This land is your land

Woody Guthrie

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 81 Day, 2 Days, 3 Days OldAlong In The Sun And The RainArrival In Los AngelesBad RepetationBaltimore To WashingtonBeaumont RagBed On The FloorBetter World A-Comin’Biggest Thing Man Has Ever DoneBile Them Cabbage DownBilly Boy (With Sonny Terry)Billy The KidBling-BlangBlowin’ Down This Road Feeling BadBlowing Down That Old Dusty RoadBoll Weevil BluesBoll Weevil SongBrown EyesBrown’s Ferry BluesBubble GumBuffalo GalsBuffalo Skinners Bury Me Beneath The WillowBury Me Beneath The WillowsCalifornia BluesCalifornia - The Promised LandCar-Car (Riding In My Car)Car SongChain Around My LegChain Gangs; The BluesChain Gang SpecialChildren’s Songs: Little Sack Of Sug-ar / Ship In The Sky / Swim, Swim, Swimmy I SwimChisholm TrailChurch-House Blues

CindyCleanoCocaine BluesColombus StockadeColumbia’s WatersColumbus Georgia StockadeColumbus Stockade BluesCome SeeCowboy WaltzCrawdad SongCumbeland GapCurley Headed BabyDance AroundDanville GirlDanville Girl No. 2Dead Or AliveDeportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)Dig My Life AwayDirty OverallsDo-Ri-MiDo You Ever Think Of Me? (aka At My Window)Don’t You Push Me DownDust Bowl BluesDust Bowl RefugeesDust Can’t Kill MeDust Old DustDust Peneumonia BluesDust StormDust Storm DisasterDust Storms And Their EffectsDust Storms; Storm Of April 14, 1935Dusty Old DustEnd Of The LineEzekiel Saw The WheelFamily Misfortunes; Foster Parents; Banty Hen; Galveston, Texas

Farmer-Labor TrainFastest Of PoniesFlood DisasterFoggy Mountain TopFoy Chase (With Sonny Terry)Froggie Went A-Courtin’Gamblin’ ManGet Along Little DoggiesGoin’ Down This Road Feelin’ BadGonna Roll The Union OnGrassy-y, Grass, Grass (With Drum)Greenback DollarGrow, Grow, Grow (With Drum)Guitar BluesGuitar BreakdownGuitar RagGypsy DavyHandbill Situation; Labor “Contrac-tors”Hang KnotHangknot, SlipknotHanukkah DanceHard Ain’t It HardHard TimesHard TravellingHarriet Tubman’s Ballad (part 1)Harriet Tubman’s Ballad (part 2)Hen CackleHey Little Water BoyHey Lolly LollyHis “Gang”; Home Brew; House Par-ties; DrinkingHitchhikingHobo’s LullabyHouse Of The Rising SunHowdidoHowdjadoo

I Ain’t Got No HomeI Ain’t Got NobodyI Just Want To Sing Your NameI’ll Eat You, I’ll Drink YouI’ll Write And I’ll DrawI’m Blowing DownI’m Gonna Join That One Big Union(You Gotta Go Down And Join The Union)I Ride An Old PaintI Want My Milk (I Want It Now)I Want My Milk (With Guitar)Ida RedIntroduction; Family; Okemah And It’s People; The Colored “Situation”Jackhammer BluesJackhammer Man BluesJarama ValleyJesse JamesJiggy Jiggy Bum BumJimmie Rodgers; Living Conditions In CaliforniaJohn HenryJohnny HartJolly BankerKeep My Skillet Good & Greesy (With Cisco Houston & Sonny Ter-ry)Ladies AuxiliaryLindburghLittle Black TrainLittle Darling Pal Of MineLittle Sack Of Sugar (With Guitar)Little Sugar (Little Saka Sugar)Liza JaneLonesome DayLonesome Train (With Sonny Terry)

Lonesome ValleyLong JohnLos Angeles New Year’s FloodLost JohnLost Train BluesLudlow MassacreMake A Bubble (With Guitar)Make Me A Pallet Down On Your FloorMany And The FewMean Talking BluesMerrry-Go-RoundMerry-go-round Migration From The Dust BowlMiner’s SongMiss PavlichenckoMore Pretty Girls Than OneMuleskinner BluesMy Daddy (Flies A Ship In The Sky)My Dirty OverhaulsMy DollyMy Yellow CrayonNeedle SingNew Found LandNew York TownNine Hundred MilesOkiesOklahoma HillsOld Joe ClarkOld Judge ThayerOld Time ReligionOn The Road AgainOne Day OldOregon TrailOutlaws; About Pretty Boy Floyd; Bankers“Pea Patch Poppas”Pick It Up

