800 Word Video Report

Present an 800 word report on your blog in which you compare and contrast the technique and style of video installations by Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Sam Taylor-Wood & the three installations we visited at: • Tate Modern – Juan Downey ‘Video Trans America’ • BFI Gallery – Mat Collishaw ‘Retrospectre’ • Barbican (Curve) – Celeste Boursier-Mougenot bird installation You need to cover the: • Technology and techniques used (and how in different decades different technology is used, as it is invented and becomes affordable) • The ‘Style’ of the video installation • Whether it is narrative / ‘non’ narrative • How the exhibition space is used to create meaning Make comparisons between the artists e.g. Sam Taylor-Wood is influenced by painting whereas Nam June Paik is interested in video as a sculptural form and his art is also in some ways “about” Television as a medium…

USE PLENTY OF IMAGES AND VIDEO TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR REPORT THE FOLLOWING 2 SLIDES BREAK DOWN IN DETAIL HOW YOU NEED TO WRITE THE REPORT DUE IN ON THE 24TH MAY – 2 weeks today

You need to link PAST AND PRESENT PRACTITIONERS – i.e. the artists To the TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES they have used.

The artist needs to FILM, EDIT and EXHIBIT their artwork What technology have they used?

Firstly decide if it is either: Digital Analogue Think about the cameras they may have used (to FILM the footage) The editing technology (to EDIT the footage) And how they have exhibited it (to EXHIBIT the finished artwork) CHANGING TECHNOLOGY OFTEN LEADS TO CHANGING TECHNIQUES Give the date that the artwork was made and link this to the techniques and technology they used – the type of technology and how they present the work is related to the decade it was made in – e.g. in the 70s video cameras had just become affordable to the general public e.g. In the 2000s projectors are very cheap now and much smaller than they used to be – so it is affordable to use multiple projection and easier because of the size – and the quality is much improved…

In the 2000s Plasma screens mean artists can now place the screen on a wall – like a painting instead of having to use large monitors on plinths (like Juan Downey in Tate Modern)

STYLES Is the video installation presented as: - a 'moving photo', or does it have a ‘narrative’ like TV shows / films - a multi channel or single channel installation , - projection, or is it presented on monitors (TV sets), - time lapse/stop motion/speeded up (compressed time), real time, or expanded time (slow motion), -how is sound used in the installation – is there music, dialogue or silence?

NARRATIVE/NON-NARRATIVE – Is there a ‘story’?

What is the content of the artwork? ...actors...animals...objects...?

How is the “narrative” or “non-narrative” presented to us USE OF EXHIBITION SPACE TO CREATE MEANING – You can walk in and around and be ‘surrounded’ by video screens or TV monitors….

You may be asked to sit and watch a large scale projection You can walk up to a piece on a wall and walk away as you would a painting or photo AUDIENCE Who is the audience? Mainstreamers or not? Why/why not?

Much contemporary art is weird and therefore not mainstream…

How might audiences react to some of the art? They might think it is ‘rubbish’ and walk away, they might be shocked or disgusted by some, or they might think it’s boring…

Bruce Nauman “Video corridor” 1970 http://bridell.com/live-taped-video-corridor-1970/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IrqXiqgQBo&feature= PlayList&p=0369314C259B5268&playnext_from=PL&index=3

“Clown torture” 1987 – http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Modern/pages/MOD_11.shtml http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=YorcQscxV5Y&feature=PlayList&p=0369314C259B5268&playnex t_from=PL&index=5

Bruce Nauman, “Anthro-Socio”, 1992 http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/anthro-socio/ http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=cxmm16gqRis&feature=PlayList&p=0369314C259B5268&playnext_from=PL&index=4

On three projection surfaces and six monitors, one sees the head of a man shown in different takes. While continually revolving about his own axis, in a variety of tonalities he sings «FEED ME/ EAT ME/ ANTHROPOLOGY,» «HELP ME/ HURT ME/ SOCIOLOGY,» and «FEED ME, HELP ME, EAT ME, HURT ME».In order to grasp the full effect of the installation «Anthro/Socio,» the space has to be entered. The calls heard from different directions irritate as much as the contradictory demands, aimed at the simplest of bodily needs and questioning them at the same time. The repetition of the alarming singsong, and multiple video shots of the singer, also create a disturbing moment. In «Anthro/ Socio,» not only because of the all-encompassing sensual experience does the viewer become part of the artwork; the installation also encourages viewers to give thought to the inherent qualities of subjects and objects, and to human beings in society.

Nam June Paik “TV Cello” 1971 It was Paik's intention to create "an instrument that could produce pictures as well as sound" (Stooss, 1993: 134).The work consisted of television sets mounted upon each other to resemble the body of a cello. Affixed to this creation was the neck, string and bridge of a real cello, and together with electronic pickups, it was playable. In addition to producing sound, the pickups of the cello also transmitted electronic signals to the television screens, which not only played live images of the performance as it was connected to video cameras, but also other prerecorded images as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTrny-oHyno&feature=related

Video Flag , 1986 Nam June Paik, one of the foremost video artists in the world, was among the very first to use video as an art medium. From the outset Paik regarded video as much a sculptural medium as a programmatic one. It was not just the screen image that interested him but the This arrangement of eighty-four television television set itself—its tubes sets mimics the format of the American flag. and electronic innards, its Through electronic programming, the everluminous screen surface, its changing images flicker in a dazzling array cabinetry—which he took across the zones of stars and stripes. This apart, rearranged, and put work is one of an edition of three video back together in elaborate “flags” that Paik has created. multi-set constructions http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=bw38FUMknGc&feature=PlayList&p=0369314C259B5268&playnext_from=P L&index=6 http://www.weta.org/video/individual/Vi deo+Flag+Nam+June+Paik

Sam Taylor-Wood “Still Life” 2001 http://www.ubu.com/film/tw_still.html

Sam Taylor-Wood “A Little Death” 2002 http://www.ubu.com/film/tw_death.html