Back to the Future of Video Art

The history of video art includes lots of wonderful work, much of which is rarely seen; but you'll have a few chances to catch up soon.

First, the Power Station will host four nights of video art from the past thru the present:

Aug. 30, video art from the 70's, selected by Mike Morris;
Sept. 6, from the 80's, selected by Ben Lima;
Sept. 13, from the 90's, selected by Jenny Vogel;
Sept. 20, from the 00's, selected by Nadav Assor.

All shows start at 7:30PM; the Power Station is located at 3816 Commerce, Dallas.

Meanwhile, on Sept. 14 at 7PM, AMS Pictures will host a 25th anniversary bash for the Dallas VideoFest featuring 3 rooms with screenings of favorites from past festivals, a panel briefly discussing their faves, and a program previewing Director Bart Weiss's picks from this year's festival. Tickets to this fundraiser are only $25 per person or $40 per couple.

And that brings us to the Dallas VideoFest itself, which is making new history by opening on Sept. 26 with a program of video art works created especially for and displayed on the four curved walls of the Omni Hotel, Dallas.

The remaining 4 days of the festival, most of which is dedicated to contemporary works, will take place at the Dallas Museum of Art. The all-fest pass is a steal at $50; tickets here. More details about the VideoFest to come.

Gene Youngblood Re- the New Art of Video

Long but worth it; via Phil Morton; shot at SAIC; sorry I have no further background; but I found Youngblood's discussion brilliant and prescient of later developments in contemporary art in general, as well as in video.



(UPDATED to add:) Partial transcription below by Shane Mecklenburger (the segments are not necessarily in the order spoken in the video; emphasis supplied):

‎" ... expanding the domain of your possible descriptions. The more your domain of possible descriptions is expanded, the less one description can control your behavior; the less you will believe any particular description about reality."

"Alienation is about not being able to see your meanings and values reflected in the world in which you live. So there's always this distance between you and everybody else and the world and you're kind of disjointed. And ok, you can live with that, but ... once in a while you have a non-alienated experience where you're just high and you just become one with something else, like you see a work of art or you meet a person and there's no distance, and that's 'you.' I see myself in you, I see myself in this: No more alienation. I maintain, which is not very profound because every other anthropologist and sociologist does, that alienation is an intrinsic product of modern industrial society, necessarily so, because it's all about centralized mass production and mass distribution, which necessarily must ignore individual values and preferences. How to solve that? It seems to me that you've got to have some filtering device between you as the 'receiver' and the source as the sender ... the complex things it allows you to do is realize your own personal identity through a medium that is basically intended to wipe out your identity."



‎"process me."

"There are no grounds for a common ethics except for a desire to have one. A desire which springs up in all of us as a result of living in a world of strife, controversy, hatred, so forth ... if we do have [a common ethics] it must now simply constitute an arbitrary decision of how to live, then the question becomes 'how are we to make that decision?' My answer is, first of all through a decentralized, user-controlled communication network, through which people could dialogue and exchange their values ... and over a period of time, and only through a system in which the users control the dialogue ... there is also emerging a common ethic, because what happens is common ethics emerge out of a domain of common experience. To the extent that you and I have a similar history of interactions, we may have a similar history of desires ... Desire is an industrial product. You can only desire what you are given. You can only choose from the set of possible choices that's held before you. So as a result of habituation, of enforced habit, we have all come to have a desire for whatever's on TV... so we learn one thing: common desires come from common histories, so the question then becomes, how to generate a domain of common histories without it becoming imperialistic; without it subordinating everyone like we do now with the mass media, and saying 'there is only one set of experiences that you can have and this is it'? This will determine that we all have a common history and therefore common desires, but there's got to be another way. To me the way is a decentralized user-controlled feedback communication system ... and then organically what would emerge out of this process, organically and naturally from the long-term behavior of the people, an organic ethic which would not be imposed upon them by the structure of some imperial system, but which would be educed out of us by this very adaptive system, a system which adapts to each individual user's needs."

