Author: MK

Here’s One

Apparently, Suzanne Vega will soon be holding a concert in Second Life. Could this be one of those moments (like watching Live Aid) I mentioned in the previous post? Not sure, but the post about the event at New World Notes is worth a read.

Real TV

I went to an excellent talk by Kathy Rae Huffman, last Wednesday at the CCA in Glasgow. Her talk was in conjunction with the Test Transmissions exhibition that explores the relationship that video artists have with television. She spoke about the early days of video art and showed some works. One of the works that she showed during her talk that I quite liked was “Chris Burden Promo” by Chris Burden.

The piece is very simple: Burden purchased some airtime on a few television stations, and then aired this piece, which is a series of titles that list famous artists in a sequence that begins with Leonardo da Vinci and ends with Chris Burden. A cheeky and humourous piece, it seems to describe with gorgeous economy the technique that most people employ when trying to advance their station in life – affiliate yourself with the A-listers.

In the leadup to the piece on the tape, Chris Burden is heard in voiceover describing how the experience of seeing these pieces on his reel can’t be matched by actually watching it on TV. He says: “… real TV has an energy that can’t be duplicated in an art gallery or a museum.” I liked that Burden pointed out the site-specificity of this piece: your living room!

Another tidbit salvaged from my scribbly notes is a bit about Kathy also speaking about how the Live Aid concert’s broadcast changed perceptions. She described how it was unlike anything that had happened before, and how remarkable this sense of literally millions of people around the world tuning in to the same thing at the same time was. The global broadcast of the concert and its widespread appeal permitted a sense of shared experience and unity on a massive scale. It led me to thinking how this might manifest itself today. Will the next “first” moment of this sort occur in Second Life or World of Warcraft, where “everyone” is watching or taking part in a particular event online? (Has it happened already and I was just asleep at the switch?) I’m sure that there will be many pivotal moments (like serendipitously catching a Chris Burden commercial on your home television, and tuning in to Live Aid) in these online worlds as well.

links for 2006-07-19

links for 2006-07-18