Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Does Video Art Rely Solely On Technological Change?

In the article on the origins of video art, the movement is spurred by the technological advances in camera, and the availability to the public. Video Art pulls from a lot of different genres of art through the medium of film. Video art has evolved using the technological capability to explore and create perspective. In the Fluxus movement, closely related to that of dada art, and that of Duchamp, Paik and other artists use the medium and avant-garde music to explore the randomness and arbitrariness of the changing world around them. While the article focuses predominantly on how video art was affected by the medium itself, it doesn't seem to focus too much on subject matter. While there is mention of Paik's work on the radio, it is still very technologically focused.

Video Art today has expanded to both fully using the capabilities of technology, but also exploring subject matter and exploring and yielding underlying morals, emotions, and reactions. For example, the music artist Janelle Monae is infamous for using music videos to express mixed messages of beauty, feminism, and various societal and political problems in the world. While several of Janelle Monae's videos are outlandish in subject matter, one particular music video, Cold War, has minimal camera movement and holds a closeup on Monae's face. As opposed to someone like Paik, while technology is still very present in this film, the focus is more on Monae's emotions, body language, and facial expressions. Monae also has a musical aid, as Paik and John Cage do, but Monae focuses on lyrical significance.

Cage & Paik's approach to music is very much rejects to the classical 'Western' approach . Cage's idea of music can feature sounds from anywhere and also can sometimes irritate and annoy the audience, as opposed to Monae who while wanting to get her message across wants to entertain her audience.

The link is Monae's Cold War, while having minimal action and camera movement yields a very powerful message on what it means to be a woman in today's world. There are also some important things to pay attention to, Monae presents the video as the first take, to show how her emotional intensity to the subject matter plays a role. With the time in the corner, it is always apparent that this is a music video, so like other Video Art, this film does acknowledge & apply the technology it is using.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqmORiHNtN4

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