Yes and Other Answers

Kutiman’s “Thru You” as an example of Reconstructivist Art

Perhaps the first great Reconstructivist artwork of the “do it yourself” era, Kutiman’s labor-intensive You-Tube mashup transforms and elevates the work of countless amateur musicians. In a world where sophisticated digital remixing technology is at the fingertips of millions, and where overproduced, prefabricated pop-music idols can masquerade as artists, Kutiman’s work performs a paradoxical double feat:

1. By showcasing the work of otherwise anonymous and unnoticed YouTube auteurs, he allows them (and by extension each one of us out there in cyberspace, performing alone in front of our webcams) to live the fantasy of being produced by a master producer, our voices echoing and magical, our melodies backed by a limitless orchestra of skilled musicians.
2. He raises his own tracks from the level of parlor trick to true art by through skillful use of a Real musician’s ear and skills.

Thus he gives us both the fantasy of instant stardom and the reality of skill and laborious effort all together in a single package.

Kutiman’s Site

Reconstructivist Elements:

1. Nod to Artifice: Kutiman’s songs are presented exactly as what they are, cut-and-pasted assemblages of bands and songs that never existed in analog reality. The jerky editing, and the split screens all attest to the illusionary nature of what we cannot help but perceive as a unified collaborative effort.
2. Classic Structure: The music itself is not overly experimental in its form. Although several of the pieces are most akin to extended jams, they all present as recognizable songs in identifiable genres, and many even feature some variant of the familiar verse-chorus-bridge structure.
3. Transcontextual and Iconic Elements: Kutiman’s videos have some strong similarities to previous YouTube hits, including One Man Band (Watch on You Tube) which showcases a single musician, playing a multitracked piece with himself on splitscreen, Playing For Change’s Stand By Me (Watch on You Tube), which weaves together musicians playing “Stand By Me” all around the world, and Weezer’s “Pork and Beans” (Watch on You Tube) which features the stars of many viral hit YouTube videos performing together over Weezer’s song. The biggest difference, however, is that all the elements used in “One Man Band” and “Stand By Me” were created specifically for the use to which they were put. They were recorded in order to fit together into a larger whole. Similarly, while Weezer’s video transcontexualizes the icons of viral video into a new setting, the performances of those icons are all recreated to match their new context.In contrast, each performance used by Kutiman was intended purely by the original artist as a stand-alone presentation, with no foreknowledge of the use to which it would be placed. Thus, these audiovisual elements are truly and genuinely transcontextualized to create the rich fabric of the final presentations.

   Additionally, although none of the original videos are widely known enough to be called “iconic”, they are all used by Kutiman in an iconic fashion. Thus, the participants in the videos, especially those whose work forms the melodic or lyrical center of particular songs, become instantly iconic and recognizable –the Harmonica Playing Man in his living room, the German Rastafarian, the slightly scolding Just A Lady, and a host of others.

4. Moments of Genuine Emotion or Significance: What makes Thru You function truly as reconstructivist art in a way that its antecedents did not, is largely the caliber and the originality of the music and the way it grows directly and organically from the process that created it. One contributing factor is that Kutiman has located (during his hunt through You Tube) some real diamonds in the rough –scraps of music that have real flair, yet that otherwise lacked the context, the presentation or the completion to ever reach a wider audience in their initial form– such as the spooky blues sung by the young mother in “Someday” or the clever rhymes laid down by the rapper of “I’m New”. The other factor is that he has taken the digital editing era to its logical conclusion, using his own musicianship to synthesize entire riffs and melodies –sometimes a single note at at time. The result is songs that, like all good music, stick in the head and demand to be replayed.