Born to Be Wild (for K. Wilder)
1987, 4:21 min, color, stereo sound
After The Space Program, I spontaneously created a series of music video birthday gifts for friends, which I made alone or with others. Contingent on the burgeoning accessibility and versatility of video technology, and edited off-hours at Electronic Arts Intermix, where I was working at the time, the clips resist immediate classification: home movie, video art, performance, party favor, keepsake. On each occasion, the friend was given a VHS copy of the finished U-matic tape. For K. Wilder, two friends and I clowned around for a camera to The Cult’s 1987 cover of the 1968 Steppenwolf hit “Born to be Wild”. In post-production, I “scratched” the footage to the song with the search-knob of a Sony U-Matic VO-5800 VTR, and drenched it with pigments using an ISI 902 video switcher. Subjected to the laws of video mechanics, our bodies, teeming with Crayola colors, tick with time – fast, slow, still, go. Here is unbridled youth. “Fire all of your guns at once, and explode into space”. PLAY LOUD.
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