Vent Head (2005)

Video, minutes seconds

The prototype and promotional video of Vent Head are a way of creating a solution for peace. Not on a grand scale, but peace within the home, place of work or mode of transport.   This work consists of a narrative, where the artist releases her analysis and research in an un-regimented fashion.   Melody uses this film as a kind of soapbox on which to poke fun at our society through irony and subtle condemnation.   She questions the marketing strategies of our consumerist society and wonders whether peace could also be marketed in the same way, as it is “probably the best place to reach the mass's consciousness”.

A garish and camp home shopping channel studio is the main base for the story to unfold. A reporter acts as the mediator for various features to take place within the film including a ‘ George W Bush' who claims to have stopped waging wars as a consequence of using Vent Head .   The show is presented with histrionic enthusiasm, by the characters Richard and Judy. The strains within their relationship become clear as the show progresses particularly when Judy embraces the opportunity to use Vent Head, hinting at that not everything in show business is as cool as it appears. Their faked-tanned cheesy smiling faces, missed auto-cues and repetitive advertising style “…only £19.99” create a facade that is falling apart around them.

The Vent Head Chief Executive sits proudly while being interviewed as it is his small business that has (in his eyes) hit it big. He is surrounded by previously failed prototypes of inventions and certificates such as 'Runner Up in the Innovative Design Awards'. Optimistic, yet never triumphing this is Melody's comment about small businesses drawn from her own family's exploits.