Video as a Visual Poem - Coursework Example

VID 510 Video as a Visual Poem Yanyu Dong Tom Sherman SID:263841215 Introduction This paper analyzes Video art as a visual poem by exploring some key art works from artists included Bill Viola and Shirin Neshat based on Tom Sherman’s theory. Since video get benefit from the fast-grown technology. This paper intends to demonstrate that video is nowadays more important for its position in art creativity, not just a tool for technical purpose. Additionally, It is used as a device to exploring the human’s inner world and information exists in the environment. As a result, Video is the explosion of human creativity and it highly reflects artist’s ideology and aesthetic. Video as a Visual Poem The progress made in terms of technology has revolutionized many things in the social and economic spheres of human life. Advances made in film technology have seen served as double blessings to benefit related area such as technology. Video is one such are whose advancement has seen many great development in the field of art. That is to say, that as video technology improved, it enabled a subsequent improvement in the related field of art. The concept of video art as a visual poem was born under such circumstances. Even so, one should note that the concept of visual poetry had come into existence slightly earlier. It preceded video art as a visual poem. Video has the capability to be used to support works of art and artists to bring the positive side of art. Video art as a visual poem was preceded by visual poetry. That approach was enabled by an approach termed as inter-media. By inter-media, the concept implied is that there is the breaking of boundary between different media whereas on the other side visual poetry breaks the boundary between art and text. Even so, there is a slight difference between visual poems and visual art video art as a visual poem. The differences in the media are the real point of separation. However, in terms of functionality, there are very little differences. The thin line that separates the two is that visual poems have the element of text as accompanying component. On the other hand, video art as a visual poem does not use texts passé, though current DVD technology mat allow soft texts. In the event that such a thing happens, then it remains a matter of scholarly debate on how best to categorize the two. Focusing closely on video art as a visual poem, one may observe through many examples that video is important to an artist owing to a number of reasons. Probably the best approach to analyze the specific of video art as a visual poem is to point out the remarkable journey it has made. Such an assessment would also be sufficient to the extent that it demonstrates the specifics of video art as a visual poem. To begin with, it is observable that video as a form of the revolutionary medium, keeps changing the process of human perception in both the inner and external world. It has revolutionized the media industry with innovations that have proved to be immensely valuable. For example, the low-cost, portative and technical simplicity video technology translates the world into a video signal then replays the medium at half-light-speed. Whereas human beings still perceive the environment and delay in actions, videos can sense and record moments faster than we can. One may also observe that it is capable of instantaneous transmission of images. That is the most appealing capability that many artists would appreciate. That is in addition to its relative affordability and easy operation, unlike other art media where fine skills were very fundamental. Through the process of video researching, one can not only see how other perceive, hear and think, but one can also change the way we experience the world. As Sherman said, “Video, as a perceptual instrument, is most effectively used as a process-based technological device, not as a tool for producing finished works. Video is an instrument for examining a field of data in real time. It is a tool for discovering information, not making it” (Tom Sherman, Video is a perceptual prosthetic) It is from such capabilities as a form of art complementary and creation that video is now being seen by many as a superb technology. That is in addition to the fact that it has been boosting the speed of human cognition very fast. Video has also contributed profoundly in the development and growth of art. When the widespread conceptual movement became a possibility in the mid to late 1960s, it has become popular since then as a vital tool for documenting artwork. Every media artist wanted to participate in the new discovery to create a moment of personal expression. The sheer fact that video offered a capability to mirror actual life moments after recording was considered big achieve then. By then, the concept of clarity and color did not matter so much. Video was and still is irresistible to current artists even. That is particularly so since it can not only record an instant moment, but also allows one to manipulate it a bit to explore individual creativity. Such capability enabled artists to explore different ways in which the new discovery would revolutionize their skills. Since then, many scholars have noted that video art has increasingly transformed to serve the purpose of spokesperson for contemporary artists. One can boldly say that through video, many artists have been able to express themselves in what appears to be a virtual reality of their persons. The use of video as a representative form is also meaningful. By using video, artists’ gestures and specific movements can be recorded. As seen, recording enabled later observation beyond time and space after the original performance and creation. The recording of a performance serves a number of functions for artists. The recording does not only documents the events captured, but also serves as a representation of instant action. Many artists have increasingly taken it upon themselves to emphasize the role of video in their video works. That is has been so seemingly in the understanding that documentation of video redefines an artist’s work. The significance of live performance of a video is far more than documentation, but a creative moment stored in the medium. One should notice that live performance captures a lot particularly the material culture. In many cases, such important anthropological and cultural elements are captures in their raw forms for future exhibitions and show. In this case, the sense is that video had revolutionized the manner in which human beings can make claims to authenticity. Such may not have been possible in the past, although there were audio recordings, but which did not have the visual bit. The visual element in video is the most important aspect about it that enabled such unique preservation that has prompted many artists to prefer the media. Another way through which video can be seen to be important to artists is the fact that has its own approach to environment. It allows the manipulation of environment while maintaining plot and themes in case of a recording. Besides, the environment of video installation allows free interaction of the audience while participating in live recording. Such an approach offers the possibility of making infinite possibilities from the whole work. Artists can make audiences compare the different reviews and the images, thereby changing the conventional way of thinking. In such a process, the audiences and other mediums such as projector, music and other objects are allowed to interact with each other. From such interactions, some interesting divergences can be made during the process. The representation of video installation provides multiple ways of experiences rather than a single-channel Television. How then does video art as a visual poem come about? Many scholars have shown that video as the visual poem results mainly from human emotions. Whereas they give credence to it as a product of technology, they also acknowledge that human emotions have to play a part. The capability to capture visual expressions comes in handy at that juncture. The two go hand in hand, and human emotional is believed to make it even meaningful than other media. Consequently, artists find it as the best way to express their life, by using their works to strike a chord with audiences. It is also observable that quiet a number of artists have also share similar sentiments as me on the subject concerning video art as a visual poem. Tom Sherman did observe the following about video art: “The missing content in emerging digital technologies is human emotion: outrage, anger, isolation, sadness, frustration, anxiety, affection, love. The missing people in the digital world are emotional people. Their memes do not flourish in the territories of the emerging technologies.” (Tom Sherman, Before and After the I-Bomb). Video is the visual explosion of human beings’ recognition, and sublimate poetic symbol of human beings’ sub-conscious. It is also the icon of human being’s ideology. To that extent, one can say that video art is the only media that highly relies on human’s inner thought to succeed as require, not technology. By controlling the time, the color, personal scene and the structure of image and repetition, video artists convert their emotional activities into poetic video form. The video form serves as a new medium for modern individual, nothing but their lyric video and video installation can reflect their personal memories, their own aesthetics and theories easily. Bill Viola has received international recognition as a visual poet from his installation and videotapes. He reviewed his works as a poem to resist the meaning of identity and soul in the modern world. According to Viola, visual poems serve as allegories in the context of their performance and understanding through people’s inclined perception. He makes a similar reference to his videotapes. Among some of his great works in Hatsu Yume (1981) and Chott e-Djerid produced in 1979, amongst others. Viola devoted himself to the production of instant video. He regards sound as similar to and as important as the images. His images and sound were established on his unique concepts, imagination, sub-conscious and dreams. He represents his soul as a poetic video. Viola regarded art works as poem; his intention is to find a new visual way to narrative besides the film and television, and let his work resonated among people. His having resided in Japan and learning the Japanese way of life may be seen to have inspired his making of the Hatsu Yume (First Dream). He succeeded in creating a rich visual impression for audiences, is poetical opulence. To make his works interesting and entertaining, Viola combines his first hand observation of the Japanese culture that he gathered from the environment around him with other considerations. To bring out the elements in video art as a visual poem, the artist also adopts a metaphysical approach. Image 1. “Hatsu Yume (First Dream)”.video, Mori Art museum, Mori.art.museum. In that approach, he contemplates about life, death and nature poetically through a video art. He makes a