Jo Morrison: video

... a multi-media video that documents both themes of feminism and my own personal creative journey. As I explored multiple facets to try and best execute my work, I found that combining a mechanical photo process with digital tools (phone cameras, video, 3D modeling, music) makes for a very interesting composition, especially when considering my source material. At it's most basic elements, this piece is about the urban influences of feminine identity in our modern age of technology. Signe Pierce was a huge inspiration for me throughout this project, and her series Faux Realities showcased the exact color schemes and documentation of urban decay that I was interested in portraying.

Within my own video piece there are deliberate references to aspects of "society-imposed" feminine identity (shades of pink juxtaposed against dark black and white photos are meant to be an allegory for the 'Pink is for girls, blue is for boys" argument, an arbitrary rule used to divide and marginalize the sexes established by Adolf Hitler in concentration camps.) Along with this, the glitched photo iterations do well to stand out on their own as symbols of the institutions which create these standards.

...every original photo was taken via a mechanical black and white camera (1975 Kodak to be exact), and were all hand-developed. They feature the neighborhood of Harvey, Chicago Illinois, which is where my father actually grew up and lived. The stark differences between this area and the city of Chicago are easily noticeable, almost all businesses on the main streets are closed and boarded up, 70% of the housing is abandoned and overgrown, and the wards have so little money that they actually shut off electricity past 11:00 pm. Driving through my dad's hometown and seeing the parking lot that the city paved over his childhood home to build, the foreclosed grocery store that his family owned and ran where he used to work, the architectural relic that was his high school, and the pitch black of night as we navigated unlit streets on our way home truly brought a more personal context to my work, and I believe this dying neighborhood does better to demonstrate real urban decay more than the South Loop ever could.

Finally, my song choice for the overall video works on two levels; on the technical level it functions as a sound bridge to connect each shot in the series, and on the context level it stands as a ballad for women finding their own independence within a male-dominant societal system. Alice Glass, the former frontman for Crystal Castles, was abused by her bandmate and boyfriend for the entire duration of her time with the musical group, and her lyrics reflect that hardship. After Alice left the group for a solo career, she became vocal about her experience with Ethan Kath. Now all streaming profits from Crystal Castles go to her, and every band Ethan has tried to form after their separation has failed miserably. Crystal Castles' sound lends to my themes of technology and glitching with their harsh electronic stylings.