‘YouTube Smash Up’ attempts to generatively produce viral content using video material from the Top 10 most viewed videos on YouTube. Each week, the Number 1 video of the week is resynthesized using a computational algorithm matching its sonic and visual content to material only from the remaining Top 10 videos. This other material is then re-assembled to look and sound like the Number 1 video. The process does not copy the file, but synthesizes it as a collage of fragments segmented from entirely different material. In the video above, for example, Pharrell Williams’ Happy is recreated using music videos by Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, John Legend and Katy Perry, plus clips and trailers from Footloose, X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Voice.

Goldsmiths PhD honoured at Prix Ars Electronica for ‘YouTube Smash Up’ | Blog.DoC