Picture From Life’s Other SidePictures Of PlentyPleasures Of PlentyPoor BoyPretty And Shiny-OPut My Little ShoesPut Your Finger In The AirRace You Down The MountainRailroad BluesRailroad “Bulls”; Hoboin’ And Freight-trainin’; Government CampsRaincrow BillRamblin’ BluesRamblin’ Round Your CityRamshackleRanger’s CommandRattle My RattleRed River Blues (With Sonny Terry)Red River ValleyRed WineReputation Of Oklahoma; Will Rogers Return Of Rocky Mountain Slim And Desert Rat ShortyRide Old PaintRiding Around In My Car (Car Song)Roll Columbia, RollRoll On ColumbiaRoot Hog And DieRound And Round Hitler’s GraveRubaiyatRubber DollyRunning For The TrainRye StrawRye WhiskeySacco’s Letter To SonSally Don’t You GrieveSally Goodin

Sinking Of The Rueben JamesSleep EyeSleepy TightSlip KnotSlipknotSnow DeerSo Long (Dusty Old Dust)So Long It´s Been Good To Know (Dust Old Dust)So Long (It’s Been Good To Know Yuh)Song Of The Coulee DamSonny’s FlightSourwood MountainSowing On The MountainSpringfi eld MountainSquare Dance Medley (Cripple Creek, Buffalo Gals, Old Joe Clark, Red Wing, Ida Red, Chilly Winds, Sandy Land)Stack-O-Lee (With Cisco Houston)StackholeStagoleeStepstoneStruggle BluesSuassos LaneSwim-y, Swim, Swim (With Guitar)Talking Columbia BluesTalking Dust Bowl BluesTalking Fishing BluesTalking Hard Luck BluesTalking Hard WorkTalking SailorTear The Fascists DownTell Aunt RhodyTexas Oil Fields; The Root Beer Stand; Learning To Play The Guitar

The Biggest Thing That Man Has Ever DoneThe Boll WeevilThe Car SongThe Dodger SongThe DriftersThe Dying MinerThe Flood And The StormThe Grand Coulee DamThe Grapes Of WrathThe Great Dust StromThe House Of The Rising SunThe Ludlow MassacreThe Sinking Of The Reuben JamesThere’s A Better World A-Comin’There’s A Better World A-ComingThey Laid Jesus Christ In His GraveThis Land is Your LandThis Train Is Bound For GloryToasts; Square Dance TunesTom Joad-Part ITom Joad-Part IITrain 45Train BluesTrain BreakdownTwo Good MenUnion Burying GroundUnion Maid (Excerpt)Vanzetti’s RockVigilant ManWaiting At The GateWake UpWalking Down That Railroad LineWalking The Railroad TiesWash-y, Wash Wash (With Rattle)We Are Welcome To HeavenWe Shall Be Free

The reason for us to choose This Land is Your Land is that we like the meaning of the song and the way it was presented. The feeling and the meaning of the lyrics was presented in a very opposite way and it makes you think a lot about it. We also think that this is linked with the art work of Cornelia Parker as the meaning of her artwork were base on the material itself which is like the meaning of the lyrics, you need to read and think about it carefully.

“The world is fi lled with people who are no longer needed. And who try to make slaves of all of us.”

Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie Cornelia Parker

Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie was an American single songwriter and folk musician born in 1912, whose has hundreds of political, traditional and children’s songs. His best known song is “This Land Is Your Land.” Many of his songs are about his experiences during Great Depression when he travelled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California. “This Land Is Your Land” is one of the United States’ most famous folk songs. It was based on an existing melody, in critical response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America”. Guthrie varied the lyrics many times and sometimes include more overtly political verses in line with his sympathetic views of communise, than appear in recordings or publications.

Cornelia Parker is an English sculptor and installation artist born in 1956. Parker is best known for large scale installations such as Cold Dark Matter: An exploded View (1991), for which she had a garden shed blown up by the British Army and suspended the fragments as if suspending the explosion process in time. In the centre of it was a light which cast the shadows of the wood dramatically on the walls of the room. Cornelia Parker approaches the physical world as though it were an imperfect, life sized model of itself, an illustration of its own mutability. Often, she suspends objects from wires fixed to the ceiling. This is a familiar Parker ruse.

