'The emergent ‘story’ of Hypnomart
highlights the journeys of entire family units to shopping centers. Are they
just buying things or are they fulfilling other, more primordial needs' - Magee
Joe Magee is an artist and filmmaker
working in a variety of media. Hypnomart is a film piece that uses footage of
shoppers in an American mall to study human behavior during their visit. The
directors talk about the people in the mall being surveyed are in a sort of trance
or enacting compulsive acts for the cameras, sometimes they align themselves in
patterns, or create dances that last a few seconds.
The video shows and works on the idea that shoppers are in a way copying each others habits. They use the word 'meme' which is an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means. The images are all brightly coloured, and high contrasted. With a dull obnoxious sound in the background, almost distracting you from whats happening. It has an almost pop art feel to it with the repeated patterns with this colouring.
I am not a big fan of this piece, but I like the concept and the idea behind it. I think the sound is too harsh, very modern and find some of the scenes abnormal,. With my own video it will be nothing like this, with only me talking to a camera. There will be no on location shooting, and no need for anyone else in my project. But this has been a good thing to look at, showing how people show the idea of consumerism and the shopping habits of the average person.