post number four: spiral jetty

the specific element that i found perplexing when viewing smithson's "spiral jetty" was his looping voice over appearing at one point in the film. i don't remember what was being said exactly, but at one point the same sentence or phrase was being repeated over and over again, which in itself wasn't so much interesting but the relationship it played with the video being displayed at the time is what made it perplexing. as this same piece of voice over was looping, the camera was rotating above the spiral jetty causing the spiral pattern to create a hypnotic effect. i think we're all familiar with the black and white spiraled visual commonly used with hypnosis. so i found this very interesting that he chose to loop the same phrase while the spiral was 'spiral'ing as if he was trying to confuse the viewer.

this makes sense though and is interesting considering smithson likes to disorientate the viewer and create a revealing confusion. this idea of hypnosis and confusion could lead itself towards the fact that the spiral jetty itself is a place of mystery and confusion since i'm sure many in the area have heard of it, but not necessarily ever seen it. the great salt lake is pretty huge so i'm sure without proper direction and a map (which appears in the film) that the average person wouldn't be able to stumble upon it by themselves. i'm sure there's also plenty of mystery and confusion to the public concerning the origin of this landmark. there's also confusion concerning it's purpose. is it simply just pleasing to the eye or does it serve a greater purpose in the environment?

another interesting thought though is that if smithson likes the idea of his work prompting several different thoughts and opinions, well comparing that to hypnosis is the exact opposite. when you use hypnosis, the purpose is to cause the viewer to act and feel a certain way without allowing them to control their own actions and feelings. so why would smithson creating hypnotizing images to the viewer if he enjoys allowing them to go their own direction and form their own personal opinions concerning his work?

lastly i enjoyed in the film when the man (possibly smithson himself?) appears running along the spiral jetty towards the center. he almost seems confused and in danger as the helicopter up above where the camera is filming is following him. i couldn't help but feel a sense of stress or pursuit for the man running, as if he was trying to get away but had no idea where this trail was leading him. the viewer was only able to see a few feet of the jetty so they had no idea what it actually looked like. they had no idea that he was actually just running towards the center. it also appeared quite interesting because since the helicopter was following the trail, on camera, it actually never appeared that this trail was spiraling. it actually looked like he was just running along one straight trail. so once the man got to the center of the spiral jetty and the camera zoomed out to appear, i would've had no idea that he was actually running in a circular direction. that in itself was also quite pleasantly disorientating for me.