Wesley Wilson, Rachael Scott, Marlowe Rosenbaum, David Franz
Our group read "Video Installation Art: The Body, the Image, and the space in-between" by Margaret Morse and "Television, Furniture, and Sculpture: The Room with the American View" by Vito Acconci. In these articles video installation art was considered as a new means of creating art which was different from traditional art and also different from video which was not dependent on installation.
Unless you are there to witness the installation in its original context it is not the same. However, obviously we cannot present any of the installations that we will be discussing in their original context. Oh well.
Taxi Driver (Douglas Gordon)
Two projections of the same scene are played within the gallery, one a mirror image of the other. As the piece loops, the two projections fall more out of sync and the viewer is trapped in the volatile argument between two manifestations of the same character. Gordon transports his audience to what Morse defines as the "space in between". We are no longer securely rooted within our own world. At the same time, the piece does not allow us to fully travel "through the looking glass" and become immersed in the scene as when we would watch a film. Instead we are trapped in the space between, an uncomfortable realm in which the viewer stands in the crossfire between the character and his double.
Why Video Installation is different from uninstalled video -> The Flaming Lips:
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song Video
Now imagine you are watching it at a show with other stuff...
An affective example of how installed video is different from non-installed video can be unexpectedly found at a Flaming Lips Concert. You may have heard the popular song "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots," but unless you have been to a Flaming Lips concert you may not know that the Flaming Lips also make videos, which are played on a huge screen behind them at their concerts while people in animal suits dance around confetti cannons erupt and the lead singer Wayne Coyne occasionally walks out on top of the crowd in a giant plastic bubble. These videos are meant to be played to an audience which is jumping around squishing each other and being overwhelmed. Viewing them without a huge crowd around you and the musical performance and everything else is obviously not even close to the same experience. This also applies to videos installed in a particular way in a gallery.
The difference between an installation, a video installation, and a fine art sculpture:
Installation art is art that is created, constructed, or installed on the site where it is exhibited, often incorporating materials or physical features on the site. An installed video is a video that has been incorporated into either a space or a sculpture. A fine art sculpture is the product of figuratively or abstractly working on art in three dimensions, such as in the traditional means of relief, intaglio, or in the round, as well as other means. An installation specifically uses the space to accomplish its meaning, and can contain installed video. A fine art sculpture doesn't necessarily specify how it should be incorporated in a space, but it can also contained an installed video. Therefore an installed video can either become an installation or a sculpture and neither of those things mean the same thing with video than they do without, but also neither of them by definition require video. An important thing to remember is that video does not exist by itself, it requires a method of display. If the method of display is intentional for the concept of the work then it ceases to be a commodity.
Tony Oursler
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
How does TV function in the home?
The television is seen as part of furniture in the household, it was something we could feel at home with as Acconci says. It can also be seen as a device that is common in all households much in the same as cloths and couches. But it couldn't be used like other furniture, only looked at. It can be considered a mindless escape from reality and into a false reality. TV acts as a connection the outside world and ultimately to other people. TV becomes part of the family and never stops even when the TV is turned off, its just lying in wait. The plot goes on in another household and is ready to enter someone else's with a flip of a switch.
Compare and contrast our relationship with video seen at home with video seen in the gallery.
Video seen at home is chosen by the viewer, the subject matter is a matter of preference unlike in a gallery. Television content is made by people, for other people to watch. Its created by a large corporation hoping to make money. Video seen in a gallery is usually homemade and is the product of the artist. The location of video in a gallery encourages much more concentration and dissection of content unlike casual watching at home. Video seen at home does not need the word art to justify its existence. Video installation is the best of both worlds, it has the freeness of the household and the placeness of art in a gallery. It allows you to think differently about what is being displayed.
Aernaut Mik is an artist can illustrate the difference of video seen at home or in a gallery. His video installations are clips of social unrest and people having control over other people. The events are staged but they could easily be seen as real world events. If a viewer saw these clips at home it would be an entirely different experience than how they are seen in the gallery. For one, the position and size affect the installation greatly. The position is always near the floor, forcing the viewer to bend or lie down. This parallels the content of video because the installation no has power over the viewer. The size also matters, the projections are larger than anything seen at home and help engross the viewer even more.
Installation pieces rely heavily on the space they are being constructed within. If an artist chooses to transport his or her art from gallery to gallery, then the piece can be adapted to fit each new environment, but only to a degree- obviously a large installation would not be suited for a smaller museum. Installations depend on the museum, or other place, to function:
In the article by Margaret Morse she compares installation in the gallery, to "commodity arts such as painting, the museum serves as the pinnacle of validation in a longer history of display".