‎"am i positioned correctly in the video domain?"

[This is spoken by someone else, not Youngblood, and is not transcribed as precisely] "yes, i tune in on it as exemplified by CB Radio, which at any time is user-controlled and it is a constant, ongoing dialogue situation. Which politically can only be described as anarchy, because no one ... if someone tries to dominate ... everybody can flip and go to another channel and say 'fuck off' ... and so the whole thing has this kind of constantly moving, uncontrolled except by the moment of use of what is happening in the system right now ... I realized ... there were rules that were supposed to be followed, the FCC will get you, blah blah blah, and all of a sudden i found out that nobody was going by the rules that were advertised. Everyone is going by the rules as they are constantly changing all the time right now. And that the best organizational description that I could lay on it is that this is anarchy. And it's working. And I had always heard that anarchy is this terrible thing and it can't work."

Youngblood responds by saying, you can govern by either attenuation and absorption, attenuation meaning that government prohibits activities it can't handle, and absorption meaning that government adapts to allow activities as far as possible, regulating them so far as necessarily to be able to handle them. But this kind of adaptation is only possible through "these tools" – such as the processor being used to manipulate the video of this conversation.

They Rule

They Rule is a site by Josh On that lets you select various companies, institutions, and/or individuals, then makes visual maps of their interconnections via ownership or membership on Boards, and then in some cases lets you search for additional info relating to the results.

Here, for example, is a chart showing that six of the board members of The NYT sat on boards of 13 of the top 500 US companies as of 2004, and that also provides links for you to search for NYT articles on those companies – the concern being that, given that those companies are in a position to exert indirect influence over The NYT, the newspaper's coverage of them might tend to follow the principal of, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" (click on the image for a more legible version, or just go here, click on "Load Map," and see some maps other people have already created).

Then bookmark for future reference.

GRL's Parent Co.: F.A.T.

Yeah, that GRL.

X20+ @ The M.A.C.

(Dallas), Sat., Aug. 7. The second exhibition organized by artist Mary Benedicto under the "X20+" rubric. I'll be presenting a recent video/interactive piece, probably some time after 8:30PM. (The piece at right is not mine, but I like it -- ripped it off the invite; not certain whose it is.)

More info on the exhibition here.

Charlotte Moorman Plays Nam June Paik's TV Cello

(1984), from a tv special Paik did for PBS's Good Morning Mr. Orwell; this is some of the more appealing footage I've seen of Moorman playing one of Paik's cellos (don't forget to thank public tv with your donation!)



That's George Plimpton with her, sounding uncomfortable. He should have seen Moorman's performance of TV Bra for Living Sculpture -- or maybe he'd heard about it.

"There Should Be No Computer Art,"

by Frieder Nake, an early pioneer of the medium, here. The article, published in 1971, fits right into recent discussions re- the ART WORK newspaper. Nake wrote:

The discussion centers around the question "is it [computer art] or is it not art?" . . . I find it easy to admit that computer art did not contribute to the advancement of art if we judge "advancement" by comparing the computer products to all existing works of art. In other words, the repertoire of results of aesthetic behaviour has not been changed by the use of computers. (This point of view, namely that of art history, is shared and held against "computer art" by many art critics . . . .) There is no doubt in my mind, on the other hand, that interesting new methods have been found, which can be of some significance for the creative artist. And beyond methodology, but certainly influenced by it, we find that a thorough understanding of "computer art" includes an entirely new relationship between the creator(s) and the creation: [M. Bense] uses the term "art as a model for art" in this context.

[Goes on to say the art world is dominated by dealers, who invent new "styles," and how computer art is the latest fashion. Says we read complaints that "real" artists lack access to the expensive equipment required and that really interesting results could be obtained if that access were provided.]

