Eric Kluitenberg on 8 Feb 2001 16:41:52 -0000 |
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[Nettime-nl] FWD: Video Activism - 13 Februari [obsolete] Overtoom301 |
From: "Sami Kallinen" <skallinen@hotmail.com> Subject: Video Activism Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 16:05:17 13 February [obsolete] at Overtoom301: Early Media Critique on Video Talk and Clips by Bart Rutten of NIM 21:00, 3,50 fl. Bart Rutten, an art historian from Nederlands Institut voor Mediakunst (Montevideo), gives a talk and shows video clips from the seventies dealing with the media. Seventies was the time of political optimism and the emergence of the guerilla television movement alongside with the birth of video activism. Some technological developments, like the release of the first video systems that were affordable for the public at large (most notably, the open reel video recorder and the Sony Portapack camera). The idea that the public could for the first time in history produce their own television, outside of the usual mainstream propaganda apparatus, was welcomed enthusiastically and resulted in various movements and collectives in US such as Global Village, TVTV, Ant Farm, The Bay Area Video Coalition. Most of these movements disintegrated in the eighties for many and complex reasons involving everything from technology becoming more expensive to problems within the movements themselves. Some of the key figures actually ended up in the main networks as reporters and producers (and became some of the most respected TV-journalists of mainstream media producing some of the most socially critical stuff that could be done within that framework). This time in media history connects to the current re-emergence of video activism mainly as a result of digital desktop production possibilities. Bart Rutten will give an informal talk and hope to give comments and answer questions from the public. Media Burn by Ant Farm will be shown in itsí entirety and excerpts by General Idea, Ant Farm (Eternal Frame), Global Village will also be shown. Please feel free to spread the word forward this mail to as many as possible! Media Burn: Media Burn integrates performance, spectacle and media critique, as Ant Farm stages an explosive collusion of two of America's most potent cultural symbols: the automobile and television. On July 4, 1975, at San Francisco's Cow Palace, Ant Farm presented the "ultimate media event." In this alternative Bicentennial celebration, a "Phantom Dream Car" -- a reconstructed 1959 El Dorado Cadillac convertible -- was driven through a wall of burning TV sets. Footage of the actual event, much of which was shot from a closed-circuit video camera mounted inside a customized "tail-fin," is framed and juxtaposed with news coverage by the local television stations. Doug Hall, introduced as John F. Kennedy, assumes the ironic role of the Artist-President to deliver a speech about the impact of mass media monopolies on American life: "Who can deny that we are a nation addicted to television and the constant flow of media? Haven't you ever wanted to put your foot through your television?" The spectacle of the Cadillac crashing through the burning TV sets became a visual manifesto of the early alternative video movement, an emblem of an oppositional and irreverent stance against the political and cultural imperatives promoted by television, and the passivity of TV viewing. Examining the impact of mass media in American culture, American culture, Media Burn exemplifies Ant Farm's fascination with the automobile and television as cultural artifacts, and their approach to social critique through spectacle and humor. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. ______________________________________________________ * Verspreid via nettime-nl. Commercieel gebruik niet * toegestaan zonder toestemming. <nettime-nl> is een * open en ongemodereerde mailinglist over net-kritiek. * Meer info, archief & anderstalige edities: * http://www.nettime.org/. * Contact: Menno Grootveld (rabotnik@xs4all.nl).