EPISODE · Jun 15, 2016 · 1H 6M
Ina Blom: Video as collaborator. The new spaces of (creative) work
from Raven Row · host Raven Row
As part of the event 'Ina Blom: Video as collaborator. The new spaces of (creative) work, followed by Steina, via Skype from Santa Fe, in conversation with Amy Budd' Thursday 26 May, 6.30pm Art historian Ina Blom discusses the work of Steina and Woody Vasulka and their emphasis on alternative social models made possible by analogue video, in reference also to her new book, The Autobiography of Video. The Life and Times of a Memory Technology (Sternberg Press, 2016). The presentation will be followed by a conversation via Skype between Steina in Santa Fe and curator Amy Budd in London. --- Ina Blom is a Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, the University of Oslo, and Wigeland Visiting Professor at the Department of Art History, University of Chicago. She specialises in modernism/avant-garde studies and contemporary art with a focus on the relationship between art, technology and media. --- This event was presented as part of 'Steina & Woody Vasulka. Machine Vision' at Raven Row. Steina & Woody Vasulka. Machine Vision 19 May to 5 June 2016 Steina (born 1940, Reykjavík) and Woody Vasulka (born 1937, Brno) are pioneers of electronic and digital image production. In their ongoing dialogue with machines – from cathode-ray televisions to digital computer systems – they consider the electronic signal as artistic medium. Meeting in Prague in 1962, the Vasulkas relocated to New York in 1965 where, by the early 1970s, they began working almost entirely with machine-generated imagery. Their early technical studies were produced in what they described as ‘states of unsupervised performance’, with the artists adjusting and altering sound and image waveforms in real time to create illusory images in virtual space. Often collaborating with a close network engineers, musicians and artists, they invented new electronic and digital devices to realise video environments such as Noisefields (1974). Woody initially worked as a filmmaker, while Steina trained as a classical violinist, and their respective visual styles are seen in their individual practices. In the exhibition, Steina's electro-optical-mechanical installation Machine Vision (1978) implicates the body of the viewer and demonstrates her poetic conception of time, while Woody’s scientific analysis of video technology is evident in his Waveform Studies (1977-2016). At Raven Row, examples of their analogue videos and experiments with lens-based media and digital processors from the early seventies to the early eighties reveal how the Vasulkas’ methods anticipated the virtual modes of image-making that are dominant today. The exhibition is curated by Amy Budd, Deputy Director, Raven Row, and Kristín Scheving, Head of Vasulka Chamber. The exhibition is made in partnership with Vasulka Chamber, Centre of Media Art, at the National Gallery of Iceland. --- Image: Steina, Orbital Obsessions, 1975-77; revised 1988. Still from video, 24:13 min. Courtesy the artist and Vasulka Chamber, The National Gallery of Iceland.
What this episode covers
As part of the event 'Ina Blom: Video as collaborator. The new spaces of (creative) work, followed by Steina, via Skype from Santa Fe, in conversation with Amy Budd' Thursday 26 May, 6.30pm Art historian Ina Blom discusses the work of Steina and Woody Vasulka and their emphasis on alternative social models made possible by analogue video, in reference also to her new book, The Autobiography of Video. The Life and Times of a Memory Technology (Sternberg Press, 2016). The presentation will be followed by a conversation via Skype between Steina in Santa Fe and curator Amy Budd in London. --- Ina Blom is a Professor at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, the University of Oslo, and Wigeland Visiting Professor at the Department of Art History, University of Chicago. She specialises in modernism/avant-garde studies and contemporary art with a focus on the relationship between art, technology and media. --- This event was presented as part of 'Steina & Woody Vasulka. Machine Vision' at Raven Row. Steina & Woody Vasulka. Machine Vision 19 May to 5 June 2016 Steina (born 1940, Reykjavík) and Woody Vasulka (born 1937, Brno) are pioneers of electronic and digital image production. In their ongoing dialogue with machines – from cathode-ray televisions to digital computer systems – they consider the electronic signal as artistic medium. Meeting in Prague in 1962, the Vasulkas relocated to New York in 1965 where, by the early 1970s, they began working almost entirely with machine-generated imagery. Their early technical studies were produced in what they described as ‘states of unsupervised performance’, with the artists adjusting and altering sound and image waveforms in real time to create illusory images in virtual space. Often collaborating with a close network engineers, musicians and artists, they invented new electronic and digital devices to realise video environments such as Noisefields (1974). Woody initially worked as a filmmaker, while Steina trained as a classical violinist, and their respective visual styles are seen in their individual practices. In the exhibition, Steina's electro-optical-mechanical installation Machine Vision (1978) implicates the body of the viewer and demonstrates her poetic conception of time, while Woody’s scientific analysis of video technology is evident in his Waveform Studies (1977-2016). At Raven Row, examples of their analogue videos and experiments with lens-based media and digital processors from the early seventies to the early eighties reveal how the Vasulkas’ methods anticipated the virtual modes of image-making that are dominant today. The exhibition is curated by Amy Budd, Deputy Director, Raven Row, and Kristín Scheving, Head of Vasulka Chamber. The exhibition is made in partnership with Vasulka Chamber, Centre of Media Art, at the National Gallery of Iceland. --- Image: Steina, Orbital Obsessions, 1975-77; revised 1988. Still from video, 24:13 min. Courtesy the artist and Vasulka Chamber, The National Gallery of Iceland.
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Ina Blom: Video as collaborator. The new spaces of (creative) work
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