“indeterminacy” in Monteverdi
July 9, 2010 | Filed Under Blog | Leave a Comment
Monteverdi wrote instructions in his “Sfogava con le stella” indicating the singers to figure out the rhythm themselves (sort of like sprechstimme).
Interning Currents2010 (video art show) – a documentation
July 8, 2010 | Filed Under Blog, video art | Leave a Comment
A few weeks ago, I packed my car and drove from Denton, TX to Santa Fe, NM to help setup Currents2010, a video art gallery open to the public for almost 10 days (June 18-27). During its opening, 2000 people traveled through the free exhibit to see video art from the available 82 artists’ work presented.
I arrived to Santa Fe Sunday evening (June 13). Monday morning, Jordan Glazer, a colleague and fellow intern, and I met our professor, David Stout, and the other member of the Noisefold duo, Cory Metcalf, at the Center for Contemporary Arts (photo) where they rehearsed for their June 19th concert. We promptly drove to El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe to get acquainted with the volunteers setting up Currents2010 and begin work. It was apparent right off that the artists and volunteers setting up the show had an incredible work ethic and were all very friendly and courteous. I came to find out a few days later, while interviewing Mariannah Amster and Frank Ragano (the curators of Currents2010 and founders of Parallel Studios), that the kind atmosphere was not a product of chance. Frank and Mariannah explained that they did not include artists in the show solely based on their work. They received enough entries through Rhizome that they made it a point to know an artist personally, via email and Skype, before accepting them into the show. Frank and Mariannah find it very important to keep personal contact with each person involved in their projects: everyone is treated equally (volunteers, exhibit visitors, artists, etc.) which means emails, phone calls, texts, etc. are always answered immediately = everyone is important. Because Currents2010 had a very limited budget and most artists would be traveling to Santa Fe to setup their own work, Frank and Mariannah wanted to make sure everyone would get along well and have an enjoyable time together. Frank has no problem with words like “entertainment” and “fun” as other “snooty” (that was my word) artist may. The point of putting on a show like Currents2010 is to provide entertainment (a good time!) in addition to education, so people enjoy themselves while experiencing new things.
In the interview with Frank and Mariannah, we got into a conversation about the current art world. They are both interested in changing the current mentality of the stereotypical art world by providing another option. That conversation made the distinction between many of the galleries I had visited during my stay in Santa Fe. It is sad that some organizations cater to donors and put on an air of elitism. Art can easily become a privileged “object” reserved for the rich and scholarly rather than for all to experience and enjoy. I was blown off at one gallery by an artist that obviously thought I was an inferior, but I felt very welcome at other galleries (such as meow wolf) that seemed excited to have a “the public” visit their work.
I was fortunate to talk to many artists and organizers like Frank and Mariannah during my time in Santa Fe, but Monday morning (June 14) Jordan and I began to setup our own professor’s work, and installation piece by Stout and Metcalf called “iIi“. One of the best parts of my Santa Fe experience was seeing how different artists and builders displayed the work. Frank, an artist and contractor, had devised an idea of hanging projectors from the 22-foot ceiling using metal piping supported by c-clamping a mount he welded to the building’s frame. Frank generously gave Jordan and I three of the welded mounts, but we had to go to the hardware store for pipe and c-clamps. Because he specially made wooden plates to mount any projector mount on allow for the placement of a DVD player above the projector (photo), we had to come up with another solution for our projectors: a simple plastic PVC pipe adapter attached to our proprietary projector mounts (photo).
Once “iIi” was installed and VGA cable problems were troubleshot, Jordan and I began helping install other works by running power and audio cables, hanging projectors and screens, and painting walls and divisions. It was helpful to me, as someone looking toward curating one day, to see and work with many artists’ solutions to material onto which to project. Three artists chose to project onto material that could be viewed from either side, a great solution to an open space such as that of El Museo: Jim Coker’s “Kingfisher” (photo), the Vasulkas’ and Rob Shaw’s “untitled” (photo), and Carlisle’s and Hamilton’s “Displacements” (photo). Many of the artists’ work were projected onto gator board (a thick, very reflective foam core board), which could be cut to fit most of the artists’ needs (here is an example: Hisao Ihara’s “Continuum” during installation). One of the most interesting materials on which an artist projected was glass. Robert Campbell projected onto five glass circles hung in a row with matte rings forming what looked like a target (photo of installing the work, photo with projections). Campbell’s work was very compelling and memorizing to watch. One needs to get a full explanation of the work from Campbell’s point of view in order to fully realize it (it has to do with genetics and yellow florescent proteins). Another interesting method of projection was seen in Robert Drummond’s work “Projection Anaphoric” in which he projected from the ceiling (photo) onto the floor (photo). What the viewer sees is a morphed video on the floor corrected visually by a cylindrical mirror (photo).
Overall, I was able to see a larger variety of video art than I had ever seen before. Frank and Mariannah expressed to me that they consciously decided not to give Currents2010 a theme so they could present a large variety of works. I would have liked to have seen more interactive works; the two Currents2010 did have, Dr. Whoohoo!‘s “Walking Threw Dandelions” (photo) and the Vasulka’s “untitled” (photo), were great pieces and the virtual graffiti (photo) outside was a great touch though. One could spend hours in the Currents2010 exhibit trying to view all the works. Not only were there a few projectors showing more than one work such as Hillerbrand+Magsamen’s “Four Place Setting” (photo), but there were screening rooms (photo) showing single channel works ranging from those of high school students to those of professional video artists. The unique and inspiring ideas, such as Novakova’s prisms (photo) and David Webber’s cathode ray four channel piece (photo), provided an additional angle to video art to soak in.
If you want to get a better feel for what Currents2010 was like, go through my flickr album embedded above. I included the map of the exhibit and reference the letter labels on the map in my descriptions below each picture when applicable.
For my own record and further study: Some artists I talked to during my stay told me to look up the following = Gary Hill (video artist), David Jones (video synth), Janet Cardiff (sound installation), artbots (art robot competition), Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass film), Joanne Lefrak (scratched glass), Douglas Henderson (sound artist), Michael Snow (tracking shot), Patrick Wilkanowski (longue ???), and David Lynch (specifically Mulholland Drive).