Scene Tutorials

Project Synopsis:

My interest in social history and anthropology in the digital age has lead me to in-depth research in origins of social movements in the United States. I have become particular interested in Scene and Emo culture and its roots in Goth. As an American artist residing in the East Berlin neighborhood of Friedrichain, the German Gruftis and post punk culture is indeed inherently different from American interpretations of the movement. I made Scene Tutorials to be one particular interpretation of how cultures can change through time, space, and language. My particular curiosity lies in the projection of the participant’s own role in their lifestyle through digital media.

Artist Statement:

Scene Tutorials is a video loop of appropriated footage consisting of self proclaimed "scene kids" demonstrating proper hair and makeup tips that fall in like with the Scene lifestyle. Usually lacking in verbal description in favor of their favorite song, young girls go through the motions of their daily beauty regimen for the educational benefit of their viewers on YouTube. Heavy eyeliner, side swept bangs and androcentrism have often been associated with the Scene lifestyle. 

Scene Tutorials aims to call into focus contemporary interpretations of this subculture with regards to its roots in ideas of goth. Mood and aesthetic still appear to be of utmost importance, however, a sense of history becomes lost in youth culture (and arguably American) interpretations of the lifestyle. Overtones of cute are meant to exist in sharp, yet neutral, contrast to the stereotypes associated with its goth ties. Scene Tutorials is a single example among many, which illustrates an intersection of goth, youth culture in the digital age, and modern aesthetic adaptations of previous social movements.