Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Hermine Freed
If the content of formalist art is form, then the forms in a video whereas others view us through our behavior. Through video,
art work are a function of its content. Just as formal similari- we can view our behavior and personal interactions removed
ties can be found in minimalist sculptures or abstract expres- from immediate feelings and experiences . Laing speaks of the
sionist paintings, videotapes tend to be stylistically unique, ego boundary as the extension between man and society . The
although there are likely to be conceptual similarities amongst works of Acconci, Benglis, Campus, Holt, Jonas, Morris, Nau-
them. These similarities often arise out of inherent qualities in man, Serra and myself operate on that boundary line.
the medium which impress different artists simultaneously . If Peter Campus and Bruce Nauman have both made live
minimalist sculptors have explored the nature of the sculptural video installations which involve the viewer directly . In Cam-
object, then video artists tend to explore the nature of the pus' Shadow Projection the viewer sees himself projected on a
video image . As the range of possibilities is broad, so are the screen from behind with a shadow of his image superimposed
sources, ideas, images, techniques, and intentions. Neverthe- over the enlarged color image. He stands between the screen
less, similarities can be found in tapes of artists as seemingly and the camera (the interface between seer and seen), turns to
dissimilar as Campus, Nauman, and Holt, and some of those see himself, and is frustrated because he is confronted with the
similarities can be related to their (unintentional) resemblance camera and can never see his image from the front. (This is
to abstract expressionist paintings . I refer not to electronic the reversal of a "normal" situation . As the viewer turns
video which mimics the visual qualities of abstract expression- toward the camera, others outside camera range can see his
ism, but to certain fundamental conceptual attitudes visible in image from the front, but he cannot . Normally, others can see
abstract expressionist painting and much of the best video art. us from behind, although we cannot) .
Just as minimalism eschews the personal, video and abstract Nauman's TV Corridor (1969) also turns the viewer into a
expressionism are rooted in it. Just as minimalism denies the real-time subject. A TV camera is behind the viewer who walks
importance of process, abstract expressionism and video rely along a corridor towards a monitor . As he approaches the
on it. Just as minimalism avoids psychological incidents, monitor he perceives himself walking away from it, from
abstract expressionism and video embrace them. Just as space behind, as if dislocated from himself. He must keep in line
is concrete in minimalist sculpture, it is elusive in both with the camera to keep his image in the monitor, concentrat-
abstract expressionism and video .
This comparison may seem surprising since the choice of
video as a medium grows more out of conceptual art considera-
tions than painterly ones. Although the major concern here is
the conceptual concerns common both to video and abstract
expressionism, it must be noted that on the simplest level,
the pictorial, video is closer to painting than to sculpture or
conceptual art . It may be argued that video is viewed in a
sculptural box (a TV monitor) and that image-making is of
secondary importance, yet it is viewed frontally with a flat,
pictorial image that has the same limited framing edge as a
painting. (Yes, the tube projects a deep space, but the screen
is flat. Yes, the edge is variable, but limited nonetheless .) In
most video art tapes, all activity takes place within a still frame .
The incidents may change, the image may change, but there
is rarely evidence of camera activity. Although one may
ascribe this to the simple avoidance of technique, the relation-
ship between the video image and painting is much more
significant . Indeed, if we examine the works of those artists
for whom the manipulation of the camera is of major im- Hermine Freed, Twn Faces, 1472. Courtesy Leo Castelli Gallery .
portance, we find that the goal and focus of their work is ing on his image of himself and his placement in space at the
technology and technique rather than content . same time. It is a work involved as much with spatial disori-
Underlying abstract expressionist painting is a concern for entation as it is with self-perception.
Freudian and Jungian psychology. Gesture is related to free Richard Serra, Lynda Benglis, and I have made tapes which
association and its unconscious processes, form to the collective illustrate the psycho-feedback aspects of video . Serra's Boom-
unconscious and the primitive myth . The power of the un- erang and Match-Match Their Courage are recordings of the
known is manifest in its abstraction . Video shares this conscious subjects' responses to themselves when faced with a video
involvement with psychological processes, but its models are monitor with their image and headphones of their own voices
more likely to be found in contemporary psychology: R.D . in real time. My tape, Two Faces, is involved with the objec-
Laing, Gestalt therapy, and phenomenological psychotherapy . tification of the self on a personal level as it is a product result-
Video artists are more likely to be interested in making the ing from a video encounter with myself . The video image is the
unconscious conscious and to concretize rather than mytholo- left and right sides of my face looking at and interacting with
gize experience. each other nonverbOly. Action and response are, necessarily,
One might imagine that Laing has worked with video the opposite sides of the same coin, yet the perception of the
through his descriptions of interpersonal perception . He clari- situation is that of the self outside itself .
fies that our understanding of ourselves is normally based on If many artists have become involved with real-time response
inner processes-thoughts, feelings, perceptions, experiences- to self and/or others, others have dealt with the elusiveness of
67
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69
XOCHICALCO
Joel W. Grossman
Lynn Kohl
''I" shaped sunken ball court. Teams would try to bump a solid rubber
ball through the rings on either side of the ramp .
