Documenting Processes...

Group Members:
Travis Clark
Taylor Davis

            Documentary is the documentation of events, people, and processes. It records the things we take for granted and takes them to a platform where they can be appreciated more fully in much the same way writers have tried to capture the sublime in their writings to give their readers a sense of awe for nature. This art of documentation provides us an opportunity to appreciate even the smallest and most ordinary of processes.

The texts that we drew the most inspiration from were the “Routine” videos by Mercadante. The videos were simple in their approach to everyday objects and routines most everyone experiences such as tying a pair of shoes. It was this kind of tribute to the simple everyday occurrence that steered us in the direction of recording the washing of a dog. It’s one of the events that happens so often in homes across the country.

An example of the way documentary showcases processes in our day are the various YouTube videos of street performers, specifically artists around the world who paint pictures before the eyes of a awed crowd. These artists paint landscapes or space scenes in a matter of minutes, and we see the entire process from beginning to end, having had no idea beforehand what the end result will be. For some reason, seeing this process, the transformation of a blank white slate into a one of a kind masterpiece, amazes us.

Now even though washing a dog is quite an ordinary task, it is still an interesting process with a beginning, middle, and end, and this is what we attempted to show with our piece. It documents as much of the process as possible in under two minutes, from the moment Skippy’s told he’s getting a bath to the moment he is rewarded for being good. This transformation is quite a simple one, from a dirty dog to a clean one, but it can still be very gratifying. There is something about creating something from scratch or changing or perfecting something to make it our own that we as humans find most satisfying, and knowing that we worked ourselves for an end result makes that end result more worth it.

Documentary is a way of relating that feeling to someone else; the wonderful feeling of bringing order to disorder. If used properly, it can make something as simple as washing a pet seem like quite a significant task, and this makes us appreciate the end result even more.