Александр Гудков - АКВАДИСКОТЕКА (feat. Cream Soda, СЛИВ ТРЕКА)
12024-02-09T12:40:07-08:00Liza Senatorova215b93ec3a738e50d057fdc1b2e2df5f1991cc71444631Аквадискотека - это круто, но не когда кто-то в тюрьме. Мы за свободную конкурентную среду в любом деле. Мы против ...plain2024-02-09T12:40:07-08:00Liza Senatorova215b93ec3a738e50d057fdc1b2e2df5f1991cc71
12024-02-09T09:12:42-08:0002·09·2024 -- parody, satire, political humor14plain2024-02-09T15:16:50-08:00In my first blogpost I would like to focus on Alexander Gudkov's video clip "АКВАДИСКОТЕКА" (2021), inspired by Navalny's investigation of Putin's Palace.
My close-reading (please, see the annotations tab) will be wholy dedicated to the visual and verbal aspect of the video, although the background electronic beat by CREAM SODA definitely deserves the detailed observation. I just want to note that, first, it correlates with the visual aesthetics of the video, and, second, in conjunction with a visual series, the repetition of the same musical patterns begins to take on a slightly different meaning.
In addition, in my analysis I will be talking about the grotesque nature of this video. I will mostly appeal to the Bakhtinian theory of grotesque, which we did not discuss in class, but which seems to be relevant for it. In my opinion, this video is not a mere parody, but a post-modern kitsch/pastiche which (in contrast to Jameson's believe that the works in such genres are deepless) is very politically charged. It can be evidenced by the description beneath the idea that says: "Aquadisco is cool, but not when someone's in jail. We're in favor of a free competitive environment in any business. We are against restricting the freedom of innocent people." It is such a break in the pattern, to be honest...
Finally, I want to argue that this video is a bright example of hybrid political humor which was not observed by Klavdia Smola in her article. I think that in her research she was predominantly focused on the installations, performances and activism, forcing the idea of the unavoidable connection of the contemporary humor with the Soviet-era satire. However, she neglected the sphere of video production (the bright example of the topical "hard" satire is "Масяня"), which definitely cannot be described in the terms of "micropolitics" and "locality."