comparison about life between urban and rural area with symbolic elements such as fire and water, bright and dark, live and death. In the last of the video, an abstract shot of a street sign with rain falling through colorful moving cars, Bill Viola represented of Japanese culture, landscape and street life into his dramatic language. His poetic moving images made me come into a space full of meditation. Many other artists also agree that his video art as visual poem is very strong. That is particularly so in the manner in which he combines culture with nature and create strong images for his video art as visual poems. On the other hand, it can also be observed that other artists have also made commendable effort to address the create works that depicts video as a visual poem. Iranian-American contemporary artist, Shirin Neshat, is also another artist whose contribution to the understanding of video art as a visual poem has been very significant. According to her, video art in the context of he preferred environment is a visual poem that depicts poetic meditation one social challenges such as revolution and martyrdom. Her artistic work also addresses maters such as social change. She uses video as a new media to create unrestricted and more poetical works. By addressing emotive issues around her environment, Neshat develops a perspective enables her to put her emotions into photography and video as an Iranian who immigrants to the US at the age of 17. Her personal life experiences from Iran has influence a touch Islamic and Iranian society issues. In her work, Tooba, double-channel video installation, her poetic approach employs the use of imagery. Such imagery depicts the intricate fusion and fission of ideological, economic and political tensions and friendship between Iran and the West depending on circumstances. She sees the role played by men and women as critical for social transformations in the society. Image 2. “Fervor”.two channel black & white video/audio installation. Gladstone Gallery, Gladstonegallery.com. 2000. In her installation work, Fervor, she used some symbolic elements to depict two stories about a man and woman, the use color of black and white was an instant reflection of the contrast of men and women in her society, with women in black veils and the men in white shirts. A real poetic sign of orient as Neshat, Her works keeps laden with fantasies heavily and reflects a strong poetic imagination, and determine the social position and the poetic self-understanding in a magic way. Like Neshat, Douglas Gordon agrees with Sherman’s assertion that “Emotional tone will naturally fill all digital forms over the next decade. No matter what permutations of new technologies emerge, emotional people will eventually flesh out sterile digital territories until now inadequate for the exchange and appreciation of normal human emotions.” Video as a visual explosion from artist’s inner world kept accelerates the speed of human’s cognition of the world. “Video highlights the experience of witnessing the environment and events. It makes us self-conscious of what we are interested in and why. It helps us understand how we see and hear and it builds awareness through replay, the review and repeat performance of memory. It shapes our perception of reality through the cybernetic process of feedback and the refreshing of perception through replay. In a way, it is the supreme technology for learning how one sees, hears and thinks. “(Tom Sherman, Video is a perceptual prosthetic, 2012) Video is also a subconscious language, as well as a bridge linking everyone’s inner world. Thus, the purpose of video researching is to discover the subconscious thoughts. Both latent and manifest contents of videos are products of consciousness; therefore, after discovering the latent content in video, some further research is required to explore the subconscious contained in videos. Elements related to subconscious are usually deliberately ignored in our daily life, but in fact we can realize them when we explore others videos as well as made our own video arts. This is how in our videos we reflect and express ourselves in a symbolized way, and those symbolized elements made the work personal, meaningful, and even poetry. In short, one may observe the use of video art as a visual poem has existed for quite a while. Even so, such existence is not very apparent. Like in many other works of literature, video art also serves the purpose of storing societal heritage and addressing social issues. For artists who are keenly interested in playing such roles, video becomes an indispensable tool for such work. Video art, which is the product of careful documentation, serves as a visual poem that exposes areas of concern. Works Cited Sherman, Tom. Before and After the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information qqqqEnvironment. Banff: Banff Centre Pr., 2002. Print. Sherman, Tom. Video Is A Perceptual Prosthetic. Halifax: Centre for Art Tapes, 2012. qqqqPrint. Chen Jianjun. New Prominent Image Art. Shewey, Don. “An Artist Finds Poetry In Videotape.” New York Times, 8 November , qqqq1987.Accessed from www.nytimes.com/1987/11/08/arts/an-artist-finds-poetry-in-videotape.html Viola, Bill.  Electronic Arts Intermix. Accessed from qqqqwww.eai.org/artistTitles.htm?id=339 SHIRIN NESHAT ,Gladstone Gallery, Accessed from qqqqhttp://www.gladstonegallery.com/neshat.asp “Fervor”.two channel black & white video/audio installation. Gladstone Gallery, bbbbGladstonegallery.com. 2000. “Hatsu Yume (First Dream)”.video, Mori Art museum, Mori.art.museum. Read More