Installation Update

This is an update to my installation setup. The monitors have been broken up into groups of four. Each grouping will act as an independent piece but will also contribute to the overall installation and idea. The t.v.s on the right and left will be playing 2 dvds each, and each dvd will be split to play onto 2 of the televisions.

I coupled footage of sky transportation with footage of train and subway transportation as one piece and and footage of people with footage of cars as the other piece. I coupled the themes in this manner because I think aesthetically it will make the most sense as well as the type of transport. Train travel and air travel is more organized and usually suited for longer voyages. People (or being on foot) coupled with cars shows a more sporadic and spontaneous conditions for transport and thus work well together.

The projector image on the back wall will consist of 4 online videos created from a mixture of all the other footage. These shots playing on the projector are typically longer and perhaps slower moving than the shots on the tvs. Since the projection videos will be embedded over a fake outside window, a slower pace can bring a viewer more easily into a long gaze.


Uncertainties-

-Furniture was previously planned to be installed. It is still an option but space issues would need to be looked at.

-Computer or Ipod could be placed in room to be playing tracks of the footage. Concern is I don't want this to look like afterthoughts nor do I want it to look tacky in the context. Pluses to it though it acknowledges the explosion of pda's.

Installation Details

After talking more about my intended project I was advised to try and include more modern day forms of technology into the project. This made a lot of sense and would inform the viewer that my point was relevant to this time and place.

The picture above is how I imagine the installation to look. It should exemplify a fairly standard living room.

1. Two computers will sit on the coffee table playing the piece. these computers will be running two different versions of the piece, one from the dvd player in the computer and one will be looping through a playlist created on youtube containing the totality of the piece. The idea behind the computers is that they have replaced the tv for my generation, and this should be acknowledged. Secondly, my message does not need to only exist the television and I believe it is strengthened to exist on multiple platforms.

2. The cluster of televisions will act as the main event. It will exist as not only the means of delivering my message, but the part that will be the most visually intriguing part of the installation. I the multiple tv's signify repetition, excess, variations, and redundancy; all qualities that my project acknowledges.

3. The projector will be mounted on the ceiling, or other vantage point so that it will project on a facade of a window. The projector will also be on its own track as it plays. I plane to put a cross over the lens opening of the projector so it projects into the window into 4 quadrants. The idea behind this is to make it appear that there are window pains.

4. On a side table I will have the piece playing on an Ipod. The viewer can sit down and put headphones on and experience it from that point of view if they wish. This option allows for the viewer to shut themselves off from outside noises and by doing so placing themselves in an environment that plays noises they would never have heard had they been using the ipod out and about the outside environment.

5. The portable radio will set on a table as well and will be playing a track of audio that will add to the audio already embedded in the files. This will be the extra audio I plan to capture that will emulate sounds of the outdoors in transit.

6. Curtains will hang over the window. They are pulled back to let the projector shine on the wall. The curtains can be symbolic of our eyes and ears. It acts as the veil to the outside world, where the media I have captured exists, in the exact form in which I attained it. It is to encourage the viewers to take my message and to go watch outside where it's all happening live.

7. The furniture acts a way to make the viewer feel comfortable. It also places them into a familiar context where everyone knows they have been before. My piece works in the same way, it should be identifiable to the viewer already. I want them to make the connection between the living room, and the outside world, and then make the connection of what it is I'm showcasing to them.

Summary of Final Show

After having done more research on the topic of Video art I’ve been able to narrow in on some important aspects that I had not previously thought through. The primary pieces that I have investigated more closely are footage, audio, and installation.

After creating two music videos I learned a lot about what I was actually interested in. Previously I wanted to capture everyday mundane scenes, this is still so but I decided to refine the qualifications for which shots to use. The shots that were most prevalent from my first collection of footage were shots that focused on objects in transport. This was interesting to me because the majority of the subjects I focused on were moving somewhere. I think these shots look aesthetically the best. An example of this would be planes passing by, trains moving by, people going by and also shots from moving objects like being on/in a plane, train, car, foot etc.

