Another Update

Ok, so there have been some changes. The tape on the frame is not working out. I have some bad pictures if anyone wants to see them. Good news though, I tried this a different way and I’m really happy with it and think it’s more appropriate for the material. The tape is too thin and delicate for the frame I have, it needs a wider, more durable material so I will have to use it for something else.

I wrote a quick draft of a statement and took some pictures of what I would like to do. There would be three square panels, I’m thinking three 24″ x 24″ (so like 24″ x 73″ total), the outside panels running vertically, the middle horizontally:

The tapes would be mounted on wood panels, each panel would house a different video on media falsehoods and the effect of media. There would still be a blog where you can access these and the videotapes with the semacode and web address on the ground below. I like the contrast of materials with the wood and magnetic tape and it keeps them looking really perfect, I think that’s what it needs, it can’t look messy, here is an example:

I also wrote a little about what I was thinking of:

I am interested in presenting components of a nostalgic dystopian future by giving new, autonomous life to antiquated forms of communication and technology. Inspired by the movie THX1138, the books 1984 and the Martian Chronicles, the modern era’s hi-fi technology, modernist architecture, and minimalist art, I explore the constant change in media and its impact on society as as a result of these technological advances. The struggle for power through the interpretation and selection of information, the control of culture and perception through the media and its push to consumerism are presented in cool, silent detachment using the capitalist grid and regulation of serialization. Shiny, mirrored surfaces present our desires and fears and investigate media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s claim that new media technolgoies provoke a protective mechanism leading to a partially anaesthetized state. Both empty and charged, evoking the fetishes of power and technology, mirrored projections play all around, ourselves reflected in the material.

Currently, the possibility of transparency is being debated as the internet puts control into the hands of a new journalism, practiced by semi-underground digital publishers, providing a check to uncontrolled power. The guerilla altruism practiced by these groups exposes and challenges the autocratic, corrupt old order of the world. The videotape used in this piece represent an old era of news reporting, when television provided the best, most up-to-date source of news. In the 1970’s the industry began to use videotape instead of film because it was cheaper and less obtrusive. These analog videotapes have now become obsolete, and are being replaced by hard disk and digital tape technology used for live broadcasts. Re-using this old technology for a different purpose symbolizes an end to one period and the beginning of another.

Here are some more pics: