CARS ARE LIKE A PARTY is a videopoem which was made during an unexpected residency at the Experimental Television Center in Owego when the artist who was booked had to cancel at the last minute. Having only recently finished Queen of the Mist (which had kept me way too busy to spend any decent amount of time with my kids for the previous few months) I had nothing planned but decided to take my seven year-old daughter Mia and see what we might come up with. One of the things Mia did while there was write this poem (text below) and perform it on camera. We taped the cars going over the bridge that you can see from the studio window, made a loop of some of the traffic sounds as the cars come off the bridge, ran the two video sources through some processing and that was about it.
2:20 minutes © 1996
color/sound; 3/4", VHS (NTSC)
A Quicktime Excerpt from this videopoem is viewable online:
10-second excerpt
in which a seven year-old girl recites from a poem she wrote—“I
hear only traffic—a kind of disease.” (560 K)
The Poem:
Cars Are Like A Party
by Mia Witte, 1996
Cars are like a party that stays up late—
When you’re in it, it feels real great!
But when I’m out
I start to doubt
I like to ride
But I don’t like those cars outside.
It’s such a bore
To hear that roar.
That roar! That roar!
I can’t stand it any more!
And the cars go on
And the trucks go on
And the cars and the trucks go on and on...
I look out my window and what do I see?
A beautiful river passing me.
But I can’t hear that river,
the birds, the trees...
I hear only traffic—a kind of disease.
And the cars go on
And the trucks go on
And the cars and the trucks go on and on...
CARS ARE LIKE A PARTY
was produced through the Artist-in-Residency program at
The Experimental
Television Center Ltd.