Also, since an installation piece is constructed on-site, then dismantled again to move, it is considered an ephemeral form of art. These pieces are not as easily moved, as say, a sculpture, and this can also make them difficult to document. Installation art has to be experienced to be understood.
A person cannot get the jist of a piece by a photograph, and both video and photo force the viewer into one view point which goes against what the installation piece was intending for its audience. Installation is meant to be interactive.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9SE06lHXsBo&feature=related
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/paik/paik_top.html
A work of art is usually considered 'fine art' when it is judged beauty and concept (namely painting, sculpture, drawing, graphics, and architecture...) The television normally does not fall under this category. As installations are not considered fine art, the video also cannot truly be considered as such when it is incorporated into the piece. In order for a TV to be involved in fine art, it has to become commodity art, or art that can be bought, sold and transported as a complete entity and without reliance on its display space. It also needs to be displayed in a way that removes it from its usual context (of being a household object).
Morse on this subject: "Once a TV set, however, is placed in a sculpture
installation, the TV set tends to dominate; the TV set acts as a target - the rest of the installation functions as a display device, a support structure for the light on the screen."
http://www.panix.com/~fluxus/FluX/ESH.html
Friday, March 21, 2008
Group Three - Video Installation Art
Monday, March 17, 2008
group 4 site specificity
Links:
rafael lozano-hemmer
site
site
Website info
site
The above work is all part of site specific installation.
The above work is all part of multi channel video installations.
Part A:
As a group determine what it is that you are looking at. Goggle the artist or piece if need so that you will be able to explain the work to the class and understand fully yourself. Be ready to give a short description before presenting each video to the class.
Part B:
Answer and be ready to present the flowing to the class as a group.
1. Does each video installation uniquely use space and location?
2. How does the use of a specific site differ from a single channel video projected in the gallery? What is the fundamentally charge that occurs?
3. How does the use of space, site, placement, scale, manipulate the viewer?
4. Discus how each work would be fundamentally different if presented as single channel video?
5. What make each video installation successful as an installation? How does this relate to content, location, size, site specificity?
Group 3: multi channel video installations
Group 3 installation as site
pipilotti rist
site
Mary Lucier
site
Pepon Osorio
site
The above work is all part of multi channel video installations.
Part A:
As a group determine what it is that you are looking at. Goggle the artist or piece if need so that you will be able to explain the work to the class and understand fully yourself. Be ready to give a short description before presenting each video to the class.
Part B:
Answer and be ready to present the flowing to the class as a group.
1. Does each video installation uniquely use space?
2. How does the use of space differ from a single channel video? What is the fundamentally charge that occurs?
3. How does the use of space, placement, scale, manipulate the viewer?
4. Discus how each work would be fundamentally different if presented as single channel video?
5. What make each video installation successful as an installation? How does this relate to content, location, size, site specificity?
Group 2 Video installation as staged performance
Video installation as staged performance
Links:
Janine Antoni
Laurie Anderson
site
The above videos are documents of live performances.
Part A:
As a group determine what it is that you are looking at. Goggle the artist or piece if need so that you will be able to explain the work to the class and understand fully yourself. Be ready to give a short description before presenting each video to the class.
Part B:
Answer and be ready to present the flowing to the class as a group.
1. Does the addition of the human form change the meaning of the content presented?
2. How is the notion of time and duration fundamentally different from a looped single channel video?
3. What differences might there be in the viewer relationship to each piece with the addition of a live performance?
4. Discus how each work would be fundamentally different if presented as single channel video without performance?
5. What make each video installation successful as a performance? How does this relate to content, location, size, site specificity?
Group 1 installation as art object
Group 1 installation as art object
Links:
oursler
Jenkins
The video above are taken in the gallery, of projections at become objects.
Part A:
As a group determine what it is that you are looking at. Goggle the artist or piece if need so that you will be able to explain the work to the class and understand fully yourself. Be ready to give a short description before presenting each video to the class.
Part B:
Answer and be ready to present the flowing to the class as a group.
1. Since the video is no longer on the flat plane of the wall/screen how does this effect its presence of the work in the gallery?
2. Does the object hood of the video change the meaning of the content presented?
3. What differences might there be in the viewer relationships to each piece?
4. Discus how each work would be fundamentally different is presented as single channel video?
5. What make each video installation successful as a sculptural object? How does this relate to content, location, size, site specificity?