Thursday, April 03, 2008

Haredi Aesthetic


I shamelessly stole this from Miriam's blog (so there). My question is different from hers, however. What is the aesthetic of the video? To whom does it appeal? The note at the end seems to imply that it is expected that non-observant (Israeli) Jews will watch it, although that might also be imagined--our culture is so appealing that others will be enamored with it. Seriously, what is the video editor thinking with all the damn wipes? Does this conform to anyone's visual aesthetic?

2 comments:

miriam said...

shamelessly stoleN indeed... (and not even a link!)

my relatives over 70 not infrequently send me email forwards that are really silly. usually, the ones they think are cute enough to pass on are just chock full of absurd computer graphics and bright colors. i think some people (especially those, like older or chareidi people, who live/lived most of their lives without bright shiny flashy digital things) just think the wonders of technology are in themselves alluring. i mean, if you _can_ do something visual with a computer you _should_, right?

there is also the question of the generally baroque (borderline grotesque) haredi asthetic.

so, as for your question, "Does this conform to anyone's visual aesthetic?" the answer is, obviously, yes. also, oren would say, "al taam vareiach..."

oh, wait, this was a rehtorical question all along, wasn't it...
well, then what i mean to say is: it's sort of pointless to make fun of people from a rather different culture for being tasteless.

Zev said...

It was not purely a rhetorical question. I am actually interested in how aesthetics vary, and what they represent or what aspects of culture they pull from.