John Berger’s four-part BBC documentary Ways of Seeing (1972) is a seminal work of popular art history. As the camera lingers on iconic European paintings, Berger examines our “learned assumptions” about fine art in a world saturated by cameras, screens, and easily reproducible images.
For her contemporary remake, Ways of Something (2014-2015), Lorna Mills invited more than a hundred digital artists to each recreate a one-minute section of the documentary, retaining Berger’s narration but replacing the image. The result is a chaotic compilation of 3-D animations, video remixes, animated GIFs, webcam performances, and more, by artists who update, challenge, or elaborate on Berger’s ideas. Ways of Something is, in effect, art about art about television about the internet, employing aesthetically diverse practices to re-examine Berger’s theories about looking at art in the digital age.
What is your glitch? 1bitgifavibmpbmpcmykbmprgbjpgmpgpcxpixpngppmsgisvgtgawebp will be screening alongside some more awesomerererer glitch videos at Destructural Video as part of Leeds International Film Festival 2011 on November 17th
Can the electronic stutters, crashes, errors and glitches that we encounter with technology in our day-to-day lives be considered beautiful in their own right? This programme of extraordinary video work showcases contemporary artists who exploit and explore the imperfections hidden in the signal/ data structures of moving image technology to striking effect. Recalling early video art experiments and key films from the Structural movement, these sometimes abstract but always emotional videos ultimately reveal the human qualities inherent in the technology we have created, electronic warts and all.
This free screening will take place at Granary Wharf at 20:30. Be there or be q̢̘͔̖͎͕̗͓͓̩͇͕̳̪̟̱̟ͯ͂͐͛̐͊͝ͅu̷ͮ̽͌̄ͪ̔̑̕҉̥̜̭̠̮͔̱͍̬̯̞ͅa̡̨͊̎ͩͮ̀ͭ̃̓ͯ̿ͧ̃ͦͨ́̚̚҉̝̤͈̻̮̪̳̠̟͈̖͔̪̼͔ŗ͚̜̦̘̥̪̟̳̈̈́͐̓̌̇̔̎̈́͋̀͞ȇ̢̜͖͕̖̥̰̝̪̖̥͓̭͖̫̈̏̄̔ͅ
In Middletown, Connecticut between November 4th-6th? Alvin Lucier: A Celebration, is taking place at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts. I Am Sitting in a Room, along with other videos that respond to Lucier’s work of same name, will be screening at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery.
This festival, in recognition of Alvin Lucier’s 80th birthday, will include an exhibition, symposium, films and a series of four concerts. The symposium will bring together key composers, musicians and writers to discuss Mr. Lucier’s work and influence.
[…]
Alvin Lucier (and His Artist Friends) is a broad overview of the composer’s distinguished career over nearly six decades. This exhibition will explore the nature of Mr. Lucier’s engagement with artists such as John Cage, Sol LeWitt, John Ashbery, Italo Calvino and Lee Lozano. Related works by some of these figures will be juxtaposed with the compositions they inspired. The exhibition will also make the first in-depth exploration of the broad influence of Mr. Lucier’s work I Am Sitting in a Room (1970). Nearly two dozen audio presentations of his compositions, along with a number of performance videos and an interview with Robert Ashley will be featured. Numerous notated and text-based scores, a select group of artifacts from earlier performances, and an extensive variety of archival memorabilia documenting Mr. Lucier’s career to date will be on display. An installation version of Mr. Lucier’s Chambers (1968) realized as a tribute by former students and colleagues will complete the exhibition.
On Halloween, as well as the Brill Drummond talk (see what I did there) at Eastside Projects and the closing party at Ikon Eastside I went to the screening of 24 Hour Psycho at VIVID Gallery, which is just a few moments away from it.
I was there for about an hour and in that time I probably saw the result of only 5 minutes of footage! As is my understanding the film was shown at one frame every half-second. What I find interesting is that if this was shown using a traditional reel of film you’d have to have 12 frames of the same picture followed by another twelve frames of another still picture, thus creating the effect of playing two frames per second. However, due to the absence of noise that would usually come from the projector I’d guess it is a digital projection and because of it with each frame you get slight pixelation in each frame. I would’ve liked to have seen it being projected using reels of film, which then presents the screening of the actual movie as a performance in itself. After doing some research, however, I can see that this wasn’t really the intention of the artist.
He [Douglas Gordon] went on to imagine that this ‹someone› might suddenly remember what they had seen earlier that day, later that night; perhaps at around 10 o’clock, ordering drinks in a crowded bar with friends, or somewhere else in the city, perhaps very late at night, just as the ‹someone› is undressing to go to bed, they may turn their head to the pillow and start to think about what they had seen that day.
I suppose you only really get that effect if you actually do watch it for awhile, and possibly at some of the more interesting parts of the film. That said, the image of someone smiling at me walking across the street is one that is still sticking with me.
I was there for about an hour and in that time I probably saw the result of only 5 minutes of footage! As is my understanding the film was shown at one frame every half-second. What I find interesting is that if this was shown using a traditional reel of film you’d have to have 12 frames of the same picture followed by another twelve frames of another still picture, thus creating the effect of playing two frames per second. However, due to the absence of noise that would usually come from the projector I’d guess it is a digital projection and because of it with each frame you get slight pixelation in each frame. I would’ve liked to have seen it being projected using reels of film, which then presents the screening of the actual movie as a performance in itself. After doing some research, however, I can see that this wasn’t really the intention of the artist.