For the final variation I wanted to explore the linear progression of the video. That is, up till now all of the variations have jumped randomly between different parts of the video. A skipping CD will always attempt to play from start to finish, even if it does skip occasionally. So, for this variation I wrote a script that created sequenced segments of varying lenghts (between 0.1-0.99 seconds) and then repeats them up to six times.
For the second and subsequent variations I used only seven instances of the chorus line as a source. For this variation I then wrote a script on each of the seven videos that created 90 segments of varying lengths (up to 0.999 seconds) from random positions in the video. I then finally composed them into one video.
With a shorter source input, this variation is more rhythmic than the first. There are more instances of the audio resembling a stuttering CD, though still lots of instances where it jumps around erratically.
For the third variation I began to explore rhythm further by repeating the random segments a number of times. I used the script from Variation #2 - although I only created 20 segments - and then repeated these between two and six times each.
This variation bears more resemblance to a skipping CD than the previous two. The possibility of this being performed by live musicians becomes impossible due to the very short length of some of the segments.
Between 2002-2011 Erik Bünger composed the piece Variations on a theme by Casey & Finch, in which the sound of a CD skipping is recreated and written out as a score. Bünger described the process of creating the piece:
The chorus line of the disco tune ‘That’s the way I like it’ was chopped up into short fragments, the order of the fragments rearranged and the result written out as a score.
For the first variation I used the video of the entire performance - minus the introduction from Don Cornelius and the fade out - as input. I then wrote a script that created 600 segments of varying lengths (up to 0.999 seconds) from random positions in the video and finally composed them into one video.
This variation is perhaps too chaotic to be considered a reproduction of the aesthetics of a skipping CD. The individual segments jump from extreme ends of the video too quickly to be recognisable, which bears little resemblance to skipping CDs or broken video files, which often repeat segments at the point at which they encounter an error.