Gary Hill, George Quasha, and Charles Stein at EAI

A screening and conversation was held last night at Electronic Arts Intermix in celebration of the new book An Art of Limina: Gary Hill's Works and Writings. A panel consisting of Gary Hill, George Quasha and Charles Stein (authors of the publication) illuminated and discussed a selection of Hill's early single-channel videos, such as Around & About, Sums and Differences, Happenstance (part one of many parts), Tale Enclosures, and Why Do Things Get in a Muddle (Come on Petunia). Hill, Quasha, and Stein have collaborated for the greater part of the last three decades on this book and as artists. This created a formidable atmosphere where the three fluidly reminisced, shared memories and theoretical outlooks alike. At one point Charles Stein random broke out into semantic gibberish, concluding that through abstract primal expression, he could in fact create his own system of believable linguistics which convey a message. (A perfect segway into Hill's 1985 work Tale Enclosures where Quasha and Stein are taped performing rhythmic chants.)

Quasha gave a brief intro about the book, describing Stein and his efforts as enabling the "Further life of the work."

"Our primary interest is in what we call the further life of the work, which we have defined as an extension of the creative energy and interest that the work itself actually projects through its own instance. We will have more to say on this subject in the Prologue and elsewhere, as it speaks to something in Gary Hill’s work itself, as we see it. In short, we intend that our writing about his work contribute to the very possibility which the work opens up. The theory is that critical alignment with a work brings that work out, brings it forward to possible participation. The further life is also an active dialogue with the ongoing work itself."

I couldn't agree more with this perspective. The articulation and recognition of critical engagement and dialogue as a way of extending and facilitating a work's future agency is rarely specified, eventhough it is implicit in the act of writing. The articulation of this notion means a lot.

Much of the book's contents, including the forward by Lynne Cook, can be found here.

(above) Around &About, 1980

(above) Happenstance (part one of many parts), 1982-3 (made with a Rutt-Etra Video Synth!)

(above) Sums & Differences, 1978

(above) Tale Enclosure, 1985

(above) Why Do Things Get In a Muddle? (Come On Petunia), 1984

(all images courtesy of EAI)

I was also interested Quasha's belief that all concepts are working towards defining a principle, the latter of which cannot be quantified or defined, but only approached through various avenues and forms of access. A conversation with Quasha after the event revealed an interesting video project that he is conducting, entitled "Art is." His website describes the project:

"In this ongoing video work of speaking portraits begun in 2002, I put this impossible, but inevitable, question before other artists, poets, musicians…. Result: a close-up of the normally private space of art definition. To date some 800 artists of all kinds–sculptors, painters, filmmakers, video artists, poets, composers, performance artists, and so on–have been recorded in eleven countries and twenty-four languages. This ongoing and constantly changing work in multiple series- Art is- Music is- Poetry is- has been exhibited primarily as installations, but now online as single-channel works. This is just the beginning–and by it’s nature it will always just be beginning. The is the space of saying the impossible–a mission always in need of a poetics."

art is [Vol. I] from George Quasha on Vimeo.

Videofreex Documentary

Another interesting aspect of the Tuesday night screening at Light Industry was the realization that a documentary about the Freex is in the works. The filmmaker Jon Nealon was present in the audience, and seemed quite excited about the project. I recently received this email from him:

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the Videofreex documentary mailing list the other night.

We've been working on the film for a while now - gathering videotapes, conducting interviews, etc.

And we were quite happy to see the turnout for the screening of tapes at Light Industry on Tuesday.

The Facebook page goes live toady. If you are on Facebook - please become a fan. Just type in 'videofreex' in the search bar.

We posted a short video of the beginning of the restoration process back in '05.

Please spread the word. Building up a network is crucial to the success of independent films these days.

Thanks again,

Jon Nealon and Jenny Raskin
The Videofreex Documentary Project

Videofreex at Light Industry

Last night, Light Industry screened a selection of works by the early video collective, Videofreex shot from 1969-1974. It was followed by a q&a with some of the founding members of the video collective, and the curator, Dara Greenwald. Perhaps the most interesting (and troubling) thing about the night was the realization that only a small percentage of the Freex' original footage has been preserved.

Chicago's Video Data Bank, the holders of the collection, has posted a complete listing of existing Videofreex footage. The table indicates that only 48 titles out of a collection of more than 1400 have been preserved; or cleaned, migrated and transferred from its original format, which are mostly obsolete. Individuals may sponsor the preservation of these works for $400 per title.



The Videofreex collective used video to engage with, document and stimulate activism. Although there certainly are aesthetic particularities to the tapes, the artistic qualities of the material was not their primary concern. The art was not in the means of documentation, but the social and political interactions and dialogs that the Freex facilitated. The tapes are often long and anti-climactic, which makes them somewhat undesirable to show in museums, galleries, or festivals. This being the case, the tapes have little market value, making it difficult to secure funding for preservation. Their cultural capital, however, is invaluable, and hopefully will be enough to influence individuals to sponsor preservation.


From the site:

The archival collection of Videofreex titles consists of around 1400 videotapes
on a variety of formats. Most of these formats are obsolete (1/2 ” open reel,
3/4 ” Umatic, 1 ” open reel, etc.) They are also quite old for videotapes, and
often require cleaning or other special handling before they can be re-mastered
to modern formats, or be made available digitally. This is usually an expensive
process, and there are currently not enough funds to preserve the entire
collection.

