Skagway and the American Froniter

January 25th, 2011

Skagway project continuation and being interested with this town in Alaska. It’s seclusion, tourist economy, and how the people who are there, live there. About the simulated space and then became more of a personal project when interviewing the people there made her an insider. There was a disconnect between the concept and the captured footage/documentary.

This project is going to be a social portrait and its nature based in consumerism. What does Alaska represent interms of contradiction and myth? Is it the last frontier? “The Wilderness in the American Mind”. This sense ‘carved’ itself into the American’s psyche in the 1800′s. Coming in contact with the unknown and forged the identity of the United States. How it set us aside from all the other countries of needing to ‘tame’ their country. The qualities of being self-sufficient and being an entrepreneur.

In Alaska, it becomes a ‘hyper-example’. The frontier was ‘conquered’ when Lewis & Clark made it to the West Coast. ‘The Pioneers’ helped the public understand and gain a romantic idea of being a frontiers person. Alaska : ‘The last great hope’ space for opportunity.

The exhibit will be a serious of prints (30″ x 40″) and a video piece.

“Consuming the ideas of the space in Alaska as oppose to actually experiencing any of it. The dream and modern experience is mediated by the cruise ship and itinerary.”

Now that Sunday has an idea of what the overall project about Alaska “is/could/be”, she will return this summer. The audio of the video will be replaced with a voice-over. The video will be different from before, but the actual “content” of the video hasn’t been determined yet.

Critique:
Craig Kalpakjian: The vision of this frontier Alaska exists differently for everyone even if they do have a vision about it.

Matthew Buckingham: The particular experience about the mythology of the town is reflected directly from the video content. To say “this images and video define the simulacrum developed by Baudrillard, that seems like an endless road.” To try and generalize right off the bar is daunting; instead to start smaller to gain the audience’s curiosity about the place. To try and avoid spoon-feeding them about the idea of the place.