DAC2007 features Ambient Video
With a theme of ’stillness’, DAC2007 (Perth, Australia) was a logical place to feature ambient video. Jim Bizzocchi presented a paper tracing the history and artistic forerunners for the current interest in ‘video paintings’. His videos were also featured at the conference artist lounge. Here is the abstract for the paper, The Aesthetics of the Ambient Video Experience:
Ambient Video is an emergent cultural phenomenon, with roots that go deeply into the history of experimental film and video art. Ambient Video, like Brian Eno’s ambient music, is video that “must be as easy to ignore as notice”. This minimalist description conceals the formidable aesthetic challenge that faces this new form. Ambient video art works will hang on the walls of our living rooms, corporate offices, and public spaces. They will play in the background of our lives, living video paintings framed by the new generation of elegant, high-resolution flat-panel display units. However, they cannot command attention like a film or television show. They will patiently play in the background of our lives, yet they must always be ready to justify our attention in any given moment. In this capacity, ambient video works need to be equally proficient at rewarding a fleeting glance, a more direct look, or a longer contemplative gaze.
The paper connects a series of threads that collectively illuminate the aesthetics of this emergent form: its history as a popular culture phenomenon, its more substantive artistic roots in avant-garde cinema and video art, its relationship to new technologies, the analysis of the viewer’s conditions of reception, and the work of current artists who practice within this form.
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The paper is available in the proceedings from the DAC2007 conference, or by special request from the author (jimbiz@sfu.ca). We have begun to notice that the ideas (and sometimes even direct quotes) from Jim’s papers are showing up in other blogs looking at the ambient form. Unfortunately, sometimes the authors don’t bother to cite the source.
Share ThisJustine Bizzocchi @ November 13, 2007