<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Hi Steve. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Great definition of art as never terminating inquiry. I think this aspect is close to what I am thinking about in relation to documentary, which, as others have mentioned this month, is derived from docere (to teach). Patty and I wrote about digital media as shifting focus from documentary’s conventional preoccupation with “what was” into new preoccupations with “what might be.” The inquiry continues beyond the presentation of evidence.</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">I’m wondering what others think of time-based digital media as training us (or maybe inviting us) to ask more questions about what we are seeing and hearing. I was struck by your use of found footage from YouTube in _Aquarius the Waterman_, as well as the accented German in the audio. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class="">Dale</div><div class=""><br class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 19, 2018, at 03:27, Stephen M Wetzel <<a href="mailto:swetzel@uwm.edu" class="">swetzel@uwm.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class=""></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class=""></span><div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" dir="ltr" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;" class=""><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Some further words on my work and Aquarius the Waterman:</div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><br class=""></div><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""></p><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Though there are no rules, the one rule for art making is that the art object (and for me, in this context, the art object is a time-based work steeped in documentary forms or non-fiction strategies) never terminates inquiry, that it constantly unfolds in new ways, remains a puzzle, or is puzzling, building in its puzzlement over time, something like that. Documentary can be art and not just artful but it must satisfy the badly formed criteria mentioned above otherwise we’re just talking about the delivery of information, problems and solutions, cause and effect, and so on (this is a tired distinction I suppose, but I still find it relevant). My preferred mode is the linear edit, the ultimate in artifice as it is the form most unlike consciousness.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">The work I submitted to FLEFF, Aquarius the Waterman, contains an extraordinary legend wherein a water creature offers the folk of central-western Austria—after having just been set free upon granting them their wish of iron ore forevermore—the gift of puzzlement: “You forgot to ask me the best thing of all! The carbuncle and the meaning of the cross in the nut.” My aim is to manifest such a gift in the form of a documentary-like object, documentary because of its power in “bearing witness to the actual” (MacDougall?), a gift because it’s for others. For me the gift is always art; I am only interested in art.<o:p class=""></o:p></div><br class=""><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""></p><br class=""><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div id="Signature" class=""><div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif, Helvetica, EmojiFont, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", NotoColorEmoji, "Segoe UI Symbol", "Android Emoji", EmojiSymbols;" class=""><div name="divtagdefaultwrapper" style="font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin: 0px;" class=""><div class="">Steve WetzeL</div><div class=""><i class="">Associate Professor</i></div><div class=""><span style="font-size: 10pt;" class="">Director of Graduate Program in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em class="">F</em>ilm</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" class=""><font color="#ffffff" size="2" class=""> department of Film, Video, Animation & New Genres </font></span></div><div class="">Peck<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);" class="">School of the Arts</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">U</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>niversity of<span style="" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><span style="" class="">W</span></span></span></strong></span></span></span>isconsin-Milwaukee</span></div><div class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><a href="http://www4.uwm.edu/psoa/film/" class="">www4.uwm.edu/psoa/film/</a><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></span></div></div></div></div></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">_______________________________________________</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">empyre forum</span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" class=""><a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>