The basic idea is from my study during foundation. I was going to apply the Product Design for CSM, however my tutor said most of my designs are ‘USELESS’ and said those work I had done are more like fine art pieces not design after seeing my foundation portfolio. The examiner said almost the same word ‘USELESS’ to me as well, then I abandoned to study the Design.
I went to study the Tech Arts which is the course that the examiner recommended me to learn. I found I am more suitable for studying Tech Arts and now I am a fine art student after three years. I am curious what is ‘USELESS’? How to define ‘USELESS’ or who can define ‘USELESS’? So I decide to use this word to be my topic. Most of the photos I have chosen are from my foundation course. And some photos are my work from BA course. In order to show the contrast between ‘USELESS’ and ‘USEFUL’. I picked up some photos from the special event of Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and Huawei etc. because these companies are the representation of ‘USEFUL’ products. I insert these photos into my ‘USELESS’ foundation work photos and mix them together.
The background music is from an Advertisement of Android called ‘Monotune’. In this advertisement, the pianist played two pianos at the same time, one is a normal piano, another is a ‘monotune’ piano. (A piano which only has one tune). The pianist played the same song on these two pianos, the idea of this advertisement is to show be together, not the same. So I think the monotune represents the ‘USELESS’ design and the normal tune represents the ‘USEFUL’ design. As the result, I cut the audio of this advertisement into pieces and match them to my video. (When the USELESS photos appears, the BGM is monotune; when the USEFUL photos appears, the BGM is the normal song)
At the end of the video, I questioned; what is useless? After watching video, audience should have their own opinions about what is useless. That is the purpose of this video.