[-empyre-] Week Three Guests: Bernagozzi (x2), Bainbridge, Turim

Thu Sep 24 16:37:54 AEST 2015

Thanks Tim for inviting us back to empyre! Debora and I are getting
everything ready for tomorrow evening and will be traveling with Dave Jones
early in the morning to give us plenty of time in case the Pope's visit to
NYC is as much of a logistical nightmare as we fear it may be.

Like Benton, I am certain that without being exposed to the Experimental
Television Center by Debora, I would not be making media art, or any visual
art at all. In the early 2000's, I was an experimental sound artist and was
not particularly interested in art or video because I has this
preconception that it had to do with the dominant media culture that my
work at the time was rallying against.

I met Debora in Ithaca, NY shortly after she graduated with her MFA from
Alfred University, where she studied under Peer Bode, Andrew Deutsch and
Darrin Martin. She would tell me all these stories about how you could
visualize sound using analog video synthesizers without needing a camera
and it peaked my curiosity. ETC's International Student Workshop, which was
a 12 day for-credit summer course run by Hank Rudolph and Pamela Sue
Hawkins in conjunction with Alfred University, was my introduction to the
philosophy and process of making experimental media art. I am not using the
term philosophy lightly. There is something about the openess of the tools
found at the center that shook me to the core. This was not a question
about aesthetics or falling victim to amazement, it has to do with choice.

These tools have an inherent trait that is rarely found in modern
computing: the ability to make both good and bad choices. They were built
to maximize variability. That is not to say that we don't have some amazing
tools today to create work digitally, but the philosophy behind the
architecture built into most software is simply to distrust the user and to
create a lack of choice. They are designed to be closed systems for a
specific purpose. There are limitations to Photoshop, After Effects, and
other industry standard tools in both how they function but also how they
relate to other competing software systems. This is not an uncommon trait
in industry, the old television station switchers were also using
oscillators to perform standardized wipes yet had no way of modifying that
preset. The big difference when you went to the center was that you had to
make some choices and those choices could go nowhere. That is entirely
refreshing, especially in an age where Apple products are becoming more and
more limiting, training us to be "users" of their closed and proprietary
systems (and that term is not accidental, mind you).

The simple fact is that neither Debora or I would be where we are at
personally or professionally without the ETC. Signal Culture, while a
different organization with different goals from ETC, simply would not
exist. It was a place that taught so many generations of artists that media
tools are still about process, that the electronic image is intangible yet
it is material.

I will post again when we are at the opening, have to rest up for the long
journey tomorrow.

