HIGH RESOLUTION
Artist's Projects at the Armory

ELECTRONIC ARTS INTERMIX VIDEO PROGRAMS
Curated by Students of The Center for Curatorial Studies
at Bard College


February 21 - 25, 2008


Max Almy
Peggy Ahwesh
Lynda Benglis
Dara Birnbaum
Tony Cokes
Cecilia Condit
Forcefield
Joan Jonas
Chris Marker
Muntadas
Takeshi Murata
Dennis Oppenheim
Paper Rad
Pipilotti Rist
Carolee Schneemann
Michael Smith
Woody Vasulka


Park Avenue Armory
Park Avenue at 67th Street
New York City

Thursday - Saturday: Noon - 8 pm
Sunday: Noon - 6 pm
Monday: Noon - 5:30 pm


Admission free


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Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) present a series of video programs at The Park Avenue Armory during the 20th annual Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). EAI has invited the first year graduate students in the CCS program to curate video programs out of the EAI collection. Four separate programs have been produced by the students, which will be exhibited on monitors in the Armory's main Hallway between February 21-25, 2008. Also on view will be site-specific installations created for the Armory's historic rooms by artists Spencer Finch, Lisi Raskin, and Pietro Roccasalva. High Resolution has been organized by two curators from CCS Bard: Tom Eccles, Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and Trevor Smith, Curator in Residence. Information about the programs follows.


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RULES OF THE GAME
on view February 21, 2008


Rules of the Game brings together five early works from EAI that rely to varying degrees upon a score-based approach. The artists included in the program abandon the rigid flow of a traditional script in favor of instructions and improvisational performances from participants. Deceptively simple at first glance, gesture repeatedly acts as a catalyst for both critique and experimentation within prescribed boundaries. While Lynda Benglis and Carolee Schneemann reveal their authorial hand--intoning explicit and disruptive instructions--Joan Jonas and Dennis Oppenheim pursue more ambiguous and enigmatic strategies to capture their drawings in space. Each, however, elevates the immediate physicality of play as a form of release and renewal.

Lynda Benglis, Now, 1973, 12 min, color, sound
Joan Jonas, Songdelay, 1973, 18:35 min, b&w, sound, 16 mm film
Dennis Oppenheim, A Feedback Situation, 1971, 3:02 min, color, silent, Super 8 mm film
Dennis Oppenheim, Objectified Counterforce, 1971, 2:06 min, color, silent, Super 8 mm film
Carolee Schneemann, Meat Joy, 1964, 6 min, color, sound, 16 mm film

Curated by Fionn Meade and Wendy Vogel.


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SOUNDTRACKS
on view February 22 & 24, 2008


This program, spanning five decades, looks at artists who have taken culture as material and recycled it to their own ends. Using whatever technologies are at hand, they have created new cultural terrains that subvert and reframe convention, often pushing the form of the moving image as medium. They exemplify video's connection to, and frequent detournement of, pop culture. Music becomes both a device and subject, soundtrack and comment. A common currency, it is retooled, sampled and juxtaposed to comic, dramatic and critical effect.

Dara Birnbaum, PM Magazine/Acid Rock, 1982, 4:09 min, color, sound
Tony Cokes, 3#, 2001, 4:38 min, color, sound
Paper Rad, P-Unit Mix Tape, 2005, 21:08 min, color, sound
Pipilotti Rist, You Called Me Jacky, 1990, 4:06 min, color, sound
Carolee Schneemann, Viet Flakes, 1965, 7 min, toned b&w, 16 mm film

Curated by Christina Linden, Bartholomew Ryan and Jess Wilcox.


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THE FIGHT AGAINST...
on view February 23, 2008


The Fight Against... points to different strategies taken by artists in response to propaganda. The five works represent different reactions to conflicts, expressing a range of conceptual, documentary, and experimental politics.

Max Almy, Perfect Leader, 1983, 4:11 min, color, sound
Chris Marker, Prime Time in the Camps, 1993, 28 min, color, sound
Muntadas and Marshall Reese, Political Advertisement VI: 1952-2004, 2004, 75 min, b&w and color, sound
Carolee Schneemann, Snows, 1967, 17 min, b&w, silent, 16 mm film
Woody Vasulka, Art of Memory, 1987, 36 min, color, sound

Curated by Mireille Bourgeois, Anais Lellouche, Zeynep Oz, and Marion Ritter.


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SCARY MOVIE 5
on view February 25, 2008*


Scary Movie 5 presents a program of five videos that reference horror film tropes. Alfred Hitchcock believed that a goal of the horror film was to "give them pleasure - the same pleasure they have when they wake up from a nightmare." And, indeed, a common theme throughout the theorization of cinematic horror is the notion that there exists a connection between the fear and the pleasure experienced by a filmgoer when viewing an expression of the deep-seated fears within his or her own culture. The works included in Scary Movie 5 reflect this fear/pleasure duality.

Peggy Ahwesh, The Scary Movie, 1993, 8:16 min, b&w, sound, 16 mm film
Cecelia Condit, Possibly in Michigan, 1983, 11:40 min, color, sound
Forcefield, Forcefield Assassins, 2001-02, 20:12 min, color, sound
Takeshi Murata, Monster Movie, 2005, 3:55 min, color, sound
Michael Smith, Secret Horror, 1980, 13:38 min, color, sound

Curated by Summer Guthery and Gene McHugh.


*Scary Movie 5 will also be on view during the Art Show's Gala Benefit Preview for the Henry Street Settlement on Wednesday evening, February 20, 2008. For information about this event and tickets, please click here.


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About CCS Bard

The Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture is an exhibition and research center dedicated to the study of art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present day. The Center's graduate program is specifically designed to deepen students' understanding of the intellectual and practical tasks of curating exhibitions of contemporary art, particularly in the complex social and cultural situations of present-day urban arts institutions. www.bard.edu/ccs/


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About EAI

Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is one of the world's leading nonprofit resources for video art and interactive media. EAI's core program is the international distribution of a major collection of new and historical media works by artists. EAI's activities include a preservation program, viewing access, educational services, online resources, and public programs such as exhibitions and lectures. The Online Catalogue provides a comprehensive resource on the 175 artists and 3,000 works in the EAI collection, including extensive research materials. www.eai.org

Please visit EAI's new project, The Online Resource Guide for Exhibiting, Collecting & Preserving Media Art, a comprehensive source for information on single-channel video, computer-based art, and media installation: http://resourceguide.eai.org


Electronic Arts Intermix
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New York, NY 10011
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(212) 337-0679 fax
info@eai.org