Reading Response 10: Due April 19
Ray Privett & James Kreul, “A Cinema of Possibilities: Brian Frye Interview”
How does Frye relate his work (including his film programming) to the following movements / concepts / genres:
Performance (and performance art)
-He tends to poke fun at it a bit. The idea of not doing anything in front of a group of people is still performing, such as in "Brian Frye Fails to Masturbate".
Minimalism
-Frye doesn't like to call himself a minimalist, and he isn't trying to be one. However, he does admit that some of his films could fall into that category, and while he doesn't object to them being called that, he also doesn't promote them as such.
Fluxus
-Some of his work was certainly about the performance and the making of it, as well as being relatively simple, for example "Disappearing Music for Face".
--How does Frye respond to the question about what he “adds” to films such as Anatomy of Melancholy?
Scott MacDonald, “Maintenance”
--What are some of the reasons for rental income growth at Canyon Cinema between 1980 and 2003? How did Canyon distinguish itself from the Filmmakers Cooperative and the Museum of Modern Art?
Canyon Cinema can probably attribute rental income growth from the 1980s to the early 2000s to educational institutions teaching more avant-garde films and classes devoted to avant-garde films. They were able to distinguish themselves from the Filmmakers Cooperative and MoMA because they regularly updated and revised their catalogs with new and updated content, while the Filmmakers Coop and MoMA rarely did. The catalogs were also interesting, uniquely designed, and sometimes even contained surprise articles by filmmakers.
--What problems and controversies did video distribution cause for Canyon in the 1990s? To what degree were the sides of the debate related to the age of the filmmakers on each side? Based upon the interview with Dominic Angerame at the end of the chapter, what was his position on the video debate?
Canyon had to decide if they would allow video makers (instead of FILMmakers) into the group and allow them to vote and distribute their work. The older generation of filmmakers was more focused one the preservation of the work that Canyon already had, as well as keeping with their original bylaws that stated they worked with 16mm, 8mm, and other related light and image production media. The younger filmmakers were more keen to add video and were more open in general to the new technologies citing that if Canyon wanted to remain in business, they would have to be friendly to new technologies.
Angerame's views on the video debate were more neutral. He was more or less just concerned with keeping Canyon together and not letting it dissolve.
--What were the advantages and disadvantages to funding from the National Endowment from the Arts? What controversies developed related to the publication of Canyon Cinema Catalog #5?
The advantage of the funding from the National Endowment from the Arts was that they had stable funding for a number of years and didn't really have to worry about money. However, the government got involved and didn't approve of some of the things that were published in some of the catalog issues (such as male nudity and lesbian kissing -- stills from various films). In the end, the government's hold won and the NEA had to essentially pull all of their grant money from Canyon.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Reading Response 9
Catching up from last week: Christie Milliken, "The Pixel Visions of Sadie Benning"
1. How is Sadie Benning's work related to general trends and characteristics in Riot Grrl subculture? How is Riot Grrl subculture similar to and different from punk subculture?
Her work is done in a girl power, just do it sort of way. She promotes the idea of girls in punk and breaking away from their gender stereotypes both in her videos, as well as her own punk band and zine. Riot Grrl is similar to punk in that it’s more about the doing than the final product. One doesn’t need to know how to play an instrument in order to form a band. However, Riot Grrl subculture favors the females and encourage them to “get tough, get angry”.
2. Why does Milliken refer to Benning's work as visual essays? What are the advantages of viewing the work in relation to this genre? What is meant by "radical feminist essayistic" form?
Benning’s work can be considered a visual essay in the way that they are similar to adolescent diaries. Many young girls write in diaries, and Benning was able to bring that written word to life in her videos. They also follow the many forms of the written essay, which generally resist generic classification into one category or another.
Radical Feminist Essays are those in which the author, or filmmaker, sets out not only to persuade or answer a question, but they serve more to pose a question and make the reader/viewer think. The topic is also very often political, and the essay is used as a jumping off point from words to action.
Keller and Ward, "Matthew Barney and the Paradox of the Neo-Avant-Garde Blockbuster"
3. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?
The definition of “sculpture” has become a lot more broad and unstable, and it now ranges from media based works, to performances, to architecture. After Kranuss defined sculpture as an “expanded field” in 1979, art historians have been more open to the interpretation of the medium of sculpture.
4. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience”? In other words: Why do they say that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist?
Minimalist sculpture worked to make the viewers of the piece more reflexively aware of themselves and their interaction with it. This goes along with the idea of postmodernism in that the role of the artist is questioned because “anyone could do this”. Medium specificity is brought into question and more mixing of medias is seen.
5. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden. You may wish to consult the following links to supplement the descriptions in the readings:
Acconci and Burden used their own bodies as minimalist sculpture. They would treat their bodies as objects, doing masochistic things to them (such as letting a volunteer from the audience put push pins into Burden’s skin)
5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the 1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle? What do they mean by the term "blockbuster" in relation to the gallery art world?
The Cremaster films are deemed blockbusters in the gallery art world, because it (rumored) takes on the qualities of blockbuster films such as costing a lot of money to make, merchandise, and making a lot of money at the box office, which, by avant-garde and gallery standards, Cremester did.
