Sushi conveyor

This video makes me happy. The description on YouTube says, "We placed a camera on a conveyor at a Tokyo/Asakasa sushi bar (near the Nakamise Shopping Arcade). It was about midnight and the place was packed with great people." Be sure to watch it before moving on to the rest of the post:

It's almost a perfect piece of film: the concept is stunningly simple, but the results are amazing. As the camera moves along the conveyor belt, we essentially get a long pan shot, and we never know what we are going to get: customers smile at the camera or continue to focus on their sushi, a child points towards the lens, a waitress picks up stacks of plates, we see a long shot of plain walls only to suddenly find ourselves in the kitchen with hands busily preparing food. There's a new surprise at every turn the camera makes. It's an incredible glimpse into the lives of people who live thousands of miles away. You only see these people for a few seconds at a time, and yet you somehow feel that you know them. It becomes a metaphor for life: we see so many faces that go by so quickly, and yet they all register and make their own little impact.

I think this video is also interesting from an aesthetic point of view. This video was created by a single, simple artistic act: placing a camera on a conveyor belt. Everything else that happens in the video follows from that simple act. The creator does not exert any control over what happens after that except to determine when the video ends. The characters, setting, soundtrack all come directly from the environment without any editing. And because the creator is willing to give up control over the video, the camera is able to capture a captivating portrait of life in the sushi restaurant that is both strictly objective and yet poetic. I think it's wonderful that the camera is at just the right height to capture the patron's faces but low enough to focus on the hands of the people in the kitchen, and I love how the camera has to refocus at times on new objects, just like a human being does in an unfamiliar place. And all of this is due to chance. I think that's incredible artistic economy, that so much can come out of doing something so simple and amusing as putting a camera on a sushi conveyor belt.

It's true that on first viewing the ending is abrupt: wouldn't it make more sense if the camera came full circle, literally, and the creator lifted the camera off of the conveyor belt? Cut to black, the end. But actually, I think the abruptness is in line with the aesthetics of the video; by choosing an ending, the creator would impose meaning on the video and thus crush the gentle portrait of life that the camera has already created. For all we know, someone might have disturbed the camera or the battery or memory may have run out. At any rate, the ending fits in with the rest of the video; after the first seconds everything, including the ending, is due to chance, and yet everything that the camera records is transformed into something transcendent. That's why, for me, this video approaches art.

I could go on forever--I am an English major, after all. I'm curious to see how others react to this video. Is it just a gimmick, or is there something more to it? I think I have my answer; like I said, this video makes me happy.