Sebastian Stuart
Content Warning
Distressing images of COVID patients. May inspire ennui.
Click Below to Start Video:
“Alternatively titled ‘the daily anxieties of a pandemic semester’, this video is meant to be a window into the imagery and news I’ve been exposed to this semester and the emotional reaction I’ve had to it. Featuring politicians along with Sally Mapstone – the early part of the video is intended to express my frustration at the leaders who have been in charge of shaping the policies which have directly impacted my daily life. Between the diverging policies of Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson; the flip-flopping of Emmanuel Macron; and the reckless denial of Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador; I have been stuck in a 20 m2 flat in Paris since the beginning of the year unable to see my family in England or Mexico. The anger and frustration which has accompanied the daily following of the news is one I’m sure most can relate to.
Snippets alluding to corporate corruption and evangelical denial of Covid are interspersed between my ever-growing anxieties over environmental collapse and the decline of democracy around the world. Contrasts feature throughout to heighten the emotional intensity between the optimism of my parents’ generation with my own. The video as a whole is intended to be abstract enough for viewers to project their own emotional responses and interpretations, while nevertheless offering an honest and bittersweet vulnerability in sharing the challenges I’ve faced this semester. My goal was to inspire nostalgia, melancholia, and a degree of distress that is tempered with humour and the opportunity for laughter. Mexican culture insists on an attitude of ‘we must laugh in order not to cry’, and I wanted to tap into that throughout to remind myself and others that we need not sink in the face of absurdity.
Last but not least, I wanted to share the entry for the 30/03/2021 in my composition notebook* as means of explanation for the recurring imagery of cherry blossoms in my video:
[*The composition notebook was a daily diary of reflections we had to create for this module.]
Songs featured:
Song of the Century – Green Day
I’ve Had It – Old Man Saxon
The End of the World – Skeeter Davis
Aimer Sans Amour – Guts
Lost Kisses – Monster Rally
Coming Home – Diddy Dirty Money Feat. Skylar Grey
Exitlude – The Killers
Click Below to Return to the Curation Front Page:
