Miranda Beck
I attended the panel discussion for Moving the Moving Image at the Walker Art Center on Thursday night and was very surprised at the experience I got. It was my first time being to the Walker, and although I didn’t have much time to walk around I thought it was a really cool museum and I plan to go back again to see the rest of it. I didn’t really know what to expect from the panel discussion and I thought it was really interesting to hear what the three artists had to say about their work.
Steina Vasulka showed her video that incorporated violin music electronically controlling images on a screen. This was something I’ve never seen before and I’m not sure if I enjoyed the sounds produced from playing the instrument, but the fact that the bow by itself as well was on the strings could produce moving images was amazing. It was surprising that she took clips of herself playing from many years ago and used it in this video. I guess this shows how as technology advances old works can be turned into new ones. I also was surprised that she doesn’t do many live performances unless special requests are made – I think it would be a completely different experience to see it done on stage instead of on video.
Amy Youngs shared a few different works including a video of the goldfish-bowl style cricket home she created that projects a grass-level view of a cricket’s world onto the glass, moving the image every time a cricket chirps (and not by any other type of noise). I thought this was really creative and a funny idea. She said that she wasn’t sure if the cricket’s really enjoyed it and she didn’t note any increase in their chirping, but it would be really amusing to watch this as a human. She also spoke about her work that is currently on display at the Nash and I was glad she did because I didn’t understand it prior to hearing this. She explained that the video projected on the floor is of various animal web-cameras that she found on the internet. She was interested in the idea of video camera usage being so widespread now that there are a number of them set up just for the purpose of watching househould/zoo pets and animals. The cages with the fuzzy looking pillows are supposed to be picked up by the viewer and held with the flat side up to view the images projected on the floor. This actually makes the video images clearer as you move it around to the different tiles.
Christiane Robbins showed her video of a foot-level view of the interstate that captures car and truck wheels speeding by every now and then. She spoke of her relation to being a frequent traveler and an understanding of time and space.
When Dr. Jane Blocker, the panel mediator, questioned the artists about relating their seemingly different works, it was interesting to hear the similarities that were found as well as some differences. Youngs and Vasulka found that neither uses a view-finder when using a camera to record images while Robbins preferred this method. It was interesting to find that the artists and Blocker had a somewhat difficult time agreeing on the role of the viewer in experiencing the art – whether the viewer plays an active role in experiencing the art or whether it is a passive event in watching the video installations. Despite this they all agreed on the importance of taking new perspectives into account in order to develop a better understanding of the world around us.