[-empyre-] Week 2 of the April 2018 discussion: New Media Documentary Practice

[Garrett Lynch]

>my point about timecodes was less about the micro-constraints setup by a
platform,
>and more about the way limited timecodes gesture towards broader
understandings
>of what documentary is, what form it takes, what its purpose is, and so
on.

Yes so we are saying similar things - these are the assumptions we
(Frédérique and myself) mentioned on the part of programmers building the
web players.  Couldn't agree more that we build atop what we have, web
players being re-skinned, their code being reused is exactly that.  We have
submitted to film festivals and as you mentioned limited understand that
takes the form of fixed formats, no longer than ten minutes etc., have
eliminated us from submitting to many but we knew making the film/video
that those platforms wouldn't necessarily be for us.  Our main issue was
not so much length but first and foremost the format of it being shown in a
cinema style setting.  Best of Luck needs the possibility of dipping in and
out, watching as much or as little as you need as Dale mentioned.  We were
however pleasantly surprised that there were more opportunities to submit
to than in previous years - so all in all understanding of expanded
film/video formats does seem to be opening up a little.  Neither of us are
by any means deeply involved in documentary so whether this is true for
documentary film festivals we can't say.


>I would also venture that the requirement to 'educate' you mentioned is
also one based
>on this genealogy. ;-)

True but we think there needs to be some absolute baseline for defining
documentary whether it's 'traditional', new media etc. and this is where we
agree with your initial comments about its role.


>documentary is embedded in a lineage of optical media

Is documentary embedded in the optical?  Again, we are by no means
specialised in documentary new media is our area of expertise, but it seems
to us stating that documentary is visual is a little like stating new media
is interactive.  Yes a lot is, perhaps the majority, but there is
non-visual documentary and non-interactive new media (e.g. generative).
Somebody on the list who is an expert in documentary needs to chime in here
because we certainly can't give examples of non-visual documentary but do
seem to have come accross examples of what we would have said was
documentary - particularly in sonic compositions/work.


>'new media' (hate that term) might instead focus on the operational. As
mentioned,
>life today increasingly seems structured by the operational logics of
technologies,
>operations which are complex, ubiquitous and largely unseen. What would it
mean
>to document such operations, and how might these documents elude the
constraints
>of the visible?

The best of a bad lot of terms as at least it focuses on qualities that
were not present in established media but are in new media.  Most others
terms focus on format/platform etc. which is even more problematic.
Documenting the operational logic of technologies seems like a really
interesting idea for a documentary in itself.  Several artists have worked
with this.  Perhaps some sort of an Adam Curtis, neoliberal, dystopian look
at McLuhanism gone very wrong :)


>Atlantic's recent article on stock photo depictions of Bitcoin, "because
there's
>nothing better than images of collectible coins, stage props, miniatures,
and
>professional models to convey the intricacies of a distributed,
decentralized,
> encrypted digital asset functioning as a virtual currency."

That or green 1's and 0's on a black background!  I'll have to track this
down for myself as it sounds an interesting read.



On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 11:58 PM, Luke Munn <luke.munn at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hey Garrett,
>
> Thanks for the comments, nice to get a little back and forth going. A
> brief response from my end....
>
> I agree that artists/creatives/whoever shouldn't be limited by what
> documentary is defined as. At the same time, we build atop what we have,
> and artistic practice stems out of a genealogy of other practices. So my
> point about timecodes was less about the micro-constraints setup by a
> platform, and more about the way limited timecodes gesture towards broader
> understandings of what documentary is, what form it takes, what its purpose
> is, and so on.
>
> If you attempted to submit your work to a traditional documentary film
> festival, for example, these limited understandings might come out as
> institutional or distributional imperatives, rather than technical
> limitations. These assumptions might be that it is a 'film', made by a
> single human 'director', which can be watched by an 'audience' from start
> to finish. I would also venture that the requirement to 'educate' you
> mentioned is also one based on this genealogy. ;-)
>
> All this to say that documentary is embedded in a lineage of optical
> media, and that we don't have to intentionally emulate this legacy to
> nevertheless be unconsciously and automatically conditioned by it.
>
> Which brings me back to the limits of the optical, and how 'new media'
> (hate that term) might instead focus on the operational. As mentioned, life
> today increasingly seems structured by the operational logics of
> technologies, operations which are complex, ubiquitous and largely unseen.
> What would it mean to document such operations, and how might these
> documents elude the constraints of the visible?
>
> I'm thinking of the Atlantic's recent article on stock photo depictions of
> Bitcoin, "because there's nothing better than images of collectible coins,
> stage props, miniatures, and professional models to convey the intricacies
> of a distributed, decentralized, encrypted digital asset functioning as a
> virtual currency." Or for an earlier example, perhaps Sergei Eisenstein's
> 20 pages of notes for how to film 'Capital'.
>
> Both of these cases, it seems, are attempts to ring-fence the multi-scalar
> structures and distributed performances of the operational into the bounded
> space and time of the optical. Both of these subjects are fascinating,
> imho, but this shoehorning of the operational into the optical seems like
> it misses out on much of this complexity. These kind of subjects need more
> scrutiny, but they also need dynamic new forms to accommodate them.
>
> best,
> Luke
>


-- 
regards
Garrett
_________________
Garrett at asquare.org
http://www.asquare.org/

Current events and soon:

Real Virtuality The Networked Art of Garrett Lynch:
http://realvirtuality.peripheralforms.com/

A network of people who attended an exhibition and contributed to the
creation of this work
http://asquare.org/work/peoplenetwork/

Pick up a postcard and participate at any of the following galleries:
Aksioma Institute for Contemporary Art (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Bannister
Gallery (Rhode Island, USA), Centro ADM (Mexico City, Mexico), Centro de
Cultura Digital (Mexico City, Mexico), Gallery XY (Olomouc, Czech
Republic), Gedok (Stuttgart, Germany), Guest Room (North Carolina, USA),
Human Ecosystems (Rome, Italy), Kunst Museum (Stuttgart, Germany),
Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico City, Mexico), Le Wonder (Bagnolet,
France), MUTE (Lisbon, Portugal), NYU Art Gallery (Abu Dhabi, United Arab
Emirates), Open Signal (Portland, USA), Plymouth Arts Centre (Plymouth,
England), The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art (Plymouth, England),
Transfer Gallery (New York, USA), Upfor Gallery (Portland, USA), Watermans
(London, England), Wilhelmspalais (Stuttgart, Germany), WOWA (Riccione,
Italy), ZKM | Center for Art and Media (Karlsruhe, Germany)

Garrett Lynch: A network of people @ Galerie XY (Olomouc, Czech Republic) 9
- 13/04/2018
https://www.facebook.com/events/177492866199740/

Best of Luck with the Wall (variant) @ European Media Art Festival, Report
- notes from reality (Osnabrueck, Germany) 18/04 - 21/05/2018
https://www.emaf.de/en/index.html
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