Outward Ho!
The Re’Search (Re’Search Wait’s) by Ryan Trecartin
http://vimeo.com/trecartin/videos/sort:date
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2011/jul/27/making-word-ryan-trecartin-poet/
The Re’Search Wait’s is one piece of Ryan Trecartin’s seven room video installation at MoMA PS1. The show was my first introduction to Trecartin’s phenomenal work, and it left a lasting impression. I loved the small details, the minute and eclectic ways each installation was prepared in order to fully immerse the viewer in the work. The Re’Search Wait’s is one video (along with another that satirized and deconstructed tween culture which I unfortunately can not remember) that really struck me. The themes in this 40 min video include consumerism, the artifice of reality t.v. , internet culture and it’s increasing omnipresence in our daily lives, globalism, and other issues relevant to our changing society due to new technology. All of his videos are mesmerizing, convoluted masses of imagery and garbled language that contain such accurate reflections and critiques on contemporary life. Check it out!
MySpace Intros on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=EBF5D6DC4589D7B7
This is a collection of MySpace Intros (hahah remember when you had a MySpace?) and I think they are really interesting! I can’t quite remember this being a trend, but apparently some people would upload videos that were supposed to help strangers on their page get to know them better. Ironically, however, one of the most fascinating aspects of these videos is the glaring visibility of their virtual personae. Sometimes when you browse Facebook or any other social networking site of your choosing, you get a very strong sense that whoever these people actually are, it’s the person in the staged photos, videos, and scripted comments they’ve graciously chosen to share online. Each of these videos are awkward and sometimes painful to watch, and although the individuals attempt originality, they all blur together into desperate plea after desperate plea for people comment or post or whatever. I think they poignantly show the difficulty of conveying a factual and unique representation of self on the impassive internet.
The Entire Adobe Museum of Digital Art
The Adobe Museum of Digital Art will be the world’s first virtual art museum created with the mission of preserving and presenting incredible new media art. It is ridiculous. It is crazy. It isn’t even finished yet, and I love it. When I initially stumbled upon the website I thought, “wow, how awesome, I can’t wait to actually visit once the construction is completed!” And when I saw the featured white spiral building, I mused, “Hmm, this looks cool! But…how…can that be built??” O Adelaide, you simpleton, you fool! Little did she know that she was already IN the museum! So. I’m excited. Over the summer the site had a few really neat interactive projects, but I’ve been buzzing around and haven’t been able find them again. BUT. It’s going to be great.
Hi Adelaide,
Thanks for this. I have three remarks:
— Please learn how to embed youtube and vimeo videos directly into the blog. It makes it much easier to appreciate your discoveries when they can be previewed directly next to your remarks.
— Your selections are mostly of “collections” (the intros, the adobe museum, trecartin’s collected works) rather than individual artworks. It’s great that these collections are inspiring to you; now dig down and commit to picking apart a specific project by a person or collective.
— Digital culture is a very broad space, and includes everything from video and performance art, to computational works. The subject of our particular course is the use of code and other engineering techniques as means of artistic expression. While Trecartin is unquestionably a very interesting artist, and the mySpace videos are interesting too, you don’t need to take this course to learn how to talk in front of a video camera. Try looking through some of the provided links to find artworks made by means you don’t already understand.