesting to live in times when stories can come to
us via such a fascinating medium. The words themselves: bizarre and for me, sad. The whole package:
head-shakingly interesting. How nicely alternative. Thanks, Michelle.

Be in touch,
Kate Dernocoeur