Video Art Work-To-Date 2/4/13

Forward Motion (2013)

by Mike Zeile

1 minute 46 seconds

Digital Video

A study of motion in video. Moving ahead/forward is the centerpiece, trying to test the limits of the viewer's comfortability with repetition. All clips came from found footage.

https://soundcloud.com/mike-zeile/easy-listening

Easy Listening (2013)

by Mike Zeile

1 minute 38 seconds

Audio/Soundscape

An audio experience that attempts to tell a story using only sound effects and musical tones.

Queen Kong (2013)
by Meghan O'Bryan and Mike Zeile
29 seconds
Digital Video

A chroma-key experiment of Meghan O'Bryan seemingly crawling upward on a skyscraper as clouds briskly float by.

"I'm finished." (2013)

by Mike Zeile

1920x1080

Animated GIF

A simplistic GIF (cinemagraph) taken from the final scene of the film There Will Be Blood (2007). In terms of context, this scene shows the aftermath of a once powerful oil tycoon, Daniel Plainview, in the early 1900s who has just murdered his rival with nothing but a bowling pin. Once he's done beating his rival to a pulp he takes one last breath and utters, "I'm finished."

Negativland and Martha Rosler

Although both articles are about appropriation within artworks, they each seem to have a different mood. Negativland is more about the restrictions of modern day appropriation in the context of musical remixes, video appropriation, and other media outlets. They have a radical look at appropriation almost seeming outraged at the current laws that govern the use of media in artworks. The article goes through when appropriation first started being used and how it is used now. Negativland is appalled by all the obstacles one must jump over to get even a small "sample" to mess around and create with. They propose an idea on how to change the "Fair Use" laws so that artists can have more freedom to create.

The Martha Rosler article had a little more experience behind it. She started doing war collages in the late 60's and became highly regarded in the art community and also disliked by many others. The article goes deep into the process and reason behind her work. She uses a very simple medium of "cut-and-paste" art that has a certain innocence along with it. She's not using a song someone made or a scene from a film, she's simply cutting pictures from old magazines and pasting them on new backgrounds to create new meaning. Her worked sparked controversy but seemed to open people's eyes to the Vietnam War, what was actually happening, and how the mass population consumed this information. She eventually creates more collections of collage work for wars after the 60's and 70's, most recently, the Iraq War. Rosler has been in the appropriation game for a long time and seems to be a positive influence on the medium as a whole.