Recent advances in the portability of equipment have made most of the structures consist of mounds of uncleared rubble,
video available for experimentation in a variety of new sub- a few areas have been cleared and partially restored by the
jects and problem areas. One area where video h-As been par- Mexican government . To date, these efforts have revealed
ticularly useful has been in the presentation of visual inter- stepped platform structures, apartment complexes, a sunken
pretative material for museum exhibitions . These presentations ball court, and a series of deeply buried underground tunnels
have, however, involved the taping of objects or subjects close and chambers which very likely served as solar observatories .
at hand. Video has not been utilized to present archeological The temple of the Plumed Serpent is on the highest and
or art objects in their foreign cultural context. central portion of the site. When reconstructed it revealed some
With this in mind, The Brooklyn Museum in cooperation of the most spectacular stone relief carvings known in central
with El Instituto National de Anthropologia e Historia decided Mexico . The four facades depict a repeating theme of calen-
to experiment with the newest one-half-inch black and white drical glyphs and human figures poised between the coils of the
portable video equipment to determine whether it would be plumed serpent, Quetzalcoaltle.
possible to make a high quality, low cost, bilingual docu- The purpose of the visual scenes and narration was to de-
mentary. We wanted to see if, in fact, this new equipment scribe the site not simply as a spectacular physical monument,
was of sufficient quality, mobility, and durability to produce but rather as a clue to the ideas and goals of the ancient urban
a viable audio-visual product under the rigors of an actual planners who built it and the people who lived there . The
foreign field situation . documentary thus included not only views of Xochicalco, but
The subject of the documentary is one of the most spec- also shots of sculptures, stelae, and artifacts (from this site
tacular archeological centers in central Mexico . Located atop and others) to illustrate stylistic and cultural parallels . The
a high ridge in the western mountains of Guererro, the ruins idea was to provide students with the most current evidence
of Xochicalco consist today of a series of plazas and mounds and diverse interpretations of the significance of this ancient
Nvithin a ring of what appear to be defensive walls. While urban center in terms of the general development of Pre-
70
ARTS MAGAZINE/December 1974
A partially restored temple structure at Xochicalco . Entrance of long subterranean tunnels leading to ceremonial chambers
.
Columbian cultural history . Above all, we wanted to test the nology for this foreign field project was its "instant playback"
usefulness of video as a tool to disseminate research results capability . Unlike film, video tape requires no processing and
to students two to four years earlier than is presently possible can be viewed immediately after recording . In this particular
through normal avenues of publication . project, where perspectives varied, the archeologist, narrator,
The overall quality and impact of our black and white and video-maker could view the shots, discuss the work, and
video documentary is excellent . Although it lacks the brilliant suggest changes in the field as the production progressed .
color of film, the video medium conveys a sense of immediacy The simplicity and speed of instant video playback pro-
which film cannot . The video tape equipment was reasonably vided numerous opportunities for institutional cooperation
portable under high altitude conditions. With a crew of three while on location. For example, while we were taping in
-archeologist Dr. Joel Grossman, Indian narrator Santiago Mexico, Dr. Jorge Angulo of El Instituto National de Anthro-
Ramirez, and video-maker Lynn Kohl-we were a small, mo- polcgia e Historia had the opportunity to make suggestions
bile self-contained unit. and check oversights . The same sort of input was possible as
the documentary was being edited later at The Brooklyn Mu-
Video tape can be recorded at lower light levels than those
seum. Michael Kan, the Curator of Pre-Columbian art, selected
required for exposing film. This film eliminated the need for
collection pieces which could be used as stills in the tape to
a heavy power source and bulky lighting equipment. The low
better illustrate key arguments .
light level capability was especially valuable in solving photo-
This option for cooperative input together with the technical
graphic problems often encountered at archeological sites :
ability to add and retract visual elements permitted us to con-
the presence of underground rooms and poorly lit chambers . sider new ideas and acquire more relevant imagery as the tape
We found it possible to tape a sequence in underground pass-
evolved . The flexibility of video proved easily adaptable to the
ages and caverns with only the light of a kerosene lantern.
fluidity of archeological interpretation which changes with each
Perhaps one of the most versatile features of video tech- new find.