I had to confront this pattern of objects in motion by investigating what it was about it that interested me the most. The conclusion that I came to is that when in transit our view of the world around us becomes extremely shifted. People on public transportation have headphones in and they close their eyes. On planes conversation is usually kept to a minimum to allow passengers to enter a bubble, and a film is played to keep our attention on something. Our patience, our attention to details, and the bubble many of us place ourselves inside to deal with the discomforts connected to transit is what my project will focus on by highlighting the everyday things around us in those scenarios.

My project zooms in on the beauty that can exist in any locale whether urban, suburban, or country. These are the types of places people find themselves traveling through during commutes. To make the piece consistent I decided that I would only capture footage when I was on my way somewhere. This places me on the same level as any other commuter, and the shots I will/have attained will look familiar to people in several similar locales.

In order to maximize my efforts I’ve been trying to frame each shot to look considerably formal and well framed. The shots need to be beautiful themselves in order to not take away from the subject being filmed. This idea is something I feel is related to minimalist photography. By framing something as mundane as a garage door incredibly well, will in effect make that garage door appear more interesting. This is important to me because I want my footage to look quality and help send my message to the viewer.

Audio is another aspect of my project that wasn’t previously acknowledged. For this piece of the project I want to leave the original ambient noise of the shots alone. The natural ambient noise that couples my shots are important because they can tell a lot such as if the scene was crowded, empty, or serene.

Ambient noise will not be the only audio track in my piece. I want to take samplings of conversation, exclamations, shouting that I encounter while I’m working and then place those bits throughout the piece. I think that this will set up a more interesting dialogue between the footage and the audio. I also believe that these everyday sounds will ring true to anyone who has ever been in a similar environment.

For the installation set up I want to have a stack of televisions. Seeing a lot of early video artists use this technique inspired me, considerably Nam June Paik’s Electronic Super Highway. In that piece his has perhaps a hundred televisions all stacked in the shape of the U.S. I think this stacking looks really interesting and it adds a whole new dynamic to my concept.

I had to start researching television as a medium as well as a medium for art to understand the context I would be placing my work. This opened me up to the dialogue many earlier video artists were interested in. The television deals with the idea of consumer culture, corporate control, and what advertisers want us to look at. The television is also a tool for gazing, watching, observing and even mindless staring. I want my presentation to work this way. I feel like the television is such a loaded object in our society that it will not only increase the viewers’ interest but will deliver my message from juxtaposition.

I will place a couch in front of the television stack to increase my message. I think that if they have the provided headphones on, while on a couch in front of multiple screens they may understand what I’m getting at better. They will be transported into my world from the world I’ve physically set up for them. I think this duality will strengthen my message as well as providing a place for them to hopefully make a connection with the intent of my project.

I want people to be reminded to look and absorb their surroundings. People go on vacations to escape their own reality, but I believe simple shifts in the way we look at our current surroundings can improve your day-to-day activities. Their so much beauty in our urban environments that goes unnoticed. Power lines, flashing lights, gutter drains, etc are all man made things, but this does need to make them bad. I want people to look at the world with a sharper eye and zoom in on the intricacies of our man made surroundings and embrace them.

Video Art Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Extensions

The last chapter of this book focuses on the 4th and 5th decades of video art. This chapter looks at artists who create installation works as well as artists who whose styles are associated/ related to film. Rush describes the latter as 'Filmic' art.

Excerpts & Response

"...With digital technologies, the proper qualities of video itself that were so attractive to artists of the 1970s were no longer considered as crucial."

I pulled this excerpt out because I thought it was interesting how the view of the medium shifted from an aesthetic quality, to simply a means of conveying a message. In the 70s when technology was less advanced artists were using the medium itself as a chunk of the overall art piece solely because it was new and different and changed they way people looked at art in general. As the art world adjusted and got comfortable with the medium, the actual medium had to become less important, and the idea and conceptual value of the works increased.

