Contraband: Stowaway Lounge: Artist-Made Karaoke Videos

Title:

Stowaway Lounge: Artist-Made Karaoke Videos

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Performers:



• Contraband

Symposium:

• ISEA2004: 12th International Symposium on Electronic Art

Artist Statement:

Karaoke’s frequent habitat is the bar; its participants are stars; its technology is glamorous; and its message is personal glory. Contraband, Stowaway Lounge transforms this amateur medium to explore issues of national identity, local cultures, Hollywood media clichés and the relationship between imagery, text and live performance.
Contraband, Stowaway Lounge invites the audience to step on stage. In a club environment, participants can select from a jukebox of artist-made karaoke videos from around the world and sing-along with video projection. The videos for Contraband,Stowaway Lounge reinvent the pop-cultural medium of karaoke. From Tokyo to Tallinn, the ubiquitous, democratic form of entertainment activates national identity, nostalgia, sentimentality, and glimmers of rock-stardom. Individual performances transform this generic format with ironic, camp, critical and individualized meanings.

Erupting within the entertainment-industrial complex, these do-it-yourself appropriations recode the corporate into the personal. In a world that is determined by processes of globalization, the translation of cultural forms such as Karaoke allows for the radical localization of the global spectacle. From ABBA to Johnny Cash, we are expecting a diverse range of interpretations of pop standards and artists’ favourites. Hosts Christina Ulke and Rachel Mayeri will pass the mic to you; the special MC of the evening is sparkle a.k.a. Marc Herbst.

Category:

• Performances