Close-up of calendrical glyph with ancient numerical symbols explained in Close-up of a face from the Mayan site of Yaxchilan, illustrating similarities
Spanish English, and Nahuatle . in style to the seated figure at Xochicalco . All photos courtesy Brooklyn
Museum.
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75
by Edison, Lee de Forest invented a device that was to pro-
vide revolutionary possibilities for the generation of electronic
signals . The triode valve or vacuum tube with its two proper-
ties, amplification and feedback, was at the same time an
observing instrument and a tool, the first fully flexible cyber-
netic device to operate on information rather than on power .
Perhaps the most characteristic product of twentieth-century
technology, it gave us radio, television, and ushered in the age
of the computer .
Revolutionized by de Forest's vacuum tube and brought
into its present solid state era by the 1948 transistor of Brat-
tain, Bardeen, and Shockley, electronic communication by the
turn of the century may be developed into a primarily laser
technology. But for the immediate future we can expect inex-
pensive home video systems and battery-operated receivers,
direct broadcasts from satellites, conference television, rapid
transmission and reception of facsimiles, and Picturephones .
There will be an increase of home education by video and
programmed learning, and television could become three-
dimensional .
This revolution in communications technology has had its
aesthetic parallels . In emphasizing the consecutive, relation of
input-output, a definite past-future order, communications tech-
nology has placed itself in the Bergsonian irreversible duration
of evolution and organism, in a world in which there is always
something new, the world in which we communicate . Though
some may recognize a schism between technological and
aesthetic forces, electronic communications has become the
backbone of an electographic art .
Making a distinction between technological instrumental
values and nontechnological expressive ones is less useful,
perhaps, than the recognition that different aesthetic values
attach themselves to different technologies. Technological
Victor Sullivan, Video Lithograph, 1974. change may not lead immediately to the production of great
or even good art, but once it has become pervasively part of
the social structure, it sets the condition for the emergence of
ELECTRON/ORGANISM new aesthetic values . Not only is the thought of every age
reflected in its technique, the technique of every age is re-
flected in its thought .
Victor Sullivan Both Dilrer's and Schongauer's engravings from the early
Since the beginning of the eighteenth century the glow of an sixteenth century and the lithographs of Goya, Delaeroix,
evacuated discharge tube had puzzled the investigators of Daumier, Manet, Degas, and Toulouse-Lautrec from the nine-
electricity, but not until the late nineteenth century did this teenth were at once results of technical innovations, devices for
light between electrodes promise to bring about a revolution social communication, and a means by which the monopoly of
not only in physics, but also in communications . art by a small group was broken down. Now we face a parallel
The light-found to disappear in vacuum, color the sides revolution, but one even more widespread, involving greater
of a glass tube with fluorescence, cast shadows, and even numbers of people and greater numbers of nations. Who will be
move light objects-was called "cathode rays" by Sir William the electographers of the late twentieth century, and what
Crookes in 1876 . By 1894 Johnstone Stoney had suggested images will travel a wired earth?
an alternate name-electrons. Three years later J. J. Thompson Technology may effect change, but the nature, direction, and
removed any doubt concerning some consequences of an elec- magnitude of that change is conditioned and controlled by the
tron particle theory by confirming Perrin's discovery that cath- prevailing socio-cultural structure and its predilection to adopt
ode rays carried a negative charge . By measuring the magnetic new goals or to adapt existing means. Whenever new tools
deflection of the rays in different gases, he observed that the create possibilities for doing new things, or for doing old things
mass-charge ratio of the particles remained the same and that in new ways, subgroups within the system must decide whether,
their mean free path depended only upon the relative density to what extent, and in what way they want to be influenced-
of the transversal medium . He concluded in "Cathode Rays" and restructure themselves accordingly . Electronic communica-
(The Philosophical Magazine, London, 1897) that: tion technologies provide not only a means for expressive
. . . we have in the cathode rays matter in a new state, a innovation but also a challenge to the structural base of art
state in which the subdivision of matter is carried very much dissemination . When the process of art, its criticism, and some
further than in the ordinary gaseous state : a state in which of its products can be transformed into a transmittible signal,
all matter . . . is of one and the same kind; this matter being who will deliver it and to whom and at what price?
the substance from which all the chemical elements are In an emergent post-industrial society, with a well developed
built up. capability for electronic communication, perhaps the social
This was the first step toward the discovery of the inner struc- structure, guided by functional rationality, and the culture,
ture of the atom. concerned with self-justification, will create symbiotically, a
In 1905, following both the theory of Thompson and a lead sensitively attuned, widely distributed electographic art .