Multimedia Seminar (sp08)

Review of course objectives, readings, assignments, projects, and grading.

John Cage, "One11 and 103," a film made just prior to his death in 1992, is a performance for camera person and life. The work is a film without subject. There is light but no persons, no things, no ideas about repetition and variation. Chance operations were used with respect to the shots, in black and white. Cage wrote a mesotic for my company, Zakros InterArts, within days of when this film was completed. This is a film that is concerned with the most essential elements of a multimedia artwork: light, movement, sound, and the experience of time passing, all without plot or characters.

Sign-up on Blogger.com. Everyone will create their first blog entry in class, asking a question about the John Cage film. We will then have discussion surrounding these questions.

Reading Assignments:
"The Light Space Modulator," (Moholy-Nagy) Krisztina Passuth
"Senses of Cinema," (Brakhage) Brian Frye
"Jeremy Blake Interview," Jonathan Binstock

Viewing Assignments:
Black-White-Grey (1930) (start the video at 3:40")
"Black Ice" (1994) and The Dante Quartet" (1987)
"Wild Choir," Jeremy Blake exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art

Continue reading "Introductions" »

“Tricks; alternations. The whole is revolving so quickly that everything is dissolved in light.” - Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

A study of artists who "painted" electronically, who pioneered new forms of visual art from the methodologies and processes of electronic and digital media media.

László Moholy-Nagy created one of the first works of electronic art with the kinetic sculpture: Light-Space Modulator (Lichtrequisit), created in 1928 during his residency at the Bauhaus school. The dynamic quality of the sculpture transforms the light display into a spectacle of transparencies, collage, and shifting patterns, which evoke the delicate contrasts of his earlier photograms, also constructed from light.

Black-White-Grey (1930) (start the video at 3:40")

Stan Brakhage was an American non-narrative filmmaker. He is regarded as one of the most important experimental filmmakers of the 20th century. He worked with various kinds of celluloid: 16mm, 8mm, 35mm, and IMAX, and was a practitioner of what he referred to as "pure cinema."

"Black Ice" (1994)
"The Dante Quartet" (1987)

Jeremy Blake established himself on the international art scene with his fusion of abstract paintings, film footage, sound and animation, a process he himself describes as ‘time-based paintings'.

Reading Assignment: Chapter IV: "The Problem: How Shall Motion Pattern Time," John Whitney, Digital Harmony

Viewing Assignments: Oskar Fischinger, Study #7; John Whitney, Arabesque (1975); Brian Eno, 77 Million Paintings Interview

Continue reading "Painting With Light" »

“Considering time-structured arts of the future, we can create integral aural/visual composition in a domain of harmonic continuity. A universally acceptable visual art – an equal partner to music – is arriving hand in hand with current computer music developments.”

Oskar Fischinger was interested in visual form that evolved from the transformation of animated motifs, a process derived from music. He chose to work in an abstract realm, relying on geometries, layerings, and spatial movement to create form, clearly influenced by the Constructivists, rather than the Expressionists, striving above all for abstraction with the new media of his time, animation.

John Whitney’s animated films, along with his brother James and son John Jr., explored the physics of sound and how acoustical phenomena could be converted to visual music. He was one of the first artists to use the emerging digital technologies as early as the 1950s to create animated works of art.

Brian Eno, who is known for his ambient music, has also created video paintings, installations, and more recently, generative art, in which the viewer can specify settings for randomizing imagery in conjunction with music.

Continue reading "Studies in Time" »

“Where do we go from here? Towards theatre. That art more than music resembles nature. We have eyes and ears, and it is our business while we are alive to use them.”

Report from the experimental new media presentations, "New Frontier on Main", at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

John Cage, influenced by Zen Buddhism, Marcel Duchamp’s ideologies on art and life, and the use of chance in the compositional process, invented new indeterminate musical structures that were influential in redefining the relationship between artist, artwork, audience, and performance. His use of silence in composition fundamentally changed the way we listen.