Cornelia Parker

Woody Guthrie recorded “This Land is Your Land” in 1944 during the Great Depression and war years. The song was priginally written in Febrary 1940, when Woody Guthrie first arrived in New York City from Oklahoma. The lyrics express Guthrie’s belief that the working class should have the same right as the rich. The song was sung at rallies, around campfires and in progressive schools. It was these populist lyrics hat had appealed to the political left in America.

The Song

This land is your land, this land is my landFrom the California to the Staten New York Island,From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,God blessed America for me.As I went walking that ribbon of highwayAnd saw above me that endless skyway,And saw below me the golden valley, I said:God blessed America for me.I roamed and rambled and followed my footstepsTo the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,And all around me, a voice was sounding:God blessed America for me.Was a high wall there that tried to stop meA sign was painted said: Private Property,But on the back side it didn’t say nothingGod blessed America for me.

As I went walking I saw a sign thereAnd on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,That side was made for you and me.

Nobody living can ever stop me,As I go walking that freedom highway;Nobody living can ever make me turn backThis land was made for you and me.In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;By the relief office, I’d seen my people.As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,Is this land made for you and me?

Different version of the lyrics

This land is your land, this land is my landFrom California, to the New York IslandFrom the redwood forest, to the gulf stream watersThis land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highwayI saw above me an endless skywayI saw below me a golden valleyThis land was made for you and me

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footstepsTo the sparkling sands of her diamond desertAnd all around me a voice was soundingThis land was made for you and me

The sun comes shining as I was strollingThe wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rollingThe fog was lifting a voice come chantingThis land was made for you and me

As I was walkin’ I saw a sign thereAnd that sign said no tress passin’But on the other side .... it didn’t say nothin!Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city In the shadow of the steepleNear the relief office I see my peopleAnd some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’If this land’s still made for you and me.

The lyrics were written on the model of “LAND”, but throughout the video, the whole model won’t be shown and the camera would go along the letters and show like a journey. We have this idea as we want to keep the audiences thinking what this is and may have a little crew at the beginning and between.

We planned to make the models with paper and then film it. Afterward, we will add the pictures and lyrics in computer. So at the beginning, we just planned the camera angle and where to go for the lyrics.

FocusingWhen we started to experiment our ideas we faced lots of problems regarding filming, particularly focusing. At the beginning we tried to film our models but we find out that was difficult to focus in a short distance and also keep the video camera stable. We couldn’t use a tripod because of the size of our models and the need to move the camera all the time, throught the video. So, we came to the conclusion that the best way to apply our idea is using stop motion. After we decided the method we had several experiments to find the best way to show our idea.

LighteningAnother major problem we had was lighting. We decided that the best way to film our video was to use white paper around our models and spotlight on the top. What caused us the limitations was the movement needed in the whole video. That was one of the major reasons why we decide to to stop motion rather than filming. Filming the video was actually really hard because our shadow was continuously in the caption. Stop motion give us the advantage to move our models depended on the side we wanted to photograph so we avoid extra useless shadows.

This land is your land, this land is my landFrom California, to the New York IslandFrom the redwood forest, to the gulf stream watersThis land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highwayI saw above me an endless skyway

I saw below me a golden valleyThis land was made for you and me

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footstepsTo the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

And all around me a voice was sounding

First Model

The sun comes shining as I was strollingThe wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rollingThe fog was lifting a voice come chantingThis land was made for you and me

As I was walkin’ I saw a sign thereAnd that sign said no tress passin’But on the other side .... it didn’t say nothin!

In the squares of the city In the shadow of the steepleNear the relief office I see my peopleAnd some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’If this land’s still made for you and me.

Britney LamConstantina Skoutari

Team working for this project was actually really appropriate. There are lots of things you have to take into consideration and lots of skills are needed as well to work by yourself. Working together we learned new techniques from each other. What we find out is each time one of us stuck on an idea or something the other one will help and together we develop much stronger ideas. What we gain by working together is that you have to be a good listener and understand each other ideas/thoughts and when a challenge occur to pick the best and effective idea even if it’s not yours

Final Video

Published by Constantina Skoutari & Britney Lam