"As Video art enters its fifth, and perhaps final, decade (from 1960s to the present), video, as a medium, is unimportant to artists. They are using whatever means of moving-image technology is available to them and often this means a combination of technologies."

This excerpt is partially related to the previous. Now that technology has improved artists can enhance their message through the production process they go through. By adding more elements to the process, more elements and more styles can be created to express a particular idea.

"[Rodney] Graham's strategies, familiar with the experiments of John Cage in music and Warhol and Brakhage in film, still cast their spell; altering perceptions and placing the viewing experience closer to the realm of dreams than waking life."

This excerpt is describing Grahams' piece Vexation Island. In this video he uses cinemascope, a very expensive branch of 35-mm film. He shoots his film with dolly's and close ups. It is interesting because the subject is asleep on the shore when it starts, he wakes up, shakes a palm tree and a coconut hits him on the head causing him to become unconscious again. It is interesting to use this narrative because it puts a hazy, confused, twist on it without using much effects. By using a high end movie style mixed in with his own intentions creates a very interesting piece.

"Installation art, by its very nature, suggests interactivity. Installation artists make environments for viewers to enter literally, thus creating a physical participation with the work. This in turn expands the perceptual and optical impact of the work. Installations, whether in museums, galleries, storefronts, or on street walls, video-walls, or any other possible surface, extend the experience of the moving image beyond not only the monitor, but also the darkened room."

"...[Doug Aitken]'s work retains a strong American preoccupation with landscape as well as a very contemporary interest in personal identity and time. 'I am constantly piecing things together, finding fragments of information, splicing them, collaging them to create a network of perceptions,' he has said."

"Shadows from candles, snow kicked up by puppies at play, flickering images of running horses on a television set - all add up to a very satisfying viewing experience. According to critic Ulrike Matazer, Consolation Service, 'like all of Ahtila's films, touches upon a fund of shared human experience. the events could take place anywhere. they are both personally and universally applicable. She draws upon styles and effects from such conventional genres of film as the shore feature, the commercial, the documentary, the music video, and the Hollywood fiction, weaving these elements together to form new worlds of images that defy clear categorization'"

This excerpt stood out because I liked the phrases 'the events could take place anywhere' and 'universally applicable.' I watched a clip of this piece and from it I got a sense that my work doesn't look or work like hers but I feel that description above does hold a similarity. I think that the content of my project, since it focuses on daily transport, is one of those universally understood things. My project will be understandable on a wide scale due to the familiarity that most people will have with the subject. I too hope that my shots of daily transport will provide a 'very satisfying viewing experience.'

"Video technology is now in hybrid stage, combining all manner of digital technologies in the creation of what is likely to be a new medium. It is time for video to assume its place as simply a 'filmic' medium, now that the word 'filming' refers to the many ways in which the moving or animated image is created. The golden age for video art took place in the 1990s, when every festival, biennial, contemporary gallery, and alternative space projected videos on to walls, screens, chairs, cathedral ceiling, and everywhere else. it has been done, and, as with cinema, the next phase is to come.

This book was published in 2003, and I feel that he ends it with a sense of, "video is over", and this new cluster- mash up method is the new video. I wont argue that Video art wont evolve, but I feel like Video art will only evolve into more technical means of producing a moving image. This new evolution will take on a new name, like it already has as new media art. Video, in its basic sense will always be a viable option to create art, and when he says it peaked in the 90s I get the sense he is saying the best of times are over. I don't agree with this because video is captivating that no matter how you use it, there will always be evolution branching of the different stages that technology has presented whether it's digging up an old functional porta pak to get that style of video, or shooting hi 8. Just because the medium isn't on the cutting edge of technology does not mean that no more ideas can be filtered through it.

Music Video #2

For this video I decided to work mostly with my at night footage. This gave me a chance to look at a lot of footage I had to skip past during the first video, mainly because that was a day video. This video pushed my experimentation with video, especially in the editing stage, and I think it came out well.

