SMU Video Art 2019

My generation has, for the most part, grown up with the assumption that we might be on camera at any time. Surveillance cameras are a natural part of the environment to me. I don't think I questioned the power of surveillance until I read 1984 for the first time in high school. If a camera is gathering information, and therefore acquiring power, then that information must belong to someone or something. It exists somewhere. I really appreciate the first page of "Video Black" because the author understands and plays into human fascination with the camera. It is captivating to think of a 20-year-record of one place that would tell countless stories. Another thing of interest in surveillance: what you can't see. Bruce Nauman (picture) explores this in a lot of his work involving surveillance, but especially this one. I experienced this at MoMA and it stuck with me. There is a white cube installation in the middle of a gallery. On one upper corner of each wall, there i...

I thought Viola had some interesting thoughts however, overall, I’m confused on his main argument. A few questions I ran into while reading this were: Can an image be iconic but not timeless? Or timeless but not iconic? Or do these characteristics have to go hand in hand? Viola also had a lot to say about images holding power but I could not decipher if he was saying how this is a good or bad thing? But that this power is acquired through the worship of that icon. What does it mean or look like to worship an icon that’s not in a religious-stereotypical way. In regard to the commentary on Brunelleschi’s demonstration; it seems as though society has issues with our worldview being shattered because people do not like change. But if we don’t have change- how do we progress? A few things that I want to keep in mind, going forward in the class, are that perception and manipulation of the viewer is a technique that can be used to add to a video/picture.

Bill Viola’s “Video Black—The Mortality of the Image” Response Bill Viola provides a sort of historical account and metaphor for photo images. He believes that images are mortal in the context of video but may otherwise be immortal in their own right when people esteem them to such a status. He discusses how mankind can attach meaning to objects and images which may elevate them to iconic status. They become a part of rituals, traditions, how we communicate, and they hold sentimental value, but they themselves are static and vain. They can depict and document historical events, however they only achieve relevance through human acknowledgement, use and appreciation. The inextricable relationship between the image’s value and someone viewing it is the life of the image. Viola’s personification of photo images fixates an idea that video is practically a disposable use of photos. In a stream of sequencing, photos are but a means to a literal end, a fade to black after their brief fl...

Bill Viola-Video Black Security cameras have always been something I’ve found interesting and something that causes me some anxiety. Maybe that last part just has to do with the fact we are constantly being observed by cameras. Security and other. The main use of a security camera is to be constantly observing us for is then to watch, with the intention of observing us. But that is not always the case. Often a camera is recording, like the article says, for almost their entire life span with the footage never being watched. Meaning some camera don’t serve a purpose unless we give one to them. Otherwise they just exist. One video work the beginning of this article made me think of is Jill Magid “Trust” 2004 https://vimeo.com/62092355     During the article Brunelleschi’s crude camera like box made me think of a set of sculptures done by Sol LeWitt. These sculptures act as sorts of camera giving the viewer an experience similar to that of taking a photograph and who's d...

My first question about Bill Viola’s essay, Video Black – The Mortality of the Image , concerns his first category, the Eternal Image. I thought I was understanding what he meant by icon until it is clarified that his use is not to be confused with a pop culture ideal of an ‘icon’ and I was like whoops okay I’m wrong. I understand that they are about consistency and intention, but aside from that I think I need some clarification. I think I’m overthinking the Temporal Image category? At first I was confused but I think it just boils down to the simple fact that watching a video (a moving image) is directly related to our perception of time (because, you know, movement). This then segways into the Temporary Image, which to my understanding is more of a mechanism to understand how images go from one category to another and less a category in its own right. Despite the notion of the icon (a still, fortified, importance) and the Temporal Image (the introduction of chan...

In Viola’s Video Black there is a constant emphasis on how a body perceives the world through sight. What is real or true is constantly changing and dependent on the context with which a reproduced image is made and, in turn, viewed. Security cameras act as an all-seeing eye for a specific, fixed point in space. It can record hundreds of thousands of hours of footage though it lacks a greater context and the information will inevitably be destroyed once the camera is no longer of use. Paintings acted as a form of iconography for religious purposes, creating a difference perception of space based on a spirituality that took priority above a reproduction of what the eye can see. With new technology, reproducing the perspective a painter experiences changes the perception of the work to something more collaborative. Where it starts talking about how looking into the eye as a way to understand the oneself as well as the “other” is where it lost me. Understanding one’s own existence thr...

Video Black takes us through stages of seeing and how this was done throughout centuries. The examples given work in a non-linear sense by instead pointing to specific notions throughout the history of image making. First given is the idea of a security camera constantly storing memory of a specific space. The security camera acts as a guard while also reproducing actions of the environment, individuals, and objects placed. Each unknowingly recorded day in and out - showing the effects of time. Viola speaks to what the idea of an image is; using examples of paintings, photographs, and cinema. He speaks of duration as a medium of consciousness, meaning duration causes for memory, which then memory causes for understanding and interpretation. I was most interested in his thought of the image securing its place by accepting its own mortality. The thought that once the image is taken it will only be relevant for that second alone because time will change what it has replicated. Viola use...

