Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Video Art Thinks Big: That’s Showbiz (reflection)


This article was interesting in the sense that it introduced the radically modern and daring sort of video art that is sweeping museums. I watched excerpts of Ryan Trecartin’s “I-Be Area,” and let me say that I have never seen anything like it. The video was visually overwhelming and absurd to the point of being annoying. I'm having an extremely difficult time seeing the "artistry" of the video though I do appreciate its uniqueness. It really takes that literal expectation that comes with film (and photography) and adds a surrealistic dimension to the medium, one that should be appreciated for its revolutionary stride towards altering the intent and affect that video has on an audience. Strangeness in video art is described as an attractive factor, because it provides us with a break from the type of video we are used to seeing, which is mostly news or reality television. Because of their narrative nature, video art has a great opportunity for commentary through a narrative setup- a narrative that is permitted to exist within a timeline that the video provides. Whereas a painting or a sculpture exist in and of themselves and are somewhat static creations, there is no single way of representing a video through any other means than seeing it in its entirety. These modern video artists really are "making art that runs by a different clock," and "does things that objects can’t do."

2 comments:

  1. I find it a little obnoxious that video artists are striving to be outlandish in oder to catch viewers' attentions. Should we really be rewarding or commending them? Most of the videos are extremely hard to relate to because the subject matter is something completely unrealistic or is presented in such a way that is hard to grasp. I think video artist should try to be more relatable. I do however appreciate video as an art form. As you said its hard to grasp the artists intentions without seeing the whole video. this is extremely different from other mediums,

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  2. Video artists really do have the ability to stop the clock, at the same time, I do agree that they should se this power to create videos that we can relate to better as an audience. Merely creating visual pieces in which the viewer is left confused or in anticipation is a form of waste. This is why I very much enjoy works that are comical or multi media. Multimedia works enable the viewer to better understand the artists intentions and are more interactive.

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