By
Ceci Moss
on
Monday, January 5th, 2009 at
5:00 pm
Video: Response from the iConfessional at Mattress Factory
Image: Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, Hole-In-Space, 1980
Mattress Factory went live with their iConfessional kiosk recently, which allows visitors to instantly post response videos to museum exhibitions using YouTube's Quick Capture feature. Mattress Factory's Jeffrey Inscho got the idea from the Brooklyn Museum, who built a video response station for their exhibition The Black List Project using the same technology. Both illustrate ways museums are attempting to use the web to enhance visitor experience; as the lowercase "i", Apple's signature branding for personal customization, they are geared towards allowing visitors to visualize and share their responses to the exhibition, i.e. leave their personal mark. Simple and inexpensive to implement, it's not difficult to imagine that stations like these will become more commonplace. I viewed an installation of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz's Hole-In-Space (1980) at the "Art of Participation" exhibition at SFMOMA two weeks ago and I was both amused and blown away by the footage. In the work, crowds in New York City and LA could video conference with one another via this public installation. The crowds were clearly elated about this possibility, hooting and hollering at live feeds of their counterparts on the other side of the country. It was amazing to see their excitement, especially now that video conferencing has become so ubiquitous. This activity hits at the heart of participation online -- but it also raises questions in regards to the limits of this sort of participation, especially if it is realized in the form of talk back mechanisms, such as video kiosks, which are simply an addendum to a larger exhibition, and do not influence its scope or shape.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Monday, January 5th, 2009 at
11:30 am
Brooklyn's Issue Project Room will host two evenings of improvisational violin by luminaries Tony Conrad and Genesis P-Orridge this weekend. Organized by filmmaker Marie Losier, the event promises to be a unique collaboration, for sure. For more information, visit the link below.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at
12:30 pm
Artist Steve Lambert just added a video to Artists Space's YouTube Commentary Project, above. For this ongoing series, Artists Space invite artists to select a YouTube video and record their own commentary, which is then uploaded to Artists Space's channel. Lambert deviated a bit from this format by hiring actors to read the commentary posted to the video "Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5." His reasoning is that even "high brow" videos on YouTube generate goofy (e.g. "I like the white tuxedos!") and trivial discussions. His version of the video, with the inclusion of the dubbed comments, was then reinserted into the original conversation as a posted comment.
By
Ceci Moss
on
Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at
12:30 pm
Jonathan Harris, the interactive designer/artist behind We Feel Fine and Universe, kicks off a new project today, according to CR Blog. The project is, as yet, untitled but will follow Harris as he travels solo from southern Africa to eastern China, using only local transportation. He plans to go through 27 countries over the course of this yearlong trip, and will collect stories "in a very specific way." Beyond that, details are vague. Much of his work is a research into modern storytelling through digital mediums, with special attention toward the representation of human emotion through these avenues. The article on CR Blog emphasizes Harris's dismissal of the existence of "masterpieces" in digital and online artwork, while also suggesting that, in attempting to create artworks which are both moving and epically evocative of a larger, ever-shifting zeitgeist, Harris is seeking to achieve something of the like in his own practice.
In this short clip, Yacht proposed a "Digital New Year's Eve Party." Videos tagged
"YACHTNEWYEARSEVE" or added to the group in Vimeo were assembled into one big video. All the footage went into a performance they staged last night, which they will hopefully put online soon.
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