Video Installation Art - Notes

• Video art isn't just about the video, the way it is shown is just as important as what is shown
• The term installation implies a number of things, it could mean that the original installation is one of a kind, never to be separated from it's point of origin, yet often this is not the case in video art.
• Installations require the artist to vacate their piece and allow the viewer to "perform" the piece
• Video art can be linked to the shift in art towards "liveness"  in the 60s
• Installation pieces often are less about the plain visuals of the piece and more about the experience as well as the physical nature of the installation
• two types of installation:
• viewer "enters" piece
• viewer stays in real world
• Pieces can be displayed wither as 2d or "3d"
• neither has a distinct advantage to it but each has their own implications
• 
  

Favorite Installation Piece

This piece by Robert Seidel is my favorite installation piece because it combines sculpture and abstract video art into a magnificent piece of art that wants to be looked at. I stumbled upon his work when I found Young Projects in LA. You should check out Young Projects: www.youngprojectsgallery.com/

Homework 4/16

• Film and video have always been interdependent in some way
• Film is often shown in a darkened room and projected larger than life, whereas video does not have this typically
• Video installations can be installed with split screens, with multiple projections or in a wide array of other ways
• Video in the 90's was greatly changed by the introduction of new technology that allowed for more varied formats of video to be made
• There is an "in-between" type of video that hovers between documentary and art, where the goal is to blur that line completely
• Mother + Father
• a collage of well known actors portraying the "mother" and "father"
• shown on 12 separate screens, 6 being devoted to "mother" and 6 to "father"
• Two glass office buildings
• two identical offices directly across from each other
• a mirrored wall in each reflecting real time life between the two mirrors
• a camera in each office recording with an 8 second delay
• the video in the right office is played in the left and vice versa
• this forces a one-dimensional viewpoint to become obsolete  
• Dispersion Room
• an office with two projections
• video of an office with seemingly no directive
• some form of chaos
• the way in which the piece is installed is just as important as the piece itself
• Getaway #2
• a head wedged under a mattress
• the viewer wants to help the person under the mattress but the head is saying "get out of here" and shouting insults
• this piece directly exists because of technology, and the technology serves no purpose without the art
• the artist  is making the viewer deliberately notice the way you see the piece

Dem Zambies

Alien video

Homework 3/31/2014

“Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertexuality, and Electronic Cultural Production."by Critical Art Ensemble

When I first started reading this article all I could think of was just how much of a thesaurus-loving condescending prick this author had to be. However, by page eight I was completely engrossed in what the author was saying. I had never considered what we call plagiarism to be an “art” or skill of its own. I got really excited when the article began to talk about technology, as what I do both academically and artistically is predominantly technology based. Being a computer science major, I am constantly working with others and often adding my own work to someone else’s. Prior to reading this article I had never really considered that to be odd, or even close to what someone might call plagiarism, yet if I had done the exact same thing in any art class, I would be called out for it. This article really opened my eyes to the fact that the clear line between plagiarism and your “own work” that was ingrained into us as early as grade school is beginning to fade. People who appropriate videos off of YouTube for example and produce their own videos are not strictly making something new. Yet their work can be called their own. I had never considered my majors to be completely related, but this article has shown me just how inexplicably linked the two are. The technology of today is built upon the work of countless other people, and in some way, shape or form, the same can be said for art.

Literally the best article I have read in a while.

This video is great.