http://www.slideshare.net/georgeA23/pitch-for-experimental

link to pitch

Brief for experimental

You’re given the task of creating an idea and a pitch for an experimental piece, your experimental piece should have a message on a topic close to you and you should use video installation to emphasize your meaning.

Video Installation Essay

Video installation is a key part to video art, when video art is made it needs to be shown as art is shown in exhibits and specific locations, unlike other video entertainment pieces which can be viewed anywhere to get the effect they are after because of this you will rarely find video installation art online as the artist wants them to be seen at an exhibition so you can get the full effect of the art. One of the most common strategies used for video installation is the use and manipulation of where the art is being shown to create a greater effect and to emphasize certain emotions.

One of the first and most influential video artists to date is Nam June Paik. Nam June Paik was heavily influence by Western composer called John Cage who wanted to create pure sound by deconstructing western music, Paik took these ideas of purifying art and deconstructing art to its basics and used them on performance arts pieces and later on video art. Through Paik’s work and his determination to work against mainstream conventions and media pioneering lead to the doors for video as an art form. Some of Paik’s originally pieces of work included scattering televisions around and then using magnets to distort their images, this is an example of video installation as in order for you to watch this performance you had to be there in the room at the time.  

A more recent influential experimental artist is Chris Cunningham who is an English video artist who has had many video art pieces from art installations, short films and music videos.  Cunningham mainly works alongside his friends band Aphex Twin when making music videos and has made a number of their videos. One of their more popular music videos is Windowlicker that was directed by Cunningham and is a ten-minute parody of American gangster hip-hop and features extreme exaggerated stereotypes of hip-hop videos. The video contains extremely frequent profanity, a pimped convertible and a Latino and African American trying to pick up women. Another one of Cunningham’s pieces is Flex. Flex is a video installation shown at the royal academy of arts in 2000 for the Apocalypse: Beauty and Horror in contemporary art, the piece consists of a 15 minute loop of a naked male and female together in the darkness who come together to have sex with one another but then end up furiously beating each other. Expert suggest the meaning of this piece is that humans are very lonely and the only way they can cure this is to have sex with one another and during this act the editing is very furious and fast showing how primal the act is, after they have finished having sex with one another things turn violent and they try to end their loneliness implying no good can come from humans interacting with one another.

Another modern practitioner of video arts is Michel Gondry who is also a successful film director and producer. For one of his films ‘The science of sleep’ Gondry decided to create an interactive video installation based around the film. In the exhibition there was a piano with a screen in it that people could play and depending on which keys they played it played different videos, there was a huge fake window that played scenes from the film and changed the lighting based on what was happening in the film world and there was a video of a close up of a man’s face with two interactive ropes that depending on which one pulled his eyes corresponded by closing. This is a good example of video installation because all these pieces followed the same theme and to get full effect of what the artist is trying to show / make the audience feel you had to be at the exhibition and interact with the installation. For example with the giant window and lighting reflecting what was being shown on screen it would help create a atmospheric feeling of crossing the boundaries of reality and imagination which helps emphasize the films points of a man entranced by his dreams and imagination.

Overall I believe video installation is great way to carry old traditions like art but adding a modern using video, although it has a very niche audience and may be hard to grasp for a lot of people it is designed to get its point across to those who would understand, there is also pieces like Gondry’s which are a lot more suited to less experienced to art compared to Cunningham’s pieces. I also believe video installation is a great art form as I think the artist has more ways to get their points and feelings across through a video and unique ways to install it rather than just a still image in a gallery.