The Poetics of Bandwidth In Two Parts
selected by Rodolfo J. Sanchez

This program presents a selection of short experimental videos that exploit the something characteristics of new media-making tools.

The first part of the program, subtitled Fast and Lite, includes works that embrace the lo-fi aesthetic brought about by the internet's low bandwith demands. These works employ compression schemes that have recently reinvigorated the basic principles of geometric abstraction and minimalism. As a result, these works often rely on the graphic impact of bold, geometric forms, recalling--or in many extremes fetishizing--late modernist design motifs.

The second part, Hot and Heavy, includes works that eschew compression and subscribe to formal experimental filmaking principles of sensory immersion. With faster, desktop non-linear editors, these mediamakers employ faster cutting, loud, electronically manipulated sound, heavy compositing, and repetitive motion while never compromising the pictorial integrity of their work.

Part I: Fast and Lite
Efficiency and retrosploitation in low-bandwidth environments

Manifesto A, by Tony Cokes/Seth Price
3:50, 2001
The piece presents a bold textual critique of the pop music industry, complimented by geometrically patterned, animated interstitials and Seth Price's interpretation of an early Kraftwerk electonica composition.

JJ Chinois, by Lynn Chan
approx 5 min
This fictional music video combines appropriated live action footage with Flash animation modeled after celebrity fan sites found on the web. Chan's skillful utilization of design motifs inspired by cinematic set and costume design from 1970s Bruce Lee films lend it a vinyliciously retro appeal.

Junk Box Warrior, by Preeti A.K. Mistry
5:00, 2002
Starring the Trans Slam Poet Marcus Rene Van, this video explores the alienation, frustration and fear of a "gender misfit." It is a gritty spoken word performance which uses grainy black and white still photography in a manner resembling low frame-rate streaming video.

Cybervixen, by Carol Martori & Wolfgang Hastert, 2:20, 2002
Cybervixen presents a lyrical montage of explicit webcam footage captured from streaming video sex chat communities. It is part of a larger documentary feature project, Click Me, about online dating (http://www.wolfganghastert.com/click.htm).

DJ Spooky vs Webspinstress, by Michelle Handelman,
2:30
Handelman crafts a technologically-informed critique of the contemporary art scene using comic book action hero-style Flash animation. The heroine, an eight-legged vinyl-spinning "webspinstress," does battle with a bug-eyed DJ Spooky in a struggle to rule over the artworld.

She Puppet, by Peggy Ahwesh,
15:00, 2001
Ahwesh deftly developed She Puppet from months' worth of captured footage from the video game Tombraider. Simultaneously an absurdist montage of repetitious actions and a feminist critique of male gaming culture, this video is also a study of the hyper-efficient aesthetization of computer generated (CG) virtual environments.

Part II: Hot and Heavy
The definition and hypermontage for a Hi-Fi world

Jump Out the Window, by Mark O'Connell
3:00
In simple terms, this piece is a video manipulation of a man jumping out of a top-story window. O'Connell digitally reworks video generated by analog feedback to create gorgeous, immersive washes of semi-abstracted, pulsating imagery.

Homemade Movies
(broom, duster, sink, toilet, dryer),
by Charlene Boehne,
5 min
Exploiting a mundane subject, domestic chores, Boehne documents everyday actions in a manner which takes the medium of video to its extremes. The real-life actions are too fast, the sounds too explicit, to be accurately contained within standard means of mechanical or digital reproduction, resulting in works that appear to lie somewhere between live-action and digital manipulation.

It's A Palindrome, by Brooke Sauer
3:00
Recalling Nam June Paik's early experimentation with video signals, this piece presents an electrifying interpretation of the race track, reminding us of video's origins as an electronic transmission of light. Sauer's visuals are complemented by a soundtrack solely generated by the human voice.

The Ambiguous Coil, by Shalom Gorewitz
5:00, 2001
The Ambiguous Coil is part of a collection of collaborative works, Before, During, After, that reference the devastating event of 9/11 in New York. Using extremely quick-cutting, strobing imagery interspersed with a vague visual narrative, Gorewitz creates an introspective reflection on the tragedy of 9/11.

Rolls of Information, by Tyler Jacobsen,
6:45
This faux industrial marketing video brilliantly comments on our information age-induced sensory overload. It bombards the viewer with sometimes exasperating repetition of simple messages then uses video scrambling technology to remove any significant meaning from these same messages.

A Short Lesson, by Donigan Cummings
1:30, 2001
This brutally candid portrait exposes video's ability to reproduce more than we want to see. The viewer becomes uncomfortable as the invasive camera pervades the subject's persona; multiple aural narratives complement the tragedy of the image.

Portrait of Fred Astair in Water, by Daniel Martinico
3:50, 2002
In this elegant video, one piece of visual information is virtually expanded into an audio-visual monologue. Using an appropriated video frame as the foundation, successive layers of water imagery are composited and continually rendered to apparently immerse Fred Astaire in an ethereal shower of sight and sound.