Shinjuku Thief Collection Remix (portfolio of 4 works for the ACMI playlist)

Background This 4 episode audiovisual project uses the internal logic from soundtrack to re-edit material from the ACMI collection. Previous mashup videos have either provided a nostalgic gaze into the past, a music video frame, or the synthesis of material for political agenda (eg. Soda Jerk). This was more of a playful reimagining of the archives, driven by audiovisual juxtaposition (in tone), alongside meticulous microstructural synchresis. The project uses Chion’s principle of anempathetic sound to generate multisensory works which overlay conflicting emotional states, deliberately folding the diagonal axis of Russell’s Circumplex Model of Emotion (1980) in on itself. Contribution This series developed a dynamic and engaging AV language for the channel using music, video and sound design. Despite the musical range, each piece balanced a sense of fun with danger in different ways. Where the visual footage was silly to begin with the accompanying music required greater aggression. Others used either narrative subversion or dramatic sonic elements to inject the necessary tension into fun music. The end result is a suite which can be considered confronting and amusing by turn. Ultimately, the works use Russell’s model to speak to the objectivity of arousal vs the subjectivity of valence, a psychological research agenda which sits behind the public presentation of the works as “poetic scholarship” (Huron). Significance This project was funded by City of Melbourne’s Covid, curated and supported by the ACMI CEO and archivist. The collection was initially listed on ACMI’s main page, but then moved back to the archive section when they rebranded in late 2020 (losing significant view counts). The clips were also featured in the Geelong International Film Festival (2020). Electronic music magazine Cyclic Defrost featured Kick Drum Mayhem! calling it “increasingly hysterical” and industrial pioneer/composer JG Thirwell complemented my work with Zeyu Li as “quite demented” - speaking to the successful layering of opposing emotional states at the core of the research.