Notes

- pioneers in the field of moving pictures - Georges Melies, D.W. Griffith, and Sergej Eisenstein
- More recently - LVT and "Dogma 95"
- 1960s = cinema was expanded and there were many inter-media excursions - many artists "deconstructed formal and compositional elements of cinematographic code"
- EX. performances, multimedia actions, multiple projections, and the dissection of all cinema's realities -> in order to reflect upon the structure of film
- 1990s = use of cinematic history (intertextuality?), debated cinematographic parameters, produced classics as remakes
- video has stood in relation to other artistic languages and media such as television, performance, sculpture and film
- collective cultural memory was a common theme - films in the 90s were often shown in darkened theaters on a large screen
- "art breaks with the conventional perspective of film in many ways"
     - use of multiple projections, split screens, or screens placed away from walls to allow them to be             viewed from front to back and simultaneously
- many artists combine the world of theatre with the electronic possibilities of video
- documentary format is based on experimental form - ex. Chris Marker, Chantal Ackerman, and Jean Rouch

Project #3

Project #3

        Initially, this article was really confusing because I didn’t really understand the language, but I ended up realizing this article had some interesting arguments about art appropriation, plagiarism, and living in the postmodern world. In high school, I was always told that plagiarism was was one of the easiest crimes you could commit, so I was always hyper aware of it and generally gave it a negative connotation; however, after reading this article, I realized that “plagiarism” and re-appropriation is everywhere especially in the art world. 

        I think that art appropriation is a product of living in the postmodern world. The quote about Lincoln waiting anxiously for telegraphs during the Civil War really resonated with me because it showed that even 150 years ago, there was a need for new technology and cultural velocity. In essence, a break from the past. Today technology is changing at a rapid pace, and art is becoming more inclusive of different mediums thanks to technology, so I think that art appropriation and intertextuality is necessary.

       I might be biased though because this Jim Jarmusch quote has always appealed to me: “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."

project #2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edtJYEcyJbA

sad dog

no one wants to be sad dog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_xRdOtTTjk

Moving Pictures notes

- Video is a familiar medium
     - different than film and television
VIDEO = a means of preservation that retains the recorded material in a state of permanent availability and manipulation
- today video can be produced and edited entirely on a computer
- video can be easily manipulated because of its large pool of material
      - Brecht pointed out the risk of enforced conformity and indoctrination
- Names to know (N2K) - Nam June Paik (Electronic Superhighway)
- Vilem Flusser (N2K) - 1991 = "dialogical memory"
- Video art is often considered self-reflexive?

- 1960s = "broke with conventional genre notions"
- the medium was often interdisciplinary - plastic arts, music, dance, theater, etc. were all combined with video art
- difference between American and German television - German television only broadcast at night -> different types of media coverage
- Paik = such a presence -> "Exposition of Music - Electronic Television"
- Germany - overarching theme.. really into video art

- video depends on the current state of technological development more than almost any other artistic medium
- 1967 - Sony put the first analogue video device on the market
- (N2K) - Les Levine, Andy Warhol - some of the first artists to use the portable video equipment immediately after it appeared
- new innovations were created to distort television images - synthesizers were later developed by a number of artists to allow for direct video manipulation

Project #1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsWWWxCRNVc