Memories from the Dept. of Amnesia
Part of the Global Perspectives on War and Peace Collection.
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Media Burn by Ant Farm, 2003 edit
A recent edit (2003) of Ant Farm’s classic video art piece examining and satirizing the media, particularly the impact of television. On July 4, Independence Day, 1975, what a TV newscaster described as a “media circus” assembles at San Francisco’s Cow Palace Stadium. A pyramid of television sets are stacked, doused with kerosene, and set ablaze. Then a modified 1959 Cadillac El Dorado Biarritz, piloted by two drivers who are guided only by a video monitor between their bucket seats, smashes through the pyramid destroying the TV sets.
Preceding the event are clips from various TV news broadcasts that covered it (many of the TV reporters make the comment that they “didn’t get it”). The tape includes interviews with invited guests, a speech given by Doug Hall as President John F. Kennedy explaining the message of Media Burn, the dramatic unveiling of the Phantom Dream Car, several sequences of the car smashing through the TV sets, and its triumphant return from the end of the Cow Palace parking lot.
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This Week In Joe’s Basement, episode 01: Structural Cinema
An homage to the infamous films like **** (24-hours of the exterior of the Empire State Building) and Sleep (eight hours of a man sleeping.). When this was taped, in June 1989, Andy Warhol had recently died, and the Art Institute of Chicago mounted a lavish commemorative exhibition of his art.
Not only was “Structural Cinema” created without any intention of following it up with an Episode 2 or 3 (both Joe and Paul assumed they’d move on to other projects), but it was not meant to be watched or enjoyed by anyone.
In fact, the show begins with the host urging viewers to stop watching, and “go outside, read a poem, do something constructive.” Soon the series would adopt as its slogan, “Don’t watch too much TV. It’s not good for you.”
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Nam June Paik: #1 Video Artist
Tribute to video artist Nam June Paik. Skip Blumberg speaks with Paik’s friends, peers, and collaborators as they discuss the artist’s life, work, and influence. Interviews are often shown alongside excerpts from Paik’s own videos. Features: Bill Rabinovich, Paul Gamin, Yoko Ono, Kit Fitzgerald, John Hanhardt, Olga Mazurkiewicz, Doctor Videovich, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Beryl Korot, Bill Viola, Carlotta Schoolman, Merce Cunningham, Carolee Schneeman, Russel Connor, Dimitri Devyatkin, Wulf Herzogenrath, Bob Harris, Barbara London, Gary O’Grady, Nina Sobell, Liz Phillips, Raphaele Shirley, and C.T Lui.
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Image Union: Human Hair
Image Union broadcast of “Human Hair.” Produced as part of the Chicago Editing Center’s Artist-in-Residence program, the tape is a loosely connected experimental piece that borders most often on documentary. Cain and Friedman reference important issues of the day, such as the gasoline shortage and the meltdown at Three Mile Island. The tone of the tape is very light and often humorous. Note: This version was taped off the air and begins with a promo for “Masterpiece Theatre.
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Image Union, episode 0420: Pandemonium
Episode of Image Union featuring the work “Pandemonium” by Frank Garvey. Color video. An eerie experimental short set in the decaying industrial ruins of Chicago.
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Image Union, episode 0428
Episode of Image Union featuring the work “Love Tapes” by Wendy Clarke. “Love Tapes” is a collection of videos from an experiment in which people were allowed to sit alone in a cubicle, only with a video camera and monitor, and talk about love for three minutes. Hundreds of people participated in this experiment, and this collection features 8 full length tapes.