Are We Going to Have to Go Through with This Again? 2008

Directed by Tony Oursler

AWGTHTGTWTA (Are We Going to Have to Go Through with This Again?) is one of a recent series of single-channel video works in which Oursler explores the idea of the "chorus." Here Oursler asked high school and middle school students in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, many of whom are recent immigrants, to describe their ideal or fantasy places. The resulting piece brings together scenes of the students reciting text in unison, excerpts of their imaginative responses to Oursler's question, and found footage of the compulsive online gaming, shorthand sms text messaging, and YouTube improvisational recordings that characterize their environment. Through this combination of spoken text and frenetic gaming images, Oursler highlights disparate notions of fantasy, and gives new voice to the layered story-telling that threads through his work.