Video Art Chapter 3

Chapter 3- Video and the New Narrative

In this chapter Rush focuses on a handful of artists who work with video in new ways sense the early adoption of the medium. The growth of technology since the 60s has allowed artists to experiment further with their works. Editing practices and manipulations drastically increased on into the 80s and 90s and this chapter focuses on the works of many artists utilizing the possibilities of Video art.

Excerpts & Responses

"Matisse encouraged young artists to discover what story it was they, and they alone, could tell, and to tell it."

This excerpt caught my attention because it is very simple and true. Good work will emerge from an artists own personal ideals, values, interests, and experiences. By sorting through all these items an artist can come to a conclusion to what it is they would like to say, and have a good idea that people will be interested enough to engage. This advice also reaffirmed the direction I have gone in with my own work because I chose my current project for very similar reasons.

"For her, [Mary Lucier] the personal, the political, and the poetic are one. Light and landscape (both internal and external) are metaphors of the essential connection between human beings and their environments. They are also fragile components in cautionary narratives that reveal the destructive underbelly of both nature and the creatures who inhabit this earth."

I liked this passage because a lot my work deals with the human environment. She talks about light and landscape as metaphors but I see them more as blatant truths. A daily interaction with an environment is everyday and commonplace and just is an example of our destructive and, more importantly for me, the beauty that exists in the dark and dingy all the way to the bright and sunny in all different types of landscapes.

"Given [Michal] Rovner's nationality[Israli], associations with images of Holocaust prisoners and other victims of war come easily to mind. Rovner, however, refuses to be specific about the meaning of her work, preferring to allow her seamless mixture of realism and abstraction to address universal emotions."

I thought this passage was interesting because she does not want to explain her work. I can appreciate that stance, while at the same time feel at odds with it. I think that it would be nice to create a piece of work and not give an explanation for it, to just let the viewer interpret it as they wish and take and what they will from it. In a way it becomes accessible to anyone. Conversely though, I think it is important to give a viewer an insight to your intentions. This way, your intent is made clear and gives the viewer a vague guide as how to take it in. This seems more important to me when dealing with conceptual art because the focus is primarily on the idea, and if the viewer isn't guided enough, they might not take what you intended them to take. This could be a good or bad thing depending on your stance.

"'Post-production,' 'digital manipulations,' high-definition volumetric display,' 'film to video transfers,' these are not phrases associated with the early years of Video art. For artists like Rovner and virtually all other contemporary artists working with video, the medium is definitely not the message. There is nothing of particular interest about the flatness of video or even the real-time aspect of video as there had been in the last 1960s. Video, along with music and basic communication (the telephone, the computer) has gone digital. ...Video art, as constituent part of the history (albeit recent history) of art, is slipping away from the grasp of art history as it has been known. It will not disappear from galleries and international exhibitions in the near future, but it will not be long before it will be beyond the grasp of current art-historical languages. Already Video art has become a subsection of Filmic art, a term better suited to the actual practice of most media artists today."

I thought this final paragraph of the chapter summarized the landscape of Video art well. The explanation of how Video art is becoming more distanced from art history was satisfying to read because I agree. It is very difficult to compare video works and installations to the early masters and it gives me the sense that Video art has tumbled into its own little bubble in the art world. Here the rules can be drastically different from other mediums because of its uniqueness and broad applications.

Video Art (Chapter 2. Part 2)

Video Art and the Conceptual Body pt. 2

Key notes from chapter

The second half of this chapter focuses primarily on female performance/ video artists as well as a few male artists working in similar fashions.

As artists further explored the possibilities of video, many found it quite useful for documenting performance pieces. The video camera also began to interact with performances such is the case with the work of Charles Atlas who created "mediadance." This type of dance takes advantage of the camera and integrates it into the work in order to change the standard perception of the recorded performance.

