May 30, 2007
Douglas Davis
Douglas Davis is primary known for his pioneering video works from the late 60’s through to the 80’s which entailed live, collaborative performances combining newly invented video equipment and satellite broadcasts. The following is an overview of some of Douglas Davis art work.
The Last Nine Minutes (video extract above) was a live performance for international satellite telecast created for Documenta 6.
This performance, presented for German TV’s first live satellite transmission marking the opening of the Documenta VI in Kassel on 24 June 1977, is a continuation of Douglas Davis’ works on telecommunication. His exhortations of the viewers to establish contact with him via the TV screen are made all the more pointed by the physical distance between two continents.
My first discovery of Davis was via his later (and too few) net.art works, particularly The World’s First Collaborative Sentence (image below), where he transfered ideas he had already been thinking about for almost two decades.
The World’s First Collaborative Sentence,without a doubt Davis’ most known net.art work:
commissioned in 1994 by the Lehman College Art Gallery, was purchased early in 1995 by Mr. and Mrs. Eugene M. Schwartz, then donated to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which now maintains its ever-evolving content.
Metabody a later net.art work from Davis is the worlds first collaborative visions of the beautiful, an attempt to form a collection of images which define the beautiful as interpreted by visitors to the website who upload images of what they think is beautiful.
Davis seems to be interested in weblogs these days (see his profile on blogger.com and his list of weblogs) but not sure whether these are art works in progress or research towards something. This is an interesting Interview of Davis for those who want to know more about his early work. [blogged by Garrett on Network Research]
Posted by jo at May 30, 2007 03:30 PM
