Avant Garde and Experimental Video?

George Kuchar

The "tradition" of experimental and avant garde film is described on Wikipedia as being "opposed to the practices of mainstream of commercial and documentary film making." Can home made video continue this tradition? In case of the work of George Kuchar (b. August 31, 1942 - d. September 6, 2011), his film making was about sheer joy--and maybe this is exactly what most people are trying to do within the typical YouTube video "genre." Kuchar's 1977 10 minute film, "I An Actress" shot on one length of 16 mm film under pressure--at once reveals the aspirations of an actress and the directorial techniques of the young Professor Kuchar. Kuchar's cinematic vision is one based on pop culture, specifically comic books that reflect his idiosyncratic sense of humor.

Experimental Videos Screening

(or why go to an art museum to watch TV?)

Lawrence University Warch Campus Center Cinema
Sunday, November 20, 2011, 6:30-9:00 PM


ART 240 Digital Processes students will screen their 1-minute experimental videos. Each will introduce their video before and take questions after from the audience about their content, meaning and artistic process. Pop corn and slushies! All are welcome!

6:30 - WELCOME - J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

6:40 - Zhan Guo "Dizzy" about tbeing overwhelmed by books and escaping into the world of nature

6:50 - Natalie Fordwor "The Simple Joys" about the joyful moments of life

7:00 - Briana Harter "From Yourself" about not letting anyone hold you back from expressing your individuality and passion

7:10 - Jessica Meissmer "Take a Moment" about taking the time to relax

7:20 - Aisha Eiger "Self-Portrait in Charcoal" about exploring video through exploring self

7:30 - Deborah Levinson "The Descent" is a humorous take on the impact of desire (It could also be about bestiality)

7:40 - BREAK

7:50 - Christine Seeley "The Meat Department" about the grocery store meat department in relation
to excessive production, overeating, and consumerism in America

8:00 - Chelsea Lee "Skin" about beauty and emotion, and how we express them

8:10 - Geneva Wrona "Stranger and Stranger Strangers" about the surreality of the process of knowing people

8:20 - Rachele Krivichi "The Fight" about the decreasing ability to communicate directly with another in the digital age

8:30 - Sara Sheldon-Rosson "I Want to Line The Pieces Up" an exploration of the human condition and the curiosity and fear of death

8:40 - DISCUSSION

9:00 -  FINI

What We Find

Since the dawn of the industrial age, artists have used the cut/paste action to digest material ranging from newspaper clippings to tape loops or digital audio/video tracks. In Remix: Making Art  & Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (Penguin, 2008), Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig argues for avoiding a "permission culture" as he calls for a revamp of copyright law so: "More people can use a wider set of tools to express ideas and emotions differently." According to Lessig, artists could reference the "aura" of cultural objects through their remixes to create new meaning and perhaps help us all sort out the sheer volume of cultural production over the past century. Negativland has called for  "mass culture" to be returned to the masses through rethinking intellectual property law. They wrote in a missive on Fair Use: "We now exist in a society so choked and inhibited by cultural property and copyright protections that the very idea of mass culture is now primarily propelled by economic gain and the rewards of ownership." Web 2.0 platforms such as YouTube combined with digital video editing software have made critiquing moving images as easy as making a photocopied zine was in the 1970s.

Materiality

Watching Exhibition Opening Reception, October 19, 2011

Twelve Digital Processes students exhibited their framed inkjet prints and MagCloud magazines in an exhibition titled "Watching" at Lawrence University's MUDD GALLERY (October 19-November 7, 2011). Being able to touch the art seemed to absorb visitors, who patiently waited to turn the pages of each and every magazine.

A Distinct and Intense Order

National Gallery of Art Curator Sarah Greenough talks about Robert Frank's iconic post-World War II book, The Americans in a video documenting the 2009 exhibition Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans. Greenough and other scholars have looked intensely at "the sequence and structure" of the book that expressed a rhythm and at times Frank's own intuitive response using images of people looking or the American flag to "keep the beat" as poet Allen Ginsberg observed. The process of Frank's printmaking and maquette have been replaced today by online organizing tools such as Flickr and MagCloud and software such as Adobe's InDesign making bookmaking more accessible for artists and helping artists self-publish material that may have otherwise not been of interest to the mainstream press.

Sony NEX-5, Not Just a Fashion Accessory

You can set today's digital cameras on automatic and use them as jewelry...or take control and make meaningful images by starting out with a concept then learning enough about what the camera can do to control the end result.  On the most basic level setting the ASA/ISO, color balance and size of your .jpgs (or raw files) or manipulating the focus, exposure and flash takes the user beyond the generic point-and-shoot aesthetic.  We'll be experimenting with the Sony Nex-5 camera, which is lightweight and portable yet offers control. There's a beautiful "Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera Handbook" PDF you can download that offers helpful illustrations and instructions to aid you in understanding the camera's capabilities.

People You May Know

Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas, 1656

In Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera since 1870, SFMOMA curator Sandra Phillips argues that photography has played a major role in voyeuristic looking. Velazquez famously recorded acts of looking as far back as 1656 in his Las Meninas painting. Contemporary artists Emily Jacir (linz diary) and Shizuka Yokomizo (Stanger series) make work about deliberate performances before an unseen but perceived camera reminding us that someone is always watching. Gladys Kravitz was the nosy neighbor archetype always looking out the window in Bewitched. Today, every cell phone has a camera and every person has a cell phone thus making it possible for any action to be captured by anybody. Boundaries between public and private space blur and the  doors are thrown open for ubiquitous self-surveillance as we all willingly post every detail of our lives on FaceBook or otherwise. The panopticon conceptualized by Michel Foucault (wherein we live with the idea of being watched and adjusting our behavior accordingly) has seduced us. Philip Agre in Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy cautions us as he critiques ways our daily activities are captured and turned into a commodity. 

Gladys Kravitz always watching on "Betwitched"