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STRING CYCLES is an allegory for the transmission of knowledge in the Internet age, utilizing the ancient art form of string figures, popularly known as Cat's Cradles. It is a weave of traditional storytelling—from African folktales and the Homeric epics—to the visual poetics of Mallarmé. These...
Studio of the Streets XXVI: Public Access Demonstration no. 27
Tony Conrad
1991, 20:31 min, color, sound
"Studio of the Streets is a weekly demonstration at Buffalo City Hall, in support of free speech expression through public access cable television. The demonstration lasts from 12:30 to 1:30 on Friday; the program is cablecast on the Buffalo public access channel every Tuesday at 7:30. Studio of the Streets is a direct response to Buffalo’s suspension of its public access operator last year, which left the city without a public access production facility. Our independently organized public access advocacy group, the First Amendment Network for Public Access Television, approved my initiative to set up our own outdoor public access studio and to do it right on the steps of Buffalo City Hall, where it has been open to anyone who appears there each Friday lunch hour—every Friday since May. Studio of the Streets, like most demonstrations (and artworks), is more important in its symbolic ramifications than it is as entertainment. There has been a lot of talk about multiculturalism, about empowering minorities, women, and those at society’s margins. However, if these persons are to be a part of the discourse, they must first get started by entering into it. Entering into participation in television production is a critical phase of the evolution of a multicultural society. So far, television’s entry level has been regulated effectively by corporations. Public access cable TV is the only noncorporate free speech expression on television. Studio of the Streets goes directly to people in the street, and tests (examines) their readiness to enter into television discourse. It is simply unique in its way of accomplishing the number one job of public access—which is to introduce new groups of people to doing television production. It is also comparatively very popular; it shows in at least one downtown bar, for instance, and runs in a full hour prime-time slot. Studio of the Streets runs without personnel credits, and as a collective expression, it contradicts the ego-centered conception of media art as an esoteric expression of the privileged self. Many artists have contributed during the production of thirty-two shows; the most consistent participation and leadership has come from Cathleen Steffan and myself, both of whom are seen in program XXVII. Studio of the Streets is such a departure from the ideas of quality and craft that prevail within the art world that it will probably not receive public support. Presently each show takes about 20 person-hours of time to make, and costs about $35, excluding the borrowed cameras. The particular show seen here begins with a young man who is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his bride at City Hall; he is getting married and joining the armed forces. Later we encounter still another such couple. Moreover, we hear a woman who works at City Hall describe this as a booming new phenomenon. And as always, everything we see and hear is fascinating—everything is peculiar and special—at the same time as it is all completely everyday." —Tony Conrad
studio, time, isolation: reconstructions of soul and the sublime
Tony Cokes
2011, 9:36 min, color, sound, HD video
Writes Cokes, "A recent direction in my research interrogates the artist's studio, what happens there, how those practices are represented, what they imply in wider social contexts (real estate speculation, alleged 'creative economies,') and why traditional images of artists and studios persist in a virtual contemporary landscape. This video deploys an excerpt from Tom Holert's essay 'Studio Time,' but I remove the references in the text to a specific work, Western Recording by Mathias Poledna. Thereby, I enable aspects of Holert's argument to function as a comparison and differentiation of the artist's studio with sites of musical, filmic, and televisual production."
Substrait (Underground Dailies)
Gordon Matta-Clark
1976, 35:15 min, b&w and color, sound, 16 mm film on HD video
In this film, Matta-Clark explored and documented the underground spaces of New York City. The artist chose a range of sites (New York Central railroad tracks, Grand Central Station, 13th Street, Croton Aqueduct in Highgate, etc.) to show the variety and complexity of the underground spaces and tunnels in the metropolitan area.
Condit writes: "Suburbs of Eden is a musical drama about the family dreams of Anne, Michael and Hanna. The disappointments of this contemporary family are woven into the story of Adam, Eve and the Snake in the Garden of Eden." Condit brings her unique style and startling vision to this re-telling...
In Suet-Sin's Sisters, Yau Ching explores issues facing Chinese women in same-sex relationships. Interviews are intercut with archival footage of a classic Cantonese opera singer known for being a "mannish" woman.
As recounted by the camera, lighting, and sound engineer, Nathan Frank: "After experiencing a particularly painful alternative theater performance earlier in the day, Trevor was inspired to exorcise his own suffering. The performance, removed from the context of the theater, transported to a gloomy basement, and combined with a fair amount of cheap vodka, removes the pretense of experimental theater and replaces it with an undeniably palpable feeling of sad, dirty, desperation."
Suite 212
Nam June Paik. In collaboration with Douglas Davis, Jud Yalkut, and Shigeko Kubota.
1975, re-edited 1977, 30:23 min, color, sound
Suite 212 is Paik's "personal New York sketchbook," an electronic collage that presents multiple perspectives of New York's media landscape as a fragmented tour of the city. Opening with the 1972 work The Selling of New York, a series of short segments designed for WNET's late-night television...
Robert Buck writes: "Opening with an excerpt from Rainer Maria Rilke’s 'The Second Elegy' and set to Sade’s 'Kiss of Life,' the works manifestly romantic content is inseparable from the 8mm film on which it was shot. Again in my art, material precipitates meaning, and the semblant quality of the work and the idyll it captures can be felt."
Sun Tunnels documents the making of Holt's major site-specific sculptural work in the northwest Utah desert. Completed in 1976, the sculpture features a configuration of four large concrete tubes or "tunnels" that are positioned to align with the sunrise and sunset of the summer and winter solstices. With stunning footage of the changing sun and light as framed by the tubes, Sun Tunnels calls attention to human scale and perception within the vast desert landscape.