On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 5:10 PM, Benton C Bainbridge <
bentoncbainbridge at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Tim, thanks as well for the introduction, and for inviting me to be part
> of the dialog for Video: Behind and Beyond in conjunction with the ETC
> Exhibition at HCAG. I've been lurking and enjoying the conversations, works
> and texts that have been shared. Maureen, I wish you an easy fast and look
> forward to learning from you.
>
> Unfortunately, just as Week 3 is upon us I've come down with a cold, so
> I'm minimizing my computer time to rest up for tomorrow's ETC opening. For
> now, I'd like to speak personally about what Experimental Television Center
> means to me.
>
> My art wouldn't exist without Experimental Television Center.  It is only
> with ETC's resources and support and nurturing of an entire history of
> media art that I and my collaborators were inspired and enabled to make our
> visual performances and other media artworks. I certainly wasn't being
> taught anything like realtime collaborative audiovisual performance media
> art at NYU UGF/TV (though my professor Reynold Weidenaar urged me to apply
> to ETC) and the art world at the time primarily was concerned with works
> derived from, and analyzing, pre-recorded TV and film.
>
> The ETC tape library was a huge part of my media art education. In every
> residency, me and my cohorts would pull down a handful of tapes to watch
> each night. These tapes could be unedited recordings of test sessions -
> like the 3/4" tape of Steina and Woody Vasulka testing an Analog-to-Digital
> capture device (Maybe with Jeffrey Schier?? This is pulled from my feverish
> memory, so I may not have the details exactly right! Sherry, Tim, Renate,
> is this Tape #001?). Others were edited screening masters (I learned only
> last year from Matthew Schlanger that he would re-edit every screening tape
> from the original studio recordings to yield the very highest possible
> quality!). A few others confirmed my dreams about making moving pictures as
> collaborative real-time audiovisual performance (for example: The Lubies
> - Hank C. Linhart and Joshua Fried).
>
> In the early days of my art career, it felt like it was only Experimental
> Television Center, and a few hardcore afficionados who came to every event,
> who were dedicated to this entire way of art-making. Of course, Hank and
> Dave, Ralph and Sherry were very open-minded about all art practices and
> theories... but I'm so grateful for their dedication to audiovisual
> synthesis, image processing and audiovisual performance.
>
> I'm so glad the ETC tape library has found a good home at Rose Goldsen.
>
> Ok! I'm signing off the computer to rest up for tomorrow. Looking forward
> to seeing many of you at Hunter College Art Galleries, and to the ongoing
> conversation on empyre.
>
> cheers, Benton
>
>
>
>
>
> Benton C Bainbridge
> +1.646.338.9172
> bentoncbainbridge.com
> bentoncbainbridge at gmail.com
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 7:26 PM, Turim,Maureen Cheryn <mturim at ufl.edu>
> wrote:
>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Thanks for the kind words, Tim!  I look forward to joining this
>> conversation tomorrow evening, following Yom Kippur.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> > On Sep 22, 2015, at 7:00 PM, Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> > Renate and I want to thank Lynn Sachs and Alan Sondheim for stimulating
>> a
>> > provocative discussion of the toggles between analogue and digital.
>> Their
>> > own work has been at the forefront of conceptual and narrative
>> > experimentations with mixed medial formats, and we're appreciative of
>> > their very thoughtful reflections on their work and processes.
>> >
>> > On Thursday we will celebrate the opening of the ETC show at Hunter
>> > College in New York City, compromised of ETC tapes and ephemera held in
>> > the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art. If you can brave the gridlock
>> > caused by the Pope and his politician buddies from the UN, we hope to
>> see
>> > you down in the artsy quiet of Tribeca on Thursday night.
>> >
>> > This week were are happy to feature two artists who have been prominent
>> > over the years of ETC, Peer Bode and Benton C Bainbridge, as well as
>> > Deborah Bernagozzi and Jason Bernagozzi who have picked up the ETC
>> > tradition through their residency program, also in tiny Owego, New York,
>> > Signal Culture.  Jason worked with Dave Jones to design a emulated Paik
>> > 'wobbulator' that will be on display in the Hunter College show (which
>> > runs through November).  Also joining us is one of the preeminent
>> > theoreticians of video art and cinema, Maureen Turim from the University
>> > of Florida.  It was Maureen, during her years as a film professor at
>> SUNY
>> > Binghamton, who first took me over to Owego for a screening at ETC in
>> the
>> > waning months of the 1970s where I was stunned by the creative
>> > abstractions pulsating before my wide eyes.  So it's with particular
>> > pleasure that we welcome Maureen to -empyre- within the broader
>> interface
>> > that is ETC Today.
>> >
>> >
>> > BENTON C BAINBRIDGE (US) is a media artist based in the Bronx. Working
>> > with custom systems of his own design,
>> > Bainbridge creates  immersive environments, interactive installations
>> and
>> > digital time-based artworks. He is best known for his visual performance
>> > projects, both solo and in collaboration with a wide range of artists,
>> > from pop musicians to underground legends. Bainbridge's commitment to
>> > real-time
>> > processes was nurtured through numerous residencies, and with the
>> support
>> > of, Experimental Television Center. Career highlights include video art
>> > and VJ'ing
>> > for two Beastie Boys world tours, analog video synthesizer FX for TV On
>> > The Radio's "Staring at the Sun" music video, and Whitney Museum's
>> > best-attended live event with video ensemble The Poool. Bainbridge's
>> work
>> > is being presented in THE EXPERIMENTAL TELEVISION CENTER: A HISTORY,
>> > ETC . . . AN EXHIBITION AT HUNTER COLLEGE ART GALLERY. Examples of
>> > Bainbridge's live video collaborations will be exhibited in the HCAG.
>> > Benton will also conduct a video synthesis workshop for ETC, then
>> perform
>> > audiovisuals in collaboration with PhillipStearns.
>> > Artistwebsite: bentoncbainbridge.com
>> > Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benton_C_Bainbridge
>> >
>> > Debora Bernagozzi is a video artist and photographer. She received her
>> BFA
>> > in Video from the Atlanta College of Art in 1999 and her MFA in
>> Electronic
>> > Integrated Art from Alfred University in 2002. Her work has been
>> exhibited
>> > in the US and internationally. She participated in repeated residencies
>> at
>> > the Experimental Television Center and was awarded a Regional Artist
>> > Access Residency from Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center. Bernagozzi and
>> her
>> > husband were honored to be artists in residence in Kuala Lumpur,
>> Malaysia
>> > in January 2012, co-sponsored by the Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and
>> > Video Festival and Multimedia University. She is Co-Founder and
>> Executive
>> > Director of Signal Culture, an experimental media arts organization that
>> > offers residencies, resources, and exhibition opportunities.
>> >
>> > Jason Bernagozzi is a video, sound and new media artist living and
>> working
>> > in upstate New York and is the co-founder of the experimental media arts
>> > non-profit Signal Culture. His work has been featured nationally and
>> > internationally at venues such as the 2015 ACM SIGGRAPH exhibition
>> > "Enhanced Vision - Digital Video", the European Media Arts Festival in
>> > Osnabruk, Germany, the LOOP Video Art Festival in Barcelona, Spain, the
>> > Beyond/In Western NY Biennial in Buffalo, NY, and the Yan Gerber
>> > International Arts Festival in Hebei Province, China. His work has
>> > received several awards including grants from the New York State Council
>> > for the Arts, free103point9 and the ARTS Council for the Southern Finger
>> > Lakes. He is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media & Animation at
>> Alfred
>> > State College.
>> >
>> > http://www.seeinginvideo.com <http://www.seeinginvideo.com/>
>> > http://www.signalculture.org <http://www.signalculture.org/>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > MAUREEN TURIM (US) is professor of Film and Media Studies in the
>> > Department of English at the University of Florida has published three
>> > books, The Films of Oshima Nagisa. Images of a Japanese Iconoclast,
>> > Berkeley: University of California Press 1998; Flashbacks in Film:
>> Memory
>> > and History, New York: Routledge, 1989; andAbstraction in Avant-Garde
>> > Films, Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press 1985  She is currently finishing
>> > Desire and its Renewal in
>> > the Cinema.   She has published over 100 essays in journals and books
>> on
>> > theoretical, historical and aesthetic issues in cinema and video, art,
>> > cultural studies, feminist and psychoanalytic theory, and comparative
>> > literature.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Timothy Murray
>> > Professor of Comparative Literature and English
>> > Taylor Family Director, Society for the Humanities
>> > http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
>> > Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
>> > http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
>> > A D White House
>> > Cornell University,
>> > Ithaca, New York 14853
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> On 9/21/15 8:22 PM, "kristin lucas" <kristinlucas at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> >
>> > <default.xml>
>> > <default[1].xml>
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > empyre forum
>> > empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>> > http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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