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
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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