Assignment for our intended major

"soo cute ceiling"

Fake Artsy Photoshoot

remakes of a Facebook album titled "Photography"

Surface Research and Destroy Final

FINAL VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-_zxhH1I4

Surface Research and Destroy Step 6

For the 6th step in this project I took the DVD containing the previous video of me scratching "GOODBYE" into the disk and used a P-35 staples plier gun and put staples all over it. I recorded myself punching 13 staples into the DVD. It was fairly easy to put the staples in although my gun did get jammed a few times to the videos ended up being 3 minutes 40 seconds.
I took that video and uploaded it straight to a blue 2GB flashdrive and then deleted it from the memory card. 

Surface Research and Destroy Step 5

Next I decided to record myself scratching "GOODBYE" onto the back of the DVD using an exacto knife. This way i figured im not completely destroying the DVD (it could still be put into a disk drive), however it would be unreadable therefore the video we'll never be able to be retrieved again and the information is completely destroyed.
Again I took the video of myself carving "GOODBYE" into the disk and put it onto another DVD deleting that video from my cameras memory card.  

Surface Research and Destroy Step 4

For the 4th step in my project I took the DVD containing the last video recorded which was of the DVD in microwave and recorded myself cutingt it in half using regular scissors. The thickness of the DVD made it tough to cut with household scissors and it took 22 seconds for me to cut it completely in half. The video has been destroyed.
Once again I've taken that video and put it solely onto another DVD-R. 

Surface Research and Destroy Step 3

For step 3 I took the DVD-R and put it in the microwave for 10 seconds to destroy it. Within the first seconds the DVD started sparkling and crackling. Once the 10 seconds seconds was over the DVD looked crackly and somewhat deformed. The radiation created lines lines going towards the center of the DVD in a pinwheel like way, and some of the plastic on in was raised in little bubbles. However the destruction in this case is not about the DVD itself but that the information on the DVD has been completely destroyed. The video I took of this was only 10 seconds long and once again I put that information from my memory card onto a new DVD-R then deleted it from my camera's memory so it only exists on the DVD.

This project has a lot to do with chain reactions and how to deal with how the destruction of one thing transforms the next piece. In my case although all the objects that are storing the information are being destroyed in different ways the constant is in the video, and that as long as the information is lost the project can keep going. 

Surface Research and Destroy Step 2

For step 2 I recorded myself beating the flash drive with a hammer. I didn't realize how hard it would be to break a flashdrive but it was more sturdy than I thought. The first strike broke the plastic covering off of it but it took serval more hits more the metal part to be damaged. According the length of the video it took 1 minute and 5 seconds to me to successfully destroy the flashdrive into pieces. I then uploaded the video straight from my camera to a DVD-R, and like before I deleted its traces from my cameras memory card. 

Surface Research and Destroy Step 1

For our research and destroy project I decided to investigate the idea of destroying the documentation of the project itself through videos and storage devices. I thought about the idea of destroying a video and the only way to do that is destroy whatever drive or disk that it exists on. In a sense it would be about destroying documentation that isn't meant to be destroyed. Pictures and videos are our way of recording something thats meant to be a saved memory but by taking this notion of destruction of what is expected as means of preservation subverts the idea of video as pure documentation and a way to look back and perfectly recount that moment in the past. The idea is to take a picture of a flashdrive and load it onto only that and then take a video of destroying that flashdrive. So the act of destroying become the act of creating as a make a video from the destruction.

Because I don't want the photo or video documentation to exist in any other place than where it's going to be destroyed I won't post pictures or videos but record everything through writing in detail

So far for step one I have take a picture of a black 2G flash drive and uploaded it straight onto the flashdrive then deleted that picture from the cameras memory card so the picture only is on the flashdrive.