Electric Yogurt

Electric Yogurt documents different modes of childlike play, beginning with footage of a group of people dancing together with arms outstretched against a background of growling, cooing, and coughing. As the dancing continues, the participants get increasingly tangled up in one another and repeatedly chant the word “culture,” eventually transitioning into a trust fall. The enactment of these activities is simultaneously playful and somewhat disturbing, particularly as they parallel symbolic enactments of American nationalism. One nervous participant cannot decide whether or not she should jump into the group’s arms, disclosing: “I ate too much yogurt.”

The video later begins to play with visual imagery and cinematography techniques as hazy camera footage of a number of unidentifiable dancing bodies is juxtaposed against a new musical background of psychedelic rock. The clip echoes the chaos of the music as the camera cuts between dancing subjects and shots of intense theatre lights, creating dramatic shifts in the footage quality and lighting.

Electric Yogurt utilizes playful documented encounters to consider the bounds of visual imagery and editing techniques while also engaging with political and cultural commentary, specifically as it relates to public media interests. The inclusion and reimagination of objects of childhood fixation such as bags, cloth, and kitchen utensils designate the video as a space for reinterpretations of social and political norms that is pleasurable as well as subversive.

— Charlotte Strange