JOHNODONNELLprojects
Romadark
2020
A short film is about experiencing the city of Rome alone at night. Visiting the Roman Forum alone at night was a strange and novel viewing experience. The light source originates at the bottom of the structures resulting in a cold inverse of the warm daytime sunlight. This method of lighting unexpectedly exposes areas that lay in shadow during the day revealing jagged and dramatic versions of the familiar forms. This technique is the same effect a storyteller achieves while holding a flashlight under their chin before sharing a scary story.
4:07 minutes single channel video
Soundtrack by Peter C Murray
Three Comedies
2020
This is one video from a series of “comedies,” made using footage from Florence, Italy combined with green screen effects taken from YouTube. Historical sites are obscured by cheap “special effects” to create a narrative inspired by conventions of vaudeville and early cartoons.
4:46 minutes single channel video
Educational Programing
This piece is a video collage of imagery taken from YouTube channels aimed at educating children. The videos follow the simple formation of the following elements: colors, animals, multiples and repeated actions. I have combined these concepts with low budget green screen special effects to an a sinister twist to imagery that is already ambiguously devious. I am inspired by Dada and collage elements, these pieces are the result of chance and an over-saturation of media posing as 'education.'
2:15 minutes
single channel video
Artificial Intelligence Gas Pump
2019
This series of videos were made using a “Talking Pet” app while putting gas in my car. The sounds are advertisements playing from the speakers above the gas pump. The presence of video and audio advisements playing from the gas pump is both entertaining and strange. I am inspired by the many talking machines represented in through science fiction television and film.
2:08 minute
single channel video
Un-Boxing
2018
The artist unboxes a series of items that are not the traditionally subjects of typical "unboxing videos." Each item only receives one minute of attention. A majority of unboxing videos tend to drag on forever as each detail is commented on. This is the artist commenting on limited attention spans, but also respecting the viewer's time.
3:00 minutes
single channel video
Dank Memes
2016
I made this video for an exhibition called Dank Memes
at Non-Fiction Gallery, in Savanah, GA.
"Put simply, memes are cultural viruses; they’re ideas spread throughout our collective consciousness with a speed we can scarcely observe. As memes mutate & shift — seeding & replicating in the minds of ever-growing numbers of people — their popularity & trending lifespan become signposts which define broader cultural moments. Dig deep and decode the cultural viruses that live in you: show us your dank memes." –from nonfictiongallery.com
3:I7 minutes
single channel video
Wall Builder (blind architect)
2017
I made this video for an exhibition Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, CT
A video documenting me destroying a structure made from screen printed boxes played in reverse to create the illusion of productive constructive actions.
1:43 minutes
single channel video
Wassaic Project Studies
2016
This video is a compilation of individual short videos. I made while a residentat Wassaic Artist Residency in Wassaic, NY. I really loved the unique context of Wassaic and I feel the experience inspired a series of videosI posted to Instagram while I was a resident.
1:46 minutes
single channel video
VR 2016
2016
This video is a compilation of individual 15 second videos. I was 1 year old when the film Tron was released, and 11 when the movie Lawnmower Man hit theaters. I have never known a time without pop culture representations of a “Virtual Reality.” As a child I wanted to experience VR, now as an adult I actually can. When making these videos I embrace an esthetic established by popular representations of VR to simulate mundane experiences.
1:00 minute single channel video
Guts
Jean Chalant
2016
Music video fo Jean Chalant on Divine Droid Records in Seattle, WA. I did the cover art for his most recent album.
http://jeanchalant.bandcamp.com/
3:26 minutes single channel video
GrEyEmpire
Music: Peter C Murray
2015
Glass Box Gallery
Seattle, WA
GrEyEmpire is a collaboration with Seattle based musician
Peter C Murray (Jean Chalant, Poor Moon, The Christmas Cards). The motivation for GrEyEmpire emerged while discussing ideas about the history of different civilizations and the knowledge and ideas that disappear when a civilization ends. This video meditates on the transfer of knowledge through symbols, technology, architecture and sound.
Peter Murray and John O’Donnell have created and exhibited a variety of sound and image based collaborative projects over the last decade, but this is the first to be exhibited in Seattle.
5:14 minutes single channel video
Valerie 2.0
2014
Valerie 2.0 is a video piece in response to a musical composition written and produced by Seattle based musician Jean Chalant (Peter Murray). This video is edited with Adobe Premiere and all video and stills used to construct this piece are taken from .gif files from the internet using Google Image Search.
3:27 minutes, single channel video.
Beefy Cheese Glory
2010
Addressing different was in which visual culture and advertising invades daily life and ultimately haunts consumers through misrepresentation and repetition. There is also something playfully poetic about a hamburger emerging from a billboard only to fade away.
0:17 seconds, single channel video
Studio Proof
2012
Studio Proof is made video by collaging vacation footage from Yellowstone National Park, video form Youtube and different video studies intended to look at nostalgia, gender and corporeality. Formally the piece is inspired by the minimal grid based aesthetic of a film by Hollis Frampton called Snowblind. Made in 1968, and the pixilated imagery and sound of Gary Hill’s piece from 1978, Electronic Linguistics. Musical score by musician Peter Murray.
1:17 minutes, single channel video.
Legend
2010- 2014
Video in response to a musical piece called Legend, it is written for a chamber quintet and vocals by Seattle based musician Peter Murray. I created video of each of the four sections: Ascent, Habit, A Jaunt, and Rope Dance. This piece is a work in progress, and will ultimately exist projected for an audience and accompanied by a live chamber quintet. The video is 21 minutes in duration
5:00 minutes, single channel video.
Batmaster of Puppets
2010
This piece refers to masculine adolescent American icons, and the overt and confounding ways in which young men attempt to define their identities through categories and icons presented in the media.
1:30 minutes, single channel video.
Food Cart
2011
Video of food delivery trucks collaged with still images of the food items they transport. Suggesting the surreal idea that these food items could assemble to make their own vehicle. This piece is also about the ubiquity and velocity of images intended to tantalize the senses.
1:00 minute, single channel
Quick Remix
2012
A familiar television commercial from the 80’s usually aired Saturdays mornings remixed with overtly sexual imagery involving a chocolate fetish. In a sense I am updating media from my past, edited to reflect contemporary standards of media and sexuality.
0:30 seconds minute, single channel