The amount of artists working with installation based video art increased at this time. This media gave them the opportunity to further develop ideas and present them in more controlled situations.

Excerpts

"Rist juxtaposes the narrative of a smartly dressed young woman walking down the street holding a peculiar looking flower-tipped stick on one screen with fluidly filmed shots of a country garden on the other. The two videos, blending into one another across the corner of two walls, are only four minutes long, but Rist puts them on a continuously running loop that suggests a seamless repetition of her compelling (and funny) central image: the woman, in her blue chiffon dress and red shoes, suddenly wielding that strange looking flower, now revealed to be a metal club, and smashing car windows as she skips (in slow motion) down the street with a delighted grin on her face." on Pipilotti Rist's Ever is over All '97

"The pervasive emphasis on Performance in contemporary video is undeniable. The 2001 Venice Biennale, heralded by some, deplored by others, as 'the Video Biennale,' contained a plethora of video installations, most of them performative by nature. ...Performative influences will only grow stronger as artists of our era continue to concentrate on ideas more than materials. Materials are in service to ideas, which... makes materials, even video, secondary concerns in the practice of art."

Artist to further investigate

Pipilotti Rist

Video Art (Chapter 2. Part 1)

Chapter 2- Video and the Conceptual Body

Keynotes from chapter

Robert Raushenberg was one of the earlier artists to guide art towards new frontiers. He did a piece with John Cage entitled Automobile Tire Print. This piece helped introduce the idea of the "everyday" as being art. The print from this project was created by covering the tire of Cage's Ford Model A tire with paint. They then drove over a row of papers laid out to make the print.

This idea of the "everyday" is also exemplified in Cage's 4:33 piece. In this work an audience awaits to hear the performance. A pianists sits down, opens the piano, and sits for 4 minutes 33 seconds. The piece becomes the sound of the environment all the persons in the room are sharing. Coughs, laughs, shuffling, all become part of the work which is about highlighting this concept of the everyday.

The Actionists were also important for video art in that they took their videos in a more dangerous direction with the intention to outrage the viewer. To give a better sense of dangerous, many their films involved the slaughtering of animals, or images of animals and people drenched in blood. Their movement helped push video art into more experimental realms and increased the boundaries of the movement.

Excerpts from the chapter

"In the early days of video 3 types of artist/ practitioners emerged: those who used video to create alternatives to television; activists drawn to the community and mass appeal of video technology; and artist who saw video as an extension of their artistic practice."

"...Intra-art issues began to dominate early on. They included ideas important to all artists of the mid 1960's and beyond: the dematerialized art object; time as a medium in art; use of industrial materials and technology in making art; the abandonment of traditional boundaries between painting and sculpture; the introduction of everyday objects into the work of art; the intermingling of several artistic disciplines, including painting, dance, sculpture, music, theater, photography and video."

"..What is essential to the practice of art is the motivating idea possessed by the artist that questions existing codes or expressions, both in the world of art and in the culture at large."

Artists to further investigate

Carolee Schneemann, Adrian Piper, Sophie Calle, VALIE EXPORT, Ulay, Robert Wilson, Martha Roser, Steve McQueen, Beryl Korot, Juan Downey, [FluxFilm]-Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Dick Higgins, Wolf Vostell, [Actionists]- Hermann Nitsch, Otto Muehl, Kurt Kren.

Video Art (a book by Michael Rush, 2003)

Keynotes from chapter one "Shaping a History"

Video art embraces all significant art ideas- abstract, conceptual, minimal, performance, pop art, photography, and digital art.

It is an art of time. Time can be manipulated and used as a medium in and of itself.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti stated in his manifesto 'La Radia' that the radio based technology (television) would replace film and abolish time and space.

Bruce Kurtz stated "Newness, intimacy, immediacy, involvement and a sense of the present tense, are all characteristics of the television medium."