His work is also very different from the performance art of the 60s and 70s because it didn’t have an underlying cause or purpose. Much of the performance art from the 60s/70s was a commentary on Vietnam, or atomic weapons.
Walley, "Modes of Film Practice in the Avant-Garde"
6. What is meant by “mode of film practice”? Give two well known examples of non-experimental modes of film practice. Why does Walley argue that the concept of the mode of film practice can help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art worlds?
Modes of film practice refers to the cluster of historically bound institutions, practices, and concepts that form a context within which cinematic media are used, both in production, distribution and exhibition. Some non-experimental modes of film practice include art cinema by auteurs such as Godard and Fellini.
The mode of film practice may help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art films because modes go beyond the general aesthetic qualities of the medium and look at the circumstances which they were made and in which they can be understood.
7. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?
In the world of experimental film, collaboration between artists is not super common, and the distribution of work or “division of labor” between the director, cinematographer, sound mixer, etc. are all given credit at the end. In the art gallery world, however, collaboration between artists is common, and rarely is anyone given credit by the means of credits in a traditional film.
In distribution, avant-garde films aren’t given wide releases in theaters, and because funding comes mostly from private investors or grants, the artists no longer have enough money to strike many prints of the film in order to make money from distribution. In the art gallery world, however, having very few prints of a piece is something that is done on purpose, for the fewer prints there are, the more valuable it is seen in the art world.
1. How is Sadie Benning's work related to general trends and characteristics in Riot Grrl subculture? How is Riot Grrl subculture similar to and different from punk subculture?
Her work is done in a girl power, just do it sort of way. She promotes the idea of girls in punk and breaking away from their gender stereotypes both in her videos, as well as her own punk band and zine. Riot Grrl is similar to punk in that it’s more about the doing than the final product. One doesn’t need to know how to play an instrument in order to form a band. However, Riot Grrl subculture favors the females and encourage them to “get tough, get angry”.
2. Why does Milliken refer to Benning's work as visual essays? What are the advantages of viewing the work in relation to this genre? What is meant by "radical feminist essayistic" form?
Benning’s work can be considered a visual essay in the way that they are similar to adolescent diaries. Many young girls write in diaries, and Benning was able to bring that written word to life in her videos. They also follow the many forms of the written essay, which generally resist generic classification into one category or another.
Radical Feminist Essays are those in which the author, or filmmaker, sets out not only to persuade or answer a question, but they serve more to pose a question and make the reader/viewer think. The topic is also very often political, and the essay is used as a jumping off point from words to action.
Keller and Ward, "Matthew Barney and the Paradox of the Neo-Avant-Garde Blockbuster"
3. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?
The definition of “sculpture” has become a lot more broad and unstable, and it now ranges from media based works, to performances, to architecture. After Kranuss defined sculpture as an “expanded field” in 1979, art historians have been more open to the interpretation of the medium of sculpture.
4. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience”? In other words: Why do they say that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist?
Minimalist sculpture worked to make the viewers of the piece more reflexively aware of themselves and their interaction with it. This goes along with the idea of postmodernism in that the role of the artist is questioned because “anyone could do this”. Medium specificity is brought into question and more mixing of medias is seen.
5. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden. You may wish to consult the following links to supplement the descriptions in the readings:
Acconci and Burden used their own bodies as minimalist sculpture. They would treat their bodies as objects, doing masochistic things to them (such as letting a volunteer from the audience put push pins into Burden’s skin)
5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the 1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle? What do they mean by the term "blockbuster" in relation to the gallery art world?
The Cremaster films are deemed blockbusters in the gallery art world, because it (rumored) takes on the qualities of blockbuster films such as costing a lot of money to make, merchandise, and making a lot of money at the box office, which, by avant-garde and gallery standards, Cremester did.
His work is also very different from the performance art of the 60s and 70s because it didn’t have an underlying cause or purpose. Much of the performance art from the 60s/70s was a commentary on Vietnam, or atomic weapons.
Walley, "Modes of Film Practice in the Avant-Garde"
6. What is meant by “mode of film practice”? Give two well known examples of non-experimental modes of film practice. Why does Walley argue that the concept of the mode of film practice can help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art worlds?
Modes of film practice refers to the cluster of historically bound institutions, practices, and concepts that form a context within which cinematic media are used, both in production, distribution and exhibition. Some non-experimental modes of film practice include art cinema by auteurs such as Godard and Fellini.
The mode of film practice may help distinguish between the experimental film and gallery art films because modes go beyond the general aesthetic qualities of the medium and look at the circumstances which they were made and in which they can be understood.
7. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?
In the world of experimental film, collaboration between artists is not super common, and the distribution of work or “division of labor” between the director, cinematographer, sound mixer, etc. are all given credit at the end. In the art gallery world, however, collaboration between artists is common, and rarely is anyone given credit by the means of credits in a traditional film.
In distribution, avant-garde films aren’t given wide releases in theaters, and because funding comes mostly from private investors or grants, the artists no longer have enough money to strike many prints of the film in order to make money from distribution. In the art gallery world, however, having very few prints of a piece is something that is done on purpose, for the fewer prints there are, the more valuable it is seen in the art world.
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