At the same time, artists become aware of the role they play in providing an aesthetic justification of and for bourgeois society. Some reject the system of prizes and awards, disrupt big international exhibitions, organize themselves in cooperatives in order to be independent of the galleries, contribute to the building of an environment that people can live in.

I find it very strange that . . . outsiders from technology should . . . try to save [the world of art] with new methods of creation, old results, and by surrendering to the given "laws of the market" in a naive and ignorant matter. The fact that they use new methods makes them blind to notice that they actually perpetuate a situation which has become unbearable for many artists.

It just gets better from there. Follow-up here (the reference to the "Artist Placement Group, which injects artists into industry not for patronage but as agents of change" might interest you, Maureen) and here. I disagree with Nake's conclusion, but I like his observations.

Made in Internet: "Background Story"

by Kristin Lucas. "A sequence of fair use background images arranged for aesthetic and formal reasons, paired with a short story assignment generated through Amazon's Mechanical Turk in response to the image sequence."



(Thanks, Paul!)

It's hard to resist re-blogging Kim Joon's images; his words clinched it:

This is much like the way in which our lives are conducted in the larger social matrix. I want people to be able to feel the tension between human (in)ability to control desires and situations. That we have less control than we think in defying forces in capital-driven society.

More at WebUrbanist , which says the artist's images are entirely computer-generated; the green-skinned image is a detail from my previous post on the 2010 Dallas Art Fair (click on the image for a larger version).

Trend? --

from Nimoy Sunset Pie (thanks, Ben!), which presents 93 variations on that theme to date; see also Selleck Waterfalls Sandwich and Bea Arthur Mountains Pizza -- or is it just one creator?

(ggremlin notes, in the Star Trek episode, “Revenge of the Possessed Computer,” Spock commands the computer, “Compute to the last significant digit the value of pi,” and the computer responds, “Pi, Pi!, I’ll give you PI!!!” However, Eric Weisstein and others i.d. the episode as "Wolf in the Fold.")

Animated Gifcopia

Awesome agglomeration of animated gifs at imnotanartist.org. Note the secret messages.

(Thanks, Ben!)

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Company of Colours, 2009, Shadow Box 9, hi-res interactive display with built-in computerized tracking system. "This piece shows the live surveillance camera view constructed out of a variety of culturally significant color swatches and palettes, from the 4 shades of green of the original Nintendo Gameboy to the X11 CSS3web browser palettes."

From bitforms, at Pulse NY.

Caleb Larsen's "A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter"

Acrylic, custom electronics, programming, internet connection, online auction (2009). The object continually pings to check whether it's being auctioned on ebay. If not, the object creates an auction. All sales are subject to the condition that the purchaser must "send [the object] to the new owner. The new owner must then plug it into ethernet," so the process can begin again. You can see/join in the current auction here.

Per Larsen, the work is discussed in the catalogue for his 2009 exhibition, The Value of Nothing, which can be purchased or downloaded here. From Larsen via Make.

(So that's what the monolith in 2001 was.)

Privacy Compressed: "The New Normal" at Diverseworks

. . . in Houston, opening Fri., Jan. 5, includes some of my favorite artists, such as Eyebeam R & D, Jonah Peretti & Michael Frumin, Harrell Fletcher, Guthrie Lonergan, Jill Magid, and Trevor Paglen. Curated by Michael Connor; more at the-new-normal and at Diverseworks. Also, on YouTube, there's video of a panel discussion of the show here and of Connor discussing the show here.

Falls

New multi-Tube video experiment up here.

basic_sounds

Cool site, here, "welcomes submissions from musicians, djs, artists, photographers, and other talented people from around the world who are pushing the boundaries of digital and electronic media." (Thanks, Ben!)

Bloodwork

Last time I checked online for blood cell animations, pickings were slim. Now one need look no further than YouTube. I rec. you get as many onscreen as possible (these are formatted so that, if you have the option of making this window big enough, you can get a nice, tight 3 x 3 array of embeds), play them all simultaneously, here or otherwise, then click replay as needed to keep them all going for a bit (audio desirable). (Happy Halloween.)