McLuhan- The Media is the Message (I will expand on this in a later post)

Excerpts from the chapter-

"At the birth of Video art, artist turned the camera on themselves (another crucial distinction from television) or on others to investigate new meanings of time and identity or to create new definitions of space and perception in a gallery setting."

"Television is a medium of desire: it creates dreams, answers dreams, sells dreams. It promises to reflect viewers back to themselves, but it ends up bouncing back what they long to see."

Artists to further investigate-

Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, William Anastasi, Woody & Steina Vasulka, Ed Emshwiller, Dan Sandin, Keith Sonnier, Shuya Abe, Robert Zagone, Eric Siegel, Ture Sjolander, Lars Weck, Bengt Modin, Lynn Hershman, Granular Synthesis, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Jeffery Shaw, Matthew Barney, & Jean Luc Godard.

Music Video

After researching music videos I decided it would be a good idea to make one myself. I used footage that I have been collecting over the semester in order to better familiarize myself with the footage. I noticed that the majority of my footage was focusing on transport. The footage that was being captured from a moving vantage point, or of something in transport, seemed to work the best as far as being visually captivating. This is something I want to further investigate and have it play an important part in the finished project.

A Genealogy of Video- Paul Ryan

In this article Paul Ryan explains how he viewed one genealogy of video. He explains that this account is not the genealogy of video but a genealogy of video. He breaks up his topic (is video moving towards social change or art) into five sections: technological, theoretical, political, institutional, and cultural.

Marshall Mcluhan’s work is mentioned often in this section. He believed that the technologies of communication, not economics, are the keys to social change. This idea also functioned in the sense that it would incorporate minorities frequently disregarded such as teenagers, elderly, and ethnic minorities. McLuhan felt that artists were “the antennae of the race” meaning they were the ones capable of utilizing new technologies and deciding how they would be integrated into society.

In 1970 Nelson Rockefeller, governor of New York at the time, increased the arts budget from 2 million to 20 million. Knowing that many of the wealthy operated within the art world, Rockefeller donated to several arts-related places to insure popularity among the class and improve chances for re-election. The amount of money was so much in comparison that a handful of video groups got nice chunks of funding to continue pursuing the new medium of video. Many of these groups felt that video was directly connected to social change and thus, the new money would aid in this goal.

The groups Videofreex, Raindance, People’s Video Theatre and Global Village were the main groups to compete for the ½ million being allocated to the video arts at this time. The trading of information, equipment, and work was done so on a gift basis. With so much money flowing, many people within these groups felt that an open exchange was the best way for going about their work. As time went on though funding for the arts decreased and many of these groups broke apart. The funding had begun to shift to larger institutions or individual artists.

The cultural aspect of this genealogy looks out how video began to integrate with broadcast television. At the time this did not happen so much, television was used to broadcast shows and news and stayed on a commercial basis. Don West, who was the assistant to the president of CBS met David Cort and Parry Teasdale at Woodstock. This meeting ended up allocating the two artists to document the experience at Woodstock and to take their product back to CBS. CBS was not enthralled when they saw the footage, did not want anything to do with it, and eventually fired West. This example shows the differences in overall goals between the artist and the media- social change and art vs. commercialism.

This paper was written in 1985 and is an important note to make. Ryan concludes by saying that with the evolution of the computer it will shift previous interest in video to the computer, as it exists now as the forefront of technology.

Original Source

Commercial Entertainment or Art: A Look at Two Forms of Video

This is a research paper I wrote for a writing class. I chose the topic in order to gain additional knowledge on the subject I'm already researching.

Commercial Entertainment or Art: A Look at Two Forms of Video

Should it make logical sense to compare professionally made music videos to artistic video pieces? The medium of video exists in several different sects besides just music video and video art. A few of these other categories are films, short films, documentary, Internet content, etc. Knowing that video sprouted from advances in photography it is fair to assume that all the sub categories of video production in use today are cousins of the same family. It is also logical to assume that their heritages are not their only commonality. Conversely, as observers we are preconditioned to view a certain genre of video in a particular way, depending on what the type of video is being consumed. The cause of this phenomenon is related to the video’s attributes, venue, and use of technological advances. The similarities and differences that exist between the music video and the video art piece is what will be further investigated.

