Alternative Media Timeline

Krzysztof Wodiczko's Tijuana Project

2011-02-21T17:59:32Z

In 2001, Wodiczko projected the faces of women on the surface of an Omnimax Theater in Tijuana. In his work, he confronts the viewer with his large scale projection, as well as gives a voice to the female workers of the city of Tijuana.

Adriene Jenik and Lisa Brenneis Desktop Theater

2011-02-21T05:44:23Z

In the 1997 piece Desktop Theater, Jenik and Brenneis use the internet to stage a performance with avatars inside a chat room.

Bill Latham H00D2

2011-02-21T05:08:39Z

In H00D2 (1995), Latham digitally manipulates the image by using a set of algorithms to produce artificial organisms.

Charlotte Davies Osmose

2011-02-21T04:52:23Z

Charlotte Davies 1995 piece Osmose was an interactive virtual reality in which the user wears a "head-mounted display" and a tracking vest to monitor their breathing. Once "inside" the piece, the user is able to navigate different levels through their own breath and body movement.

Jeffrey Shaw The Legible City

2011-02-21T04:22:03Z

In Shaw's The Legible City from 1989, the user rides a stationary bicycle and navigates one of three cities, Manhattan, Karlsruhe, or Amsterdam. The bicycle is able to navigate through text of words and phrases that are directly proportional to the architecture of these cities. The user is handed over agency over which text he or she will choose, but the text is predetermined.

Institutions for Digital Art

2011-02-21T04:09:52Z

There have been several institutions put into place to showcase digital art such as the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, the ICC in Tokyo or the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria which are produced with support from organizations such as the Banff New Media Center in Canada, Canon Artlab in Japan, or V2 in the Netherlands (Paul 71).

Eduardo Kac Teleporting an Unknown State

2011-02-21T04:03:39Z

In Teleporting an Unknown State (1994-6), Kac has placed a single seed in the gallery on a pedestal. Via the web, users are able to log on and turn a light on or off, thus affecting the growth of the seed by the push of a button.

Marina Abramovic's Rhythm 0

2011-02-21T02:52:40Z

In Abramovic's Rhythm 0, she lays out a series of objects within the gallery for those in attendance to use on her body as they chose. Among those objects was a gun with a single bullet. Audience members cut the performance short three hours in when the gun was held to her head. Here, much like John Cage's 4' 33' piece, the work is determined by the audience.

Richard Serra Television Delivers People

2011-02-21T02:12:05Z

In Serra's 1973 piece, Television Delivers People, the video is scrolling text, on a television screen, telling the viewer of their own consumption, that they have been tricked by mass media, and that every action taken by society at large is a result of the television. The message also states that television is driven by image, which drives the viewer, yet there is no image in his piece. It is also a longer piece which is meant to be watched in its entirety.

Dan Graham's Two Consciousness Projection

2011-02-21T00:46:05Z

In Two Consciousness Projection (1973), Dan Graham has begun to explore the active viewer vs. the passive viewer. Two people are asked to speak about the other while being videotaped in front of an audience. Their faces are projected on live video screens. While one speaks of the other, the other's reaction is shown, and vice-versa. They create the performance, while simultaneously view the performance (Goldberg 162).

Steina and Woody Vasulka's Calligrams

2011-02-20T23:30:57Z

Like Stan Brakhage had done with the medium of film, The Vasulkas began to manipulate the form of video in Calligrams. During the transmission of the recorded video, they would manipulated the image with different tools, creating abstract shapes, and distorting the sounds being received. The tools they used to create the effects they wanted were: The Field Flip-Flop Switcher (1971), the Dual Colorizer (1972), the Multikeyer (1973), the Programmer (1974), and the Rutt/Etra Scan Processor (1974).

Vito Acconci Claim

2011-02-20T23:29:17Z

In his piece, Claim, Acconci sits in the basement of a gallery, blindfolded with a crowbar, while he is being recorded on a live feed to the gallery above. He recites, "I don't want anybody to come down here, I want to believe this, I have to believe this." He must defend the space and himself, while at the same time, he cannot, as his eyes are obstructed. Like Abramovic and John Cage, he places the piece in the viewers' hands.

Graphic User Interface

2011-02-20T23:27:25Z

In the 1970s, Alan Kay developed the Graphic User Interface or GUI out of Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California. This is was the "desktop" metaphor with its layered windows which would be popularized by the Apple Macintosh computer in the 80's (Paul 11).

Xerox PARC

2011-02-20T22:42:07Z

Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre was a research institution that resulted from the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

The Paik-Abe Synthesizer

2011-02-20T22:42:04Z

The Paik-Abe Synthesizer was built in 1969 and named after Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe. It was a self-contained unit and it allowed the user to add color to a monochrome video image, and distort the image (Meigh-Andrews 116).