Robert Wilson brought performance art to Wagnerian scale in the 1970s with his epic "visual operas." Originally trained as a painter, Wilson was frustrated with the images in his head that were so much richer than anything he could put on canvas. Wilson created an inexplicable music theater experience from the integration of non-narrative drama, scenic spectacle, music, sound, silence, and dance.

We will view part of "Absolute Wilson," a documentary on the life and work of Robert Wilson. Discussion of the interdisciplinary, collaborative nature of Wilson's for the stage. Of particular interest is the way in which Wilson incorporated the physical limitations of mental processing and speech into his work as a means to break new ground in text, movement, and temporal structures.

Writing Assignment (due Feb. 18). Blog entry detailing how the artist translate events, conditions, and circumstances of one's life into the work. I want everyone to document how you have incorporated your personal experience into current work, what specifically was the effect of this experience on the the work's concept and realization. What does this experience mean to your work, how has it altered it, influenced it, enhanced it, determined its direction. Write a short hyperessay with imagery from your work that illustrates your observations.

Midterm Presentation Assignment (due Feb. 18). Analysis/discussion of one of the media artists presented at the 2008 Sundance Festival. See links below; biographical information on the "New Frontier on Main" page; and additional research of the artist's site.

Continue reading "Interdisciplinary Performance" »

Midterm Presentations

Report from the experimental new media presentations, "New Frontier on Main", at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Analysis/discussion of one of the media artists presented at the 2008 Sundance Festival, "New Frontier on Main". Links can be found on the on-line syllabus. Continue your research on-line through a Google search, etc., looking for relevant biographical information and examples of work. Create a blog entry to organize your examples, points to discuss, questions, etc.

Max Perry – Cory Archangel (Website)
Ian Hamilton – Jim Campbell (Website)
Katherine Knight – Jennifer Steincamp (Website)
Amy Sorensen – Doug Aitkin (Website)
Chris Contompasis – Eddo Stern (Website)
Peter Riley – Daniel Rozin (Website)
Geoffrey Aldridge – Marina Zurkow (Website)
Maggie Hall – Stephanie Rothenburg (Website)

Blog entry detailing how the artist translates events, conditions, and circumstances of one's life into the work. I want everyone to document how you have incorporated your personal experience into current work, what specifically was the effect of this experience on the work's concept and realization. What does this experience mean to your work, how has it altered it, influenced it, enhanced it, determined its direction. Write a short hyperessay with imagery from your work that illustrates your observations.

Continue reading "Presentations" »

THE CINEMA EFFECT: ILLUSION, REALITY, AND THE MOVING IMAGE
PART I: DREAMS

2:30 - 4:00 PM: meet in the lobby of the Hirshhorn, 7th & Independence Ave. on the Mall.

This two-part exhibition features moving-image artworks by a range of influential and emerging international artists whose works use film language and technology to explore the ever-increasing impact of the cinematic on our perceptions and the ways in which the very boundaries between “real life” and make-believe have become at least blurred, if not indecipherable.

The first, Dreams, addresses film’s ability to transport us out of our everyday lives and into a dream world. Using a series of artists’ installations, the exhibition moves us through the different stages of consciousness and dreaming, from those moments between wakefulness and sleep to the darker recesses of the imagination and fantasy.

Assignment (due March 3): Read the introductory catalog essay by Kelly Gordon. Choose one artist in the show and prepare a presentation/analysis of the work, including illustrative material (video or imagery) posted on your blog. Read the Kelly Gordon essay for your artist and incorporate into your discussion. Also, research the artist's Website for additional biographical information, work and artistic statement.

"Today, when one speaks of cinema, one implies a metamorphosis in human perception. Just as the term 'man' is coming to mean man/plant/machine, so the definition of cinema must be expanded to include videotronics, computer science, and atomic light." - Gene Youngblood

In the art world, artists’ use of film or video and/or their appropriation of cinematic language and devices for works in a range of media has been growing since the early 1960s. In the realm of popular culture, this technology (as well as later incarnations like television and the internet) and its vocabulary have penetrated to the culture’s core so that the very boundaries between “real life” and make-believe are at the least blurred and at most indecipherable.

