Bruce Yonemoto

On November 21st I went to go see Bruce Yonemoto at SFAI's Spheres of Interest lecture. He works mainly in video, photo and installation and showed a few of his video projects. One of his  most ambitious projects is Sounds Like the Sound of Music. The idea that he was working with here was the transference that happens in therapy between a patient and therapist and what is re-enacted in those relationships. He also uses the idea of communal intellectual involvement and how we dismiss certain cultures in the face of more domineering ones. For this piece he went to Peru and used an all Peruvian cast to recreate the Sound of Music. It is word for word and song for song translated into the native language of Peru, Quechau. Yonemoto wanted to use this language and use such an iconic film to make a statement about cultural sensitivity. He compared his film depiction of this culture with George Lucas's film character Jabba the Hut, who is a mongrel criminal in his Star Wars series. Jabba the Hut speaks Quechau and Lucas decided to use this language because he wanted a language that no one understands, yet 5 million Peruvians speak it. 

Another project that he talked about was Hanabi Fireworks. This was an installation piece that takes the spectacle of what we usually consider anti-social communal experiences and tried to create a space for more communal interaction. He used all digital fireworks, to create a re-created moment. He intended for the individual to be able to recognize himself in a certain architecture so that he'd be able to manipulate a distinct emotional experience. He compared this piece to the opening fireworks ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. For individuals throughout the world this was an amazing display, yet they were entirely computer generated. When he asked Beijing natives what they thought of the fireworks they had no idea what he was talking about, they hadn't been aware that it existed at all. It was put on to elicit a certain reaction in the viewer and it succeeded.