The history of video and its evolution leads me to believe a strong correlation exists between the music video and the video art piece. The origins of video date back to early advances in photography and new developments in technology that allowed for content to be displayed. Such was the cases in Edward Muybridge’s photo sequences of a horse galloping that eventually lead to the early short films of the Lumiere brothers. As the medium advanced over the years film production improved, and with the advent of television the medium became more accessible to viewers. Michael Rush, the author of the book “Video Art” explains that in 1965 video technology became available to the public through Sony Corporations Portapak video camera and that people outside the industry now were able to start utilizing the media in new ways spurring a new revolution in art. (Rush 7). During this time the Fluxus and Pop Art movements were in full swing and were quick to take advantage of the new technology. From this time on a significant divide in video production appeared: commercial intent verse creative intent.

Music videos and video artworks are key examples of this new divide. Although they are created for different reasons they each share a lot in common. Each style aims at engaging a viewer in a visual experience. Each of these styles can exist in a multitude of genres, especially each other’s. A music video can resemble a piece of video art and a video artwork can resemble a music video, but in either case each video piece would still remain true to their individual sects. An example of this relationship can be seen in the work of David Hall’s 1971 Tap Piece [Fig. 1] and in Michel Gondry’s 2003 music video Star Guitar [Fig. 2]. Each video is short in length and each video utilizes a still shot. In Tap Piece the viewer sees a faucet filling a clear plastic container with water. Once the water fills to the top the video ends. In Star Guitar, The shot is also still but appears to be shot from the window of a moving train. Each video is also absent of a plot and narrative. This quality is important because it is one that makes the relationship between music videos and video art pieces exclusive from the rest of the video family.

The two genres both encompass very similar styles when it comes to the rules and goals of the content. Both videos in the examples listed are very mundane and each one zooms in on typically boring scenery. By closing in on simplicity the directors are asking the viewers to look further into them, and past the obviousness of the visuals. Each of the genres aims is to provoke thought and emotion through the use of aesthetics. They also obtain the ability to exist in any manner the director or artist wants them to. This freedom of creative control gives each style the ability to be as avant-garde or experimental as they like and they often overlap in editing styles, and obscurity. In most cases, when viewing these genres, the stranger they are the better.

Putting visual aesthetics aside leaves the two genres at odds. Marsha Kinder, a professor of film at the University of Southern California states that music videos adopted the conventions of the TV commercial by copying its visual style, utilizing background music, short-format, and fast montage (Kinder 5).” Noting that music videos were a birth child of advertising is key. Commercial interest normally causes the viewer to be cautious, knowing that the production group wants to sell you something. This changes the way the viewer will ingest what they are viewing and how they will feel about it. MTV was clever and managed to disguise this aspect, and by doing so, became the media giants that they are. According to Kinder everything on MTV is a commercial including their advertising spots, news section, station ID’s, interviews, and most importantly the music video clips (Kinder 5). MTV has been able to charge record companies money to air music videos that would promote bands on their labels. Essentially MTV has been playing advertisements and cutting away only to play more advertisements.

It is ironic to note that many early adopters of the Sony Portapak were using the newly available format to react against television’s commercial interest with the medium and wanted to see other aspects of video culture represented on the platform. Television’s response to the art movement was to incorporate the aesthetic values of the video art world in order to create fast, compelling content that sold a product. With the exception of a few public access channels this is the closest television comes to airing video art. Fine video art does not exist on television, but instead within actual art spaces.

The space in which a viewer consumes media is as important as the media itself. The location determines a targeted audience and will attract a particular audience depending on the venue. This represents another main difference between music videos and video artworks. As already determined, music videos air on television and thus

“…Producers presume a television viewer, a domestic, rather than a public being. Even when shown in public venues (typically in clubs and bars), it forms part of the fabric of activity including socializing, dancing, and conversation, and does not command sustained and exclusive attention (Allan 8).”