Class presentations of works from the exhibition:

Steve McQueen: Geoffrey and Maggie
Tony Oursler: Katherine
Anthony McCall: Peter
Christoph Girardet: Amy
Kelly Richardson: Max
Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler: Chris
Chiho Aoshima: Ian

Assignment (due Monday, March 17): read the Yes Men article and write a short response for class discussion; choose one artist from the Steve Dietz lecture and present a short analysis in class, with the topic in mind: "The Artist as Mediator," which refers to how the artist functions as a mediator between the individual and the crises of political and social issues. Use your blog to present image, video, and relevant links. Also in your analysis, consider the meaning of Steve Dietz' idea of "unscripting the political process."

Continue reading "Expanded Cinema" »

Steve Dietz is the Multimedia speaker on the Colloquium series. He will discuss how artists are engaging issues through techniques of new media.

12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
Abramson Family Recital Hall
Katzen Arts Center

Steve Dietz is Artistic Director of ZERO1: the Art and Technology Network and the 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, which he also directed the inaugural event of, along with the ISEA2006 Symposium in San Jose, California. He is the former Curator of New Media at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, where he founded the New Media Initiatives department in 1996, the online art Gallery 9 and digital art study collection.

"The Role of the Artist in Society"

Artistic Mediation refers to ways in which the artist uses artistic/creative means to bring about change or new ways of thinking in relation to the political and social environment, entering into a critical dialogue surrounding contempoary issues related to the convergence of art, society, politics and culture.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men agree their way into the fortified compounds of commerce, ask questions, and then smuggle out the stories of their hijinks to provide a public glimpse at the behind-the-scenes world of business. In other words, the Yes Men are team players... but they play for the opposing team.

We will take a critical look at the Yes Men, with a discussion of their "tactical constructions," incorporating techniques of performance, "identity correction," falsification, and satire to engage and critique the corporate culture. Wikipedia overview.

What is the effect of the Yes Men's tactics to bring about political change through this form of artistic mediation? What effectively is changed in the way they utilize the media to communicate their actions?

In their "identity correction" of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the two travel to Finland to participate in the "Textiles of the Future" conference, where they reveal the management solution of the future: a shimmering golden leotard—which, when Andy pulls a rip-cord in his crotch, sports a three-foot-long golden phallus.

Continue reading "Artistic Mediation I" »

Discussion of the essay: UTOPIANISM, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE AVANT-GARDE: THE ARTIST SHAPING THE SOCIAL CONDITION by Randall Packer

The reading is also in anticipation of the lecture next week, "The Artist as Mediator," Noon, Tuesday, April 1 on the Colloquium series. The class following (April 7) we will have a summary discussion of the "Artist as Mediator" and I expect everyone to give * a critique.

Critique of student work.

Continue reading "Artistic Mediation II" »

Lab Session: Work on projects.

Lab Session: Work on Projects

Remaining assignments:

Critical Summary (everyone, due 4/28): a 500 word hyperessay posted on-line that summarizes the work you have done this semester. Include some form of documentation (screen shot, installation photo, video still, etc.), references to influential work we have studied in class (or museum visits), as well as work you have been exposed to outside of class. Place your final project(s) into context within the contemporary media arts by reflecting on technical, aesthetic, philosophical ideas you have explored, and how these techniques relate to larger trends in the area of new media.

Exhibition plan (grads, prior to installation): a written or verbal explanation of installation / technical layout that describes how your work will be situated in the museum along with technical details on all equipment, cabling, display, etc. I urge you to consider a typed proposal as this is very useful for conveying your setup to the museum installation personnel. The sooner you can make this available the less problems you will face with your installation. I also encourage grads to write an approximately 100 - 250 word text for a wall label (optional).

Final Critiques: All grads will have their critique on April 21 in the museum while the work is installed. All undergrads will have their critique on April 28 in class.

Lab Session: Completion of Work

Final Critique: 2nd Year Grads, AU Museum

Final Critique: Undergraduates