Evolving Traditions: Artists Working in New
Media
DOCUMENTARY
PROFILES FOUR ARTISTS WHO USE COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE INNOVATIVE
ARTWORK
March 4,
2003--Media artist Seth Thompson recently completed the
documentary Evolving Traditions: Artists Working in New Media.
The hour-long documentary focuses on four internationally recognized
artists and how their work has evolved from traditional disciplines
into the form now coined "New Media."
The documentary
available only on VHS is distributed by Facets Multimedia and is
available for $29.95 (Plus S/H) at http://www.facets.org
.
Featured in the documentary are artists Mark Amerika, Tennessee Rice
Dixon, Toni Dove and Troika Ranch. Ranging in such diverse artistic
backgrounds as painting, dance, music, bookmaking and writing, these
artists have incorporated current computer technology into their work
to enhance their artistic visions.
"The documentary
serves two purposes," said Thompson. "One, to show people how
artists are incorporating computer technology into their work with new
and innovative ideas. Two, to serve as an historical document, so that
in the future people can look back to the beginning of the 21st
century and see what some of the leaders in this movement were
thinking at the earliest stages of this developing new art
form."
REVIEWS
Evolving
Traditions' structure facilitates in-depth discussions
of aspects of artistic methodology, concepts, and issues. More than
documentation, it presents questions about how we are thinking of new
media. The profiles of four artists' practices use excerpts of
artwork integrated with observations from the artist and new media
commentators. Each profile is conveniently organized in a 15-minute
segment, which for classroom purposes is very helpful.
-Janine
Johnson, Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies, February 2003
"Evolving Traditions is without a
doubt an invaluable pedagogic resource for introducing students to new
media and for the general public as an excellent set of explorations
on the world of these talented artists."
--Humberto Ramirez, professor of art, Vermont College.
Evolving Traditions is "a fast-paced overview of the
current state of interactive art, with a glimpse of its future. Highly
recommended. A vote of confidence: my wife, a computer-hater of
long standing, enjoyed the video. "
--Al Wasco, AWDsgn's Interactive Design Forum
"The evolving interaction between artists and computer/video
technology is an area that hasn't been explored often in traditional
television terms. Thompson's documentary will significantly contribute
to a wider understanding of this field."
--Don Freeman,
director of programming, PBS 45 & 49
The documentary has been shown on PBS 45 & 49, Northeast, Ohio;
KDOL Channel 18, Oakland, California; DUTV, Philadelphia, PA; and
Triangle Television, Auckland, New Zealand among others.
Below are some of the institutions that have acquired Evolving
Traditions: Artists Working in New Media for their
library:
Alberta College of Art & Design, Alberta, Canada
Carleton College; Northfield, MN
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Cuyahoga Community College, Parma, OH
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, British Columbia, Canada
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Hampshire College, Hampshire, MA
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Kansas City Institute of Art, Kansas City, MO
Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Smith College, Northampton, MA
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Wheaton College,
Norton, MA
ABOUT THE
ARTISTS
Mark Amerika
Mark Amerika, a "Time Magazine Top 100 Innovator," is the
author of two novels, The Kafka Chronicles and Sexual
Blood. His most acclaimed project Grammatron
(www.grammatron.com), a groundbreaking work of Internet art, was one
of the first Web sites to be included in the prestigious Whitney
Biennial. Amerika is also the publisher of Alt-X (www.altx.com),
dubbed "the literary publishing model of the future" by
Publisher's Weekly.
Tennessee Rice Dixon
Tennessee Rice Dixon creates interactive texts and animated works
for CD and performance art. Her first interactive digital work,
Scrutiny in the Great Round, is an award-winning CD-Rom that
is dreamlike in effect and sensibility. Scrutiny is
based on her limited edition artist book of the same name. Her recent
work is focused on moving pictures with verse and behaviors responsive
to sound and other environmental data. Dixon currently teaches at the
School of Visual Arts, New York.
Toni
Dove
Toni Dove is an
artist/independent producer who works primarily with electronic media,
including virtual reality and interactive video installations,
performance and DVD-ROMs that engage viewers in responsive and
immersive narrative environments. Dove has received numerous grants
for her work, including support from the National Endowment for the
Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Langlois Foundation.
Troika Ranch
Since forming the
dance theater company Troika Ranch in 1993, Artistic Directors Mark
Coniglio and Dawn Stoppiello have been creating dynamic live
performances that combine dance, music, theater and interactive
digital media. Through fierce choreography, dense musical scores and
an evocative use of media and theater, they explore how we can
maintain our most human attributes in a time of accelerating change
and growing physical disconnection.
SUPPORT
Evolving
Traditions: Artists Working New Media was supported in part by
generous grants and contributions from the Ohio Arts Council, the
Wexner Center Media Arts Program at The Ohio State University, Media
100 Inc., and The University of Akron (Myer's Faculty
Grant).