A Brief History of Happiness is a single channel video that is comprised of sampled audio and video from YouTube. It is a 25 channel video composite of various musicians covering the song “Happiness” by Elliott Smith that is combined with audio excepts from motivational speeches and conversations about happiness. The video explores the similarities and differences of the performances while asking the viewer to think about “Happiness”.

YouTube has forever changed the landscape of media distribution by opening up the door for all to access, providing a platform for the everyday person to get their content out to millions of viewers. The first cover of the song “Happiness” was uploaded to YouTube on October 9th, 2006 about a year and a half after YouTube was launched. Since then there have been over 65 other covers of the song uploaded by various individuals from different parts of the globe. The video highlights content covering a 12 year time span. The project speaks the idea of performance, fame, digital space, the line between professional and amateur.