UPDATE: I made a vidi of my own results here.

"Second Life Performance Night" at Eyebeam

(NY). "Alan Sondheim along with Foofwa d'Imobilite will present a performance using the aesthetics of the Second Life (or see Wikipedia) environment to create an experimental choreography; Lily & Honglei will present The Merry-Go-Around — a virtual installation addressing a series of environmental issues in today’s China; [and] Second Front has discovered a virtual crypt within Second Life and are inviting the public to witness its opening. Together, these three short performances (12-15 minutes each) will sample some of the contemporary trends in Second Life performance art.

"The performances will be followed by a brief panel discussion and a subsequent launch party of Avvie Road — the second DVD of Second Front’s performance works."

More at Eyebeam; wish I could be there.

"'Reality' Show" Show

with work by Anna Krachey, Jill Pangallo (on that AVB page, click on her name in the column at left), Cecelia Phillips, Laura Turner, and Jamie Wentz; well worth the drive to Denton (TX).

Sharing a[n] . . . obsession for 'reality' TV, five artists come together for weekly watching parties and ultimately become their own . . . "Reality Show." . . . [T]he [artists] have [shared] tears and angst-ridden moments watching innumerable hours of television to bring you this multimedia exhibition. Their compulsion to not miss shows – with the athleticism and action on "So You Think You Can Dance," the drama and heartbreak of "The Bachelor," and jealousy-inspired backbiting of "The Ultimate Coyote Ugly Search" – has led to this collection of 'reality' inspired artworks.

[Editing supplied.] Perhaps most interesting to me was Pangallo's Group Crit: The Pilot (2008), single-channel video, 30:14 min., in which the "reality"-show-watching artists play themselves giving themselves crits on works that are of course themselves virtualities. The "pilot" deploys cinematographic clichés typical of the reality genre and is sprinkled with such surreal remarks as one approving the "hand-made" quality of Krachey's Photoshop-collaged Bachelor Babies (2008). The video's a virtual (so to speak) hall of mirrors.

Through Oct. 14 in the galleries in TWU's Fine Arts Building (Denton, TX), thanks to Vance Wingate.

P.S.: If you'll be in Marfa, TX, Oct. 9-10, Pangallo's organizing a video show for Monofonus Press, to be shown at El Cosmico; check it out.

"Blueprint" at The M.A.C.

(in Dallas), curated by James Cope of the Goss-Michael Foundation, the show includes work by Brian Fridge, Amy Revier, Ted Setina, and Paul Slocum.

For Slocum's triptych, Skiing cat, Heathcliff, Garfield (2009), he appropriated an image of the cat and cleaned up the resolution, then created two more rather eery, Garfield-ish images, including the one at right. Also included in the show is Slocum's One frame of a GIF animation printed and hung above a video projection of the same animation scaled to approximately 66%, which is well worth seeing in the flesh. Slocum is represented by Dunn and Brown Contemporary.

Setina's most impressive piece, Concentrations # 2:DOPP[L(E)(L)REFLE[X(CT)ION] (2009), involves a video projected onto a free-standing, frosted glass screen mounted on a low white pedestal (note: a related piece has a similar title, punctuated slightly differently; the foregoing title is as shown on the List of Works available at The M.A.C.) In the video, a life-size Setina, wearing a white space suit, is on his hands and knees – which seem to rest directly on the white pedestal – and he appears to be vomiting. On the pedestal beneath Setina's head is a one half of a large, dark red pool – on the side of the screen away from the projector and toward center of the room; the half of the pool that should be on the other side of the screen is missing. (The image is a documentation photo shot during the filming of the video.)

There's a lot to think about re- these and other works in the show, so check it out; through Sat., Oct. 10. More info at The M.A.C.'s site.