Journal Postings: Austin Willis
| (10/04/07): link to video documentation | | HERE IS A LINK TO THE LATEST VERSION OF THE FELLOWSHIP PROJECT IM WORKING ON
the link is to a video on my site, its a document of the latest mock-up installation version of the piece im working on with the aid of the fellowship. not all technical aspects of the work have been solved here (mechanics of certain physical pieces and parts of the work still need some finishing) but im excited to share the new imagery. |
| (09/12/07): caitlin jones article | | http://www.believermag.com/issues/200512/?read=article_jones
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200512/?read=article_jones
that is a good article (though its not complete online, you have to get the published magazine). i dont agree with all the premises, but its a great look at contemporary forms of network/installation/time-based works and into the histories/kinds of (economic) manipulation that art (whatever form it takes) gets shoved through. find 'the believer' magazine online, or in a bookstore (this article is from the dec 05/jan 06 issue). |
| (07/09/07): mock-up | | here is an IMAGE of a mock-up installation for the piece im working on for the fellowship. this installation was basically a run-thru to better understand and order a kind of work-flow for the project. here is a MOVIE of what the projections look like when the screen is spinning and the lights are out. the cymbal image was used just as a placeholder, as an object study.
there are/were many problems with this setup. the weight of the screen caused the motor that spins it to burn out, the dvd players were out of synch, and the rotating horizontal image created more warp than i wanted. since this trial instal i have built a much stronger/smoother ceiling-to-screen mount and am using a more powerful DC motor that allows the screen to spin at different speeds much more freely. ive also started using multi-dvd player synchronizing hardware, which plays multiple dvds in synch to the frame. and, i have rotated the screen so it is hanging/spinning vertically - this minimizes the image warp as the screen turns.
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| (07/09/07): transmediale, berlin | | as part of my fellowship i wanted to travel to berlin, to visit transmediale - an art festival focused on time-based projects and new media. it was a great trip and a great festival, lots of artists and writers and critics lectured about their own work and the work of others. wulf herzogenrath spoke on a panel about his book "40 years of german video" and how it focuses specifically on single channel works, or works made for a screen. eventually that panel started talking about weather or not it was best to canonize a 40 year history of video within a national/social context or a technology/hardware context. artist herwig weiser gave a great lecture about his work, and how he tries to work in actual space, not virtual space - never think in terms of software, instead think sculpturally/spatially about how software thinks/functions and relate that to physical materials in space. artist david rokeby gave a nice lecture about his work as well. he spoke about his work piece by piece, all of which use quite a bit of max/msp programming. THIS IS HIS SITE
most of all his work/lecture stuck with me for his refusal to operate within a one-camera/one-screen/one-narrative/one-direction system. the constant collection and recontextualization allows for the works to almost never be finished, which is a pleasant re-opening of what time-based works could be. there were also some more academic lectures about mathematics and some more poetic ones about cultural closure, both as related to ideas about networked platforms, global narratives, political and social programming. HERE IS TRANSMEDIALEs SITE check out what i dont have room to talk about here. over all, the festival applied specifically toward the work im doing with the fellowship. the theme was 'unfinish' which was intended as an effort towards re-opening processes in art making/thinking that have previously required closure or have been forced closed. these ideas are parallel to those i want to work through concerning the way video and screen media present space, and the assumptions that have become commonplace in most viewers. there was a small exhibition of work at the festival as well. next year i plan to submit.
HERE IS A VIDEO of a couple pieces in the exhibition and some of david rokebys lecture.
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who we are![IMAGE]("http://www.austinmbwillis.com/CymbalSurroundInstal.JPG"){kind=link}