Rant 81: The Simplicity Complex of Moving Images

 As a video artist I can empathise with some of the issues you raised in your rant, such as having work wedged in a showreel of unrelated film. However in response to one of the points you raised about filmaking kit changing and evolving, I believe this need not affect video artists.

Yes, it is easy to get caught up in technology, spending time finding out what a camera / new editing software / effect plug-in can do and how to do it to the detriment of your pocket, the art you are trying to create and the message you are trying to convey. Yes, presentation of work is important and a slick kit can help this, BUT I don’t think that it is always necessary to have the latest and greatest.

Video artists cannot compete with industry professionals, but that’s ok, I don’t think that we need to…unless it’s relevant to for their work. As a video-artist I feel video is just a tool, a vehicle for content. The focus is on the stuff we create, not just the tools that we use. Saying that I don’t want a bad edit or glitchy export to detract from what I have made and I hope to have done just enough trawling through techy blogs, youtube tutorials and invested just enough money in kit to steer away from such problems.

Another side-point in defence of artists who are comfortable revelling in shabby kit and basic techy knowledge, is that it can be common practice for artists to deliberately use dated equipment, for reasons ranging from affordability to being easy to handle and letting them get on with the job of making the art, or because like a weathered friend battered old tools can become easy to use and have fantastic personalities.

I agree with your point about an artist not chasing technology for the 'slickification' of their work but for the distribution and presentation of that work the artist does need to meet a basic industry standard for festivals and galleries. Those that work with older technology still have to be able to digitally present that work as increasingly festivals and galleries refuse to accept anything else as VHS players and 8mm projectors become harder to replace.

I'm all for the artist staying true to their chosen means of production but how that crosses over into exhibiting can very easily turn into something time-consuming and costly.

From Sean Vicary ?@SeanVicary on Twitter

Good points. Think moving image suffers from: "We love your work, can we show it for free?" more than other mediums

From Edwin Rostron  ?@EdwinRostron via Twitter

Some filmfests seem to primarily exist for someone to have a job running a festival, and the work is just filler.

I totally agree about the misguided use of the sqashed loop format in festivals etc. I find it frustrating both as an artist and as a viewer. As an artist you are lucky if your work comes around more that a couple of times a day and as a viewer it is difficult to get details on any work you thought was interesting.

I was much more interested in your point about the slip or gap between moving image as narrative film and moving image as installation. I tend to think that moving image is always installation as shown by how the installation of works into a sqashed reel format impacts on the reading of an individual work. Installation in a cinema is something I'd like to play with someday.

Yep - the ultimate misunderstood.  This response is not going to get top marks for its critical and incisive writing but....

I don't claim to be a painter/scuplturer but what gets me as that every Tom, Dick and Harry artist thinks creating fine art moving image and sound is as easy as to bung in some blurry footage, call it abstract and then attach some awful blah to label it. 

Still it could be worse my practice could be 'live art'.  Except they are seen as being cooler.  Oh dear, I now need to burrow myself back into a editing timeline - it's the only place to be!! 

Over the past few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of artists whose work sits (comfortably for them, but not so for funders) between film that requires a gallery setting and film that is much more transferable. Using websites / downloads / free distribution of DVD's / public screens / cinemas etc etc brings a whole new audience to your practice that maybe a traditional installation doesn't. It isn't a better thing, just a different one.

There is a generosity about artists who distribute their work across freely accessible platforms, Anton Hecht and Alex Pearl are prime examples of that kind of practice. There is a mutability to their work in that it can operate across all screening platforms, it is non-exclusive, which is something that I try to promote through both Outcasting and the O:4W Film Festival.