On my second drift in Milwaukee, Wisconsin I focused mostly on two themes: parallel lines (while I was shooting video) and more importantly, contrast. The parallel lines are quite clear in much of the video that I will be posting. They are obviously not omnipresent in the material I gathered, but they are prominent nonetheless. The second theme, contrast, works on many different levels. I sought contrast in sound and image, in colors, in ideas, and in locations.
The sound videos that I am going to post will very clearly exhibit sounds and images that don't naturally correspond. This is not to say, however, that the sounds and images won't work well together... on the contrary - I am merely pointing out that they are not usually directly associated with each other. I also looked for colors that stood out against one another. This was easy to do given the variations of colors in the leaves, and the fortune to be walking under a clear blue sky. Under an overcast sky, I wouldn't have been able to capture the same contrast in pigments.
The entire concept of my second drift started out as a thought of contrasting ideas. This concept was launched in my mind during one particular instance in my first drift: I overhead a man in a quiet residential neighborhood telling his crying daughter, "We're going straight home after lunch." This influenced me to think about what types of things might be happening in these neighborhoods, hidden under the blanket of the American Dream. (I don't want to be critical of the social structure of the country; when I say 'American Dream' I mean: the desire to raise a family, make money, see your kids grow up, and be happy.) A web of thoughts sprouted from this one idea, and I ended up with "Snorewood," which is a play on words. Shorewood is a quaint little neighborhood in Milwaukee, which represents the calm, picturesque setting of the "straight home after lunch" incident. The Snore part of the word is described by the subtitle of my second drift: "Where People go to Sleep and Dream." What do I mean by this? The quiet wealthy neighborhoods of Milwaukee are beautiful. They are enticing and seem almost magical. This may sound crazy in words, but I am merely trying to put into language what I felt when I went on my drift. My walk on Lake Drive felt like a walk through someplace in a fantasy book, where trees are large, knotted, and colorful, and everything is sleepy. The area I walked through felt like a place where people go to forget about the world's problems, but they can't find peace because while are they are sleeping the only thing they can dream about is tragedy.
My second drift was divided into two different walks. On the first walk I recorded video. I walked straight north (as straight as I could, anyway) on Lake Drive. I wanted to capture the beauty of the place that I call Snorewood (keep in mind that I didn't actually go to Shorewood, but was instead searching for a fictional place, Snorewood, which represents the qualities of the real neighborhood). On the second walk I went straight west on Meinecke Avenue, recording only sound. I chose to walk on Meinecke because I thought that it would be louder and more hectic than Lake Drive. I also expected to find different aesthetics: chain link fences, unkempt weeds and yards, less parks, and smaller trees.
I found the contrast I was looking for, but I also found something else: unity. No matter how different the opposing subject matter was, I was always able to link it together. When I developed the concept of my second drift, I pictured the people of Snorewood dreaming of the misfortune of the inner-city inhabitants, and vice versa. I still think that this is a reality to some extent, but I now know that the contrast is not overwhelming. It can be overcome.