A public space therefore is not the most suitable place to air a video if sales are the main objective. Commonly a viewer would see a music video while at home and would most likely not conjure up any deep thoughts of meaning or analysis due to the passive nature of the television experience. Consider though that the same video viewed from home was being presented on the wall of a gallery in the context that it is a piece of art. Immediately, without thinking, the viewer’s reaction to viewing the content would be different because the venue suggests there is a deeper message.

David Hall’s Tap Piece managed to mimic this effect but with the situation slightly altered. His video Tap Piece was part of a series entitled TV Interruptions and was created to interrupt a broadcasted television show at some random point during the programming. Hall had the good fortune of being in public during one of the airings and described his experience. “The TV was permanently on but the occupants were oblivious to it, reading newspapers or dozing. When the TV began to fill with water newspapers dropped, the dozing stopped (Hartney).” Since people shifted their attention to the television at the point Hall’s video aired made him view it as a success. Since the video art was being aired in an unlikely venue, that alone caused interest from the patrons as they noticed the foreignness of the content.

As technology has advanced over the years these locations and outlets are becoming less important in respect to the content they showcase. According to Charles Moffat the new capabilities of digital reproduction places the advertising of original works by amateur artists on the same ground as professional artists because the technology has leveled the playing field (Moffat).” This quality is important because it changes the experience of the media consumer. A person can look up fine art videos, and begin to perceive them as if they would in a physical gallery. Similarly music videos could be looked up for personal enjoyment as well as if they were airing on television. Conversely though the viewer will not always be sure that a video’s intent is for artistic expression or for commercial entertainment. This knew convergence of media is crucial and has brought the two genres much closer. Star Guitar represented the beginning of this convergence where a very experimental director chose to make music videos because of the creativity they allow. This same idea has carried forward but more so on this new platform. An example of this evolution in video can be seen in the 2009 music video Ready, Able. Allison Schulnik, a graduate of fine arts in experimental animation, directed the video for the band Grizzly Bear. Each entity of this collaboration were not entirely well known, but the coupling of talented persons gave each party more exposure and access to a larger fan base. The Internet has become a do-it-yourself locale and with the lack of music videos being aired on the television, small bands such as Grizzly Bear are able to do by pass gatekeepers and create works that do not necessarily have to focus on artistic or commercial gains, but simply to create art in general.

Before the growth of technology content of this type was only available on television to generate money or within public galleries to promote thought, culture and new ideas. With new media these obvious signifiers of intent have now meshed into one place and it has become harder and harder to understand what separates videos like Star Guitar and Ready, Able from Tap Piece. Investigating formal qualities, locales of viewing, and technological advances of music videos and video artworks has made it clearer why the genres are so drastically different while at the same time very similar. After examining theses two styles closer and considering the present state of each one, it still makes sense to differentiate the two as separate sects of the video world. Although technology continues to advance and artworks continue to push towards new ideas and styles the differences between the two genres will become less significant and our ability to see these differences will become less important when it comes to our overall understanding of them.

Works Cited
Allan, Blain. "Musical Cinema, Music Video, Music Television." Film Quarterly 43.3 (1990): 2-14. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .Hartney, Mick. "Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art." LuxOnline. LuxOnline. Web. 20 Feb. 2010. .Kinder, Marsha. "Music Video and the S

pectator: Television, Ideology and Dream." Film Quarterly 38.1 (1984): 2-15. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .Moffat, Charles A. "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction." The Art History Archive. Feb. 2005. Web. 5 Mar. 2010. .Rush, Michael. Video Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Print.

Fig 1. David Hall, Tap Piece, Video, 1971
Youtube.com 2010.

Fig 2. Michele Gondry, Star Guitar, Video, 2005
Youtube.com 2010