The first unsettling thought mentioned in this piece was how the author notes that security cameras serve a specific function: to capture continuous footage over a long period of time. This is something that kind of goes on unobserved when its actually doing something really interesting: recording life in real time. The tone early on was a sad one, as it is quite a shame that the changes observed by these long-lasting cameras goes unnoticed. On another note, it was also strange reading how "Sacredness" was measured in Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu art. The art closest to perfection that remains the same over time wins the position of being the most "sacred." I thought a powerful quote from the passage was how the author mentioned that the camera created a sharp turn out of the Middle Ages. The intensity in that sentence communicates the innovation of the camera at the time. While it might sound a bit far-fetched at first, the idea of our pupils being reflections...

Marshall McLuhan’s Hot and Cold Media: McLuhan works to create a system to classify medias into a binary. Hot media can be described as heavy participation, while cold media can be described as little participation. Although I don’t believe working medias into a dichotomy is beneficial, I do enjoy discussing McLuhan’s analysis of TV (cold) vs. Film (hot). In order to break down the division between TV and Film we’ll have to follow MchLuhan’s ideas on a binary media while taking into consideration ever-evolving technologies. TV is described as a cold media because of its use of audience participation whether this be as simple as the idea of an audience member game show, or McLuhan’s idea of the viewer being the screen; meaning the viewer’s need to decipher the low quality image, keeping in mind the advances in television since the 1960’s. With that being said, we can still categorize television leaning towards cold because of the use of commercials, which require audience partici...

Thomas Beard’s analysis of the work of Shana Moulton places her work in a transitional era of changing styles in video art. He identifies her heavy use of subculture as opposed to mainstream pop culture as indicative of a shift. Another thing he highlights is her use of items and products to make comments about consumerism. Beard quotes Douglas Sirk, “you can’t make films about things, you can only make films with things…” and I feel that this is a critique on how items have no real substance, but they can be used to create things of substance. I believe that Moulton’s work challenges capitalistic ideas of peace and happiness. With the advances in the internet, we have things like social media and blog sites that allows creatives to produce, at scale, to a niche audience without going through the traditional network gatekeepers. Because of that, it is easier now than ever to have access to content that we are most interested in, and the general “mainstream” audience is siphoned off ...

I like to think of Whispering Pines as the story of a woman trying to remain sane in an ultra-capitalist, possibly dystopian society. I think the reading aligned with part of my vision. I see Cynthia as a woman who relies on New Age philosophy to survive in an oversaturated world. For one, her affinity for nature is clear in her decor, including noise. I can't remember if she used mantras in the video we watched, but apparently she does in others. New Age thinking prioritizes the supremacy of own's psyche, but she is lost in hers. In the video, she moves slowly through life, seeming to take every task at her own pace. Putting the puzzle together; going to the store; decorating her vase. Then, Cynthia attends a party. Her same sense of apathy is present here. Everything in her world seems to simply be a distraction from her void, whatever that may be. As Beard mentions, one aspect of the film is to critique consumer products by "poking fun" at their "ridiculou...

I was really pleased to see this week's reading about Shana Moulton. Despite her obviously confusing and colorful video art, I felt as though I needed more time to understand her story and understand what she was trying to say as an artist. When watching the clips from class, I could not help but be reminded of Cindy Sherman, whom Beard brings up later on in the article. This connection is easily drawn by observing the use of color and the interesting perspective on pop culture mediums as a form of art. Both Sherman and Moulton have the ability to make people feel an emotion from their work, regardless of how confounding or bizarre. Important points that Beard made include how objects have the ability to draw the camera's gaze toward it, people make films with things, not about things, and a piece has the ability to have multiple tones where the lines are not extremely defined. Some questions I had when reading this article: Why does Mouton have multiple installments of ...

The author of this piece pays specific attention to the aesthetics of the video like the protagonist's outfit and how the room is decorated. These details serve to guide the viewer and allow them to feel what the creator intended. It was also bizarre how the butt was the body part chosen to have a plush appendage and more so odd that it acts as a "portal." How literal or figurative this is I am left wondering. This piece leaves the audience with numerous questions and uses that sense of curiosity to move the video along. The neck brace adds an entirely different tone to the visual piece. It changes the tone to a more unfortunate, yet quirky one. "You can change the way you feel" is a wondrous quote I can resonate with personally, as it is a philosophy I'm working on incorporating more in my life. It is such an empowering statement to be able to control how one feels! As someone who is in their head more times than not, it is imperative for me to learn about...

Example: https://vimeo.com/297519326 Thomas Beard makes a few good points in this article and really helps me to get a better grip on what exactly we saw. The fact Shauna Moulton was utilizing "as seen on Tv" type of gimmicks in relation to Cindy Sherman makes a lot more sense. now-a-days in order to utilize pop-culture, you have to look at things which are a little more recent and relatable. Though, another good point made, was that  all of the "popular" items used, were popular in the way of knowledge of them, not exactly in the way of genuinely popular. Picking these items really are things everyone knows about but that they are uncool. I think for my generation, uncool can become cool dependent upon how it is utilized. For instance, heeleys are still cool but in a different way than they used to be. I think this may be my generation holding onto their childhood and the days when all we had to worry about were if our shoes rolled us forward and we could glide ...

Now that i'm a woman everything is strange  I found this article very interesting. I am familiar with her work “Whispering Pines” but it was interesting to read more about it. One thing about her videos that is so interesting that was brought up in the article is in regard to her use of props and how often they serve many purposes and take on multiple identities. There are times when it makes me think of mental illness and or hallucinations.  Her dead pan humor and eccentric stylistic choices work in harmony as her character Cynthia navigates through life and existence. I always found her work to be interesting in the way she deals with topics of consumer culture and depression in a humorous way, whilst also using little to no voiced dialogue.