By Jessica N. Bowles-Martinez
Nosepilot offers no introduction at all, and the sites goal or point
is never made clear at any point. Most of my interpretation is based
on assumptions of what could possibly explain or justify the sites
existence. It appears to be an example of a project that would only
be interesting to the person who made it. This highlights the point
that the internet provides a forum for people to display their projects
and artistic ideas for anyone to have access to if they know where
to look, and because of this there is a lot of junk out there.
First there is a face wearing a snorkel and mask floating around
the screen and I was not sure where to click for a while. Finally,
after mousing over most of the page I realized I needed to click on
the eyes to progress to the next part. From there we are taken to
what I first interpreted as a long opening video or splash page with
no narrative turns out to be the content and actual sole reason for
the site. For nearly a minute I kept expecting the animation to give
way to perhaps a set of options or an index to navigate the site,
but it never happened. The viewer is immediately thrown into scenes
that merge in semi-creative ways, like a cauliflower that turns into
a bunch of people.
There is one scene after another or slow moving images of people and
fruit appearing and disappearing and moving around. After a while
there is a continuous stream of people dancing to music going by like
they are on a treadmill. The whole thing is very uninteresting and
slow and accompanied by muffled music that sounds like it was from
an old mono record player. Eventually the page takes on a blue hue
and we come to a girl on a fan next to a blue blob that is apparently
a slug. A little poem comes up about how the slug is her best friend
and they look content. Soon the fan starts whirling about so fast
that the girl barely holds onto the fan and the slug flies off. Then
it goes to another video that is different in theme in that it doesn't
have fruit and people dancing around, but its still a string of long,
random, boring scenes. Because of the randomness in both films, the
only way I know that these are actually different works is because
there are credits between them. In the credits it says the flash is
done by "me" but I don't know who "me" is supposed
to be and the more I watch this the more bored I get and the less
I care to find out.
I am guessing this is supposed to be a montage of images to bring
about some sort of message or theme through symbols and metaphors,
but its too slow to hold my attention, and its not visually very interesting
so I keep losing track of what is going on. In fact, if I did not
have to watch this for class I can assure you that I would not get
past the first little film.
The end of the second film shows a big yellow "SO" which
leads me to think maybe you are supposed to watch this and have the
reaction I had of, "So what! You might know flash but this sucks."
If I was with the creator in person I would just look at him, nod
my head, and say "So?" For I certainly don't get the point
of it. After a bit of impatient mousing over the "So" it
says that I have two choices it lets me either see the animation again
in French or do something else. Not knowing French and not wanting
to watch this again I go for the "do something else" option.
A small window opens showing a weird mechanical contraption and a
man attached to this complex pointless machine. Maybe that is the
metaphor, then, the whole flash animation is represented by the pointless
and absurd machine that just takes up space and wasted effort to make.
And the man trapped in it is supposed to be me or any other unfortunate
web surfer who stumbled upon this site. After this realization I am
amused for the first time by this site and begin clicking my mouse
around randomly to find out if the contraption does anything. After
I press enough things a screen comes up asking for support or contributions
to the site. The form the contributions should take is unclear, though
I suspect they want money, and if not that then art submissions, or
perhaps both.
My attention span when I am online is much shorter than when I am
watching television. This is especially so with completely passive
forms of entertainment on my computer. Perhaps if this was on television
and I was expecting to "veg out" for a solid block of time
this would be acceptable, but I have different expectations for things
online. The long spans of non-interaction also means that on the rare
occasion that the viewer does have to click on something to continue
along its not obvious at all and it creates some annoying lag.
Not until the promotion at the end with the machine, which has interesting
reactions to my mousing over it and clicking on various parts, does
the format make much deviation from that of television or other already
existent static forms of entertainment. What is odd is that commercial
mainstream sites and shows usually copy television in content and
format, but this site, despite its traditional format, seems to want
to achieve something on the avant garde level in its content. It looks
a bit like a surreal avant garde film from the 70s but by mimicing
and being restrained by this similarity to another medium it is not
taking advantage of what is available in a digital medium.