Walker Panel Discussion: Kari V-C
I went to the panel discussion at the Walker which was Moving the Moving Image with three wonderful artists. It was very interesting to hear about what each woman was doing: Steina Vasulka with her violin, Amy Youngs and her crickets, and Christiane Robbins with the project focusing on air pollution. Each one had something unique to say, something new I had never heard of before. And each had a very different approach to their work. It was interesting that what the projects were doing or what the artists were trying to say was very different, but they were still quite similar in some ways. The last person with a question that night said that they all three had a strong connection to the space in and around their work, and I agree with that, though it is hard to explain how. I'm still not even sure myself if I can define space, and the artists themselves were a little reluctant to elaborate on that point as well. It is a tricky concept, but the way the woman explained it made perfect sense.
The work I connected with most is Christiane's because the way she is using technology is, in my opinion, the only one of the three who were expressing a politically charged viewpoint, and one that I side with. She had a computer program that allowed her to view gas stations along the road in California and updated air quality reports for the same place and the information overlaid. It's kind of hard to explain, but the message she tries to get across is that the air quality of that area is poor because of the amount of people who use it everyday on their commute to work in L.A. It was a powerful message to me. However, I got very powerful messages from the other two women as well. I really thought that what they were all doing is wonderful, innovative art.