Month: January 2013

The Filmmaker and Multimedia

The paper was a contribution to the zeitgeist through a publication – pp12 and 13 – produced by postgraduate research students at the College of Fine Art, University of NSW, of whom I was one at the time. The article discusses several interactive artworks current at the time and the issues surrounding them, concluding: “Clearly the aesthetics developing around interface design are as crisis ridden as the politics emerging around who will and who will not use the Internet and its services.”

1995 c.
Mike Leggett

Outside the Grounds of Obscenity and Inside the Grounds of Hyde Park

The installation ran over the period of a weekend at the Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park, London as part of The Video Show, a seminal event for artists and activists who were the early adopters of the new media of the 1970s, low-bandwidth video. Documentation for the installation has since been lost but one of the downloadable PDFs is an attempt to recall the essential operation and procedures. During 2008, the tape held in the Scottish Film and TV Archive and the Centre for Visual Research, Rewind archive, University of Dundee, as the residue tape used in a CCTV installation during The Video Show was digitised. Using this it was possible to revise the schema of connections between cameras, screens, switcher and video tape recorders, see the sketch copied in the PDF. However, this may not be the definitive explanation; this would be achieved if a copy of the Notes made at the time for the public, could be found!

The installation used two cameras, two Video Tape Recorders (VTR) and five video monitors. An insert edit strategy was applied over the duration of the installation, occurring on a Saturday and Sunday. The view is through the windows of the Serpentine Gallery on the east side looking towards Exhibition Road running through Hyde Park.

1975
2 – days

An Overview of Shoot Shoot Shoot

‘An Overview of Shoot Shoot Shoot – the first decade of the London Filmmakers Co-operative and British avant-garde film 1966-76’ was published in the online journal Senses of Cinema following the reviewer’s visit to Tate Gallery, London where the extensive program curated by Mark Webber was premiered before a world tour lasting several years. Later, a DVD boxed set of the program was made available.

The reviewer’s enthusiasm for the program was marred by some errors and misunderstandings about which I corresponded on email. A PDF, a link and the correspondence are available.

2002
George Clark

New Media and New Images

Published in the Melbourne magazine STORM in July 1995, the article was based on an introductory paper given to a seminar held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales at the beginning of the year. The paper considers the impact of new technologies on artists’ practice and the influence artists can have whilst exploring these tools, on audiences of scientists and audiences for art.

1995
Mike Leggett

Competitive Interactions

Published in the Melbourne published magazine STORM in August 1995, the article is a report of the Ars Electronica event in Linz, Austria, an international event with a Sydney artist, Bill Seaman mentioned amongst the award winners.

1995
Mike Leggett

Different Class

A review by a Village Voice writer of the Shoot Shoot Shoot touring exhibition of early British avante-garde film, when it landed in New York City in early 2003.

2003
Ed Halter

Stuart Keen Obituary

Stuart was from an earlier generation of film activists and provided an invaluable service in the West Country where the only films to be seen were those selected by the two commercial chains. Stuart would select and introduce programs from the repertoire of classic and art cinema, from Europe, Hollywood and around the world, and then screen them using 1940 vintage projectors – the experience of cinema was unique to audiences in the 1970s and educated many generations of students passing through Exeter.

1977
Mike Leggett

Stuart was from an earlier generation of film activists and provided an invaluable service in the West Country where the only films to be seen were those selected by the two commercial chains. Stuart would select and introduce programs from the repertoire of classic and art cinema, from Europe, Hollywood and around the world, and then screen them using 1940 vintage projectors – the experience of cinema was unique to audiences in the 1970s and educated many generations of students passing through Exeter.