February 02, 2006
System for Multiple Compositions on a Theme
Co-Authors/Users, Separated/Distributed, Across Space/Places
System for Multiple Compositions on a Theme--by Garrett Lynch--is a series of videos shot and edited on analog equipment in 1995 for the sole purpose of experimenting with editing video to create audio compositions. Rather than the norm of composing a video, the image, into a sequence, here the audio was composed and the accompanying image became incidental, secondary. The re-presentation of the video experiments on the internet not alone document and expose them to a wider audience than the original analog cassettes but also serves as a means to progress the early video experiments as a website experiment.
The network provides a means to reconfigure the way the work is viewed by changing the artist's (sole author of the art work) relationship with his audience. The artist, rather than defining a narrative, defines a framework for the art to work within. Experimentation with methods of sending, retrieving and presenting information on the internet, such as the use of html forms and server side scripting allows him to this time construct a system for controlling / viewing the art work rather than an art work that is simply to be viewed. The spectacle of cinema and its audience is replaced by individual user's, separated and distributed across many spaces / places, each as co-author's / contributor's with the artist to their viewing and interpretation of his work.
The composition creation interface on the website, allows users to actively participate in the composition of the experiments and experience an approximation of the act of originally editing these experiments by the artist. It consists of a grid of nine positions, three across and three down, where any position on the grid can be occupied by any of the nine videos any number of times. This gives a possible 2318107019760 combinations, where...
18 + 182 + 183 + 184 + 185 + 186 + 187 + 188 = 2318107019760
Videos can be given a parameter to loop, loop back and forth (palindrome) or not loop. Lag, download speed on the internet, as well as video duration is used as a means to offset how the videos will sound / display within the website creating an overlap that is never quite the same.
Reviewed in neural by Valentina Culatti:
The combines, from Duchamp to Raushenberg, have always been an inspirational form of expression for audio visual digital art. However the word 'composition' has different meanings: it is the combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole; it is the art or act of composing a musical or literary work; it is also a synonym of short essay. With 'System for Multiple Compositions on a Theme' Garrett Lynch (aka asquare.org) tries to synthesize all these meanings in one project. The artwork is a series of videos shot and edited on analog equipment in 1995 for the sole purpose of experimenting with editing video to create audio compositions. After ten years the shot material has been re-presented on the web using an interface that allow users to take part in the composition choosing among 9x9 options for combining the available clips. Repetition and dislocation, made easy by javascript, are the tools to experiment non linear narration and author-users interaction. However video leads audio on the web. And this is a weak point of the project because keeping an inverted relation would have been an original element in an artwork that, even if inspired by artists like Peter Horvath or Christan Marclay, doesn't have the same innovative value.
Posted by jo at February 2, 2006 02:50 PM