We prioritize titles for preservation based on written information sources
(titles, notes on the tapes, etc.), dialogue with the Videofreex, and other
research. If you are interested in a specific tape that has not been
preserved, you can help out by paying for its preservation. This usually costs
$400, and you will receive a DVD of the title for personal or educational use.
Additional rights for footage use can be negotiated. It should be noted that
the results of the preservation are not guaranteed, it is possible that the
tape has been damaged during its lifespan, or has degraded due to storage
conditions. Most of our results however have been positive.

The following is a list of titles taken from the labels on the tapes in our Videofreex
database. Please scroll through it, or use the search function of your browser to find
specific keywords. To find out more about any of these titles, please contact us.

Fassbinder Freaks Take-Over MoMA

I was super disappointed on Monday afternoon, when I ditched work to go see Fassbinder's 1973 TV series "World on a Wire" and was denied. And I don't usually back down so easily. However, the MoMA's Administration entrance (not the main one) was packed- and i mean packed- with throngs of Fassbinder fanboy types. It brought back memories of the Devo conventions (called "the Devotional") that we used to go to in high school. Seeing as the screening lasted almost 3 hours, I inquired about stand-by. The visitor-assistant pointed to a line of maybe 70 people and said, "sure, go ahead. there's no guarantee tho." At that, I threw in the towel.

From MoMA's site:

Originally made for German television in 1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s visionary science-fiction thriller World on a Wire has only been shown in America once before, in 1997, as part of a comprehensive Fassbinder retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art. MoMA’s Department of Film recently participated in a restoration of the film, and we are proud to present the luminous new 35mm theatrical print. Working from the original 16mm negative and a digital transfer, Juliane Lorenz, director of the RWF Foundation, and Michael Ballhaus, the film’s original cameraman, supervised the making of the new print. The restored film had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February of this year, and will now become part of the Museum’s collection.

World on a Wire is an extraordinary work—prescient, fluid, eccentric, and as wildly compelling as any of Fassbinder’s other masterworks. Made a quarter-century before The Matrix (1999), which touches on similar issues, Fassbinder’s film is an adaptation of Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 American novel Simulacron-3, also known as The Counterfeit World. As the director described it, World on a Wire is “a very beautiful story that depicts a world where one is able to make projections of people using a computer. And, of course, this leads to the uncertainty of whether someone himself is a projection, since in the virtual world projections resemble reality. Perhaps another, larger world has made us as a virtual one? In this sense it deals with the old philosophical model, which here takes on a certain horror.”

The Amps "Pacer" Reissue

Freaking finally! I have been searching for an original copy of Pacer for the greater part of my teenage and adult years. Plain Recordings recently announced that they will be reissuing The Amps' only record from 1995 on 180 gram vinyl. The release date is May 11th.

From 4AD:

"During a hiatus between Breeders records, Kim Deal formed The Amps. Pacer was recorded quickly and is raw, punky and spontaneous - it's full-on garage rock, with Deal's most immediate and bracing songs since Pod. see also : The Breeders / Pixies"


Pre-order it here.

Hologramming

CNN introduced the concept of "Hologramming" during the 2008 elections. For now I am just dropping these videos, but I want to return to them to discuss why this concept of hologramming is so interesting and hilarious.



Will.I.Am: unfortunately, I couldn't embed the better version. (Thanks, alot "ARTLOVERRR," you terd.)



A fashion crowd applauding at a holographic Kate Moss:



A different view:

Fractalzzzzzzz

One thing that I love about Fractals, besides how serious their makers take them, is the music. It never ceases to amaze me how RETARDED it is! Check out this clip posted by "Fractal God" entitled CHAOS. The music is so incredibly nerdy. It's like mixing all genres of awful/awesome. At one point it sounds like "One-Winged Dove" but then segways into a wood-nymph journey of discovery.




Fractal videos seem to be split between trance music and classical music. I suppose this is the creator's attempt to situate their work within an elevated classical canon, and to emphasize the tie between math/science and high art.
[Here, I was going to post a video called, "Odyssey" demonstrating this point, but it seems that the user disabled the embedding function, which further proves my point of how serious some of these people are about fractals.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOfTrePsPX8&feature=related


Fractal Journey:



Arthur Clark on Fractals:
This is amazing. A veritable who's who in Math.




I want to remind everyone that fractals basically have no use in terms of applicability; they can be used to described geometric shapes and icons with infinite precision, but have little if any correlation to reality. They are empty icons that have been appropriated as a visual language that somehow signify universal truths about how the world works, because they involve the Mandlebrot set, an infinitely quantifiable mathematic equation that can be visualized and infinitely expanded, while maintaining a similar pattern. In the documentary, they go so far as to claim that the Mandlebrot set is the "thumb-print of god."


to be continued...

Some Recent Obsessions

Here are some spoils from my internet adventures. (Also known as videos that I have found while procrastinating at work, or with my thesis writing). I am learning a lot about early computer art at the moment, so hopefully a more comprehensive post on the topic is forthcoming. For now, here are some nuggets:









(Thanks Craighead)

Lindsey Buckingham Appreciation Society

Normally, I don't care for cover bands. But something about this approach has won me over. It seems like the band is only a fragment of a larger project. Lindsey Buckingham is more than a pop-star, it's a concept, a philosophy, an aesthetic, and a style. And if not, it should be. Or maybe this is just another cheese-dick coverband, and I am projecting my own view of what it "should" be on to it.. see for yourself:

http://tlbas.tumblr.com/