“Pick up Pieces” is a video art installation that I created using a lyric music video that I made and projected it by mapping on wall and paper. “Waste It on Me” by Steve Aoki ft. BTS is the song that highly inspired me on making this project.

To pick up the pieces: to try to make a situation better after something bad has happened.
In the song, there is this part of the lyrics which says:
“I don't know your secrets,
But I'll pick up the pieces,
Pull you close to me now.”

I title this project “Pick up Pieces” because it reflects the song's meaning, which is about a story of 2 lovers with different views of love. One says “love is messed up” and doesn’t want to try, since the other one believe that one should never give it up. And if the other thinks love is a waste of time, then they should feel free and waste it on them.

For this project, I wanted to create a surface that can represent something that seems broken yet still coming together. I visualized this video as it being broken into pieces of pixels. Since pixels are always flat on a 2D screen surface, it would be great to create another dimension for it, so that they are floating off a flat pane. To do that, I prepared a couple of white paper sheets and carefully hang them up by taping them with clear cords. These paper sheets represent the pieces of the video. I also created different distance from the papers to each other and to the wall. Finally, I adjusted the video clips' scales by mapping them perfectly to the paper pieces, and made sure that the clips capture different parts of the video.

Credit List:
Song: “Waste It on Me” - Steve Aoki ft. BTS
Video made by me (Van Nguyen)

Documentation Link.

"Waste it on Me" – lyric video footage for "Pick up Pieces" project

Process/ WIP video 1

Process/ WIP video 2

Process/ WIP video 3