5 short movies by 5 film makers about 5 networked art projects exploring critical approaches to social engagement.

http://netartfilm.furtherfield.org
http://www.http.uk.net/

Some of my earliest memories involve flashes of evocative cinematic imagery, Gene Kelly dancing athletically across a small screen or Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers squabbling. While studying art, this fascination with film coexisted, but the two arts were never really connected for me until I became more familiar with video and media art, later doing research on the influence of cinema on artists’ film.

5+5=5 is an experiment on the boundary of media, art and film; a cross-pollination that uses a variety of cultural influences from cinema and the Internet, to provide an access point to networked art and the artists groups’ selected projects. Furtherfield have commissioned these five short movies that feature conversations between artists, audiences and film-makers. 5+5=5 manages to tap into the current fluidity of the boundaries that exist, between genre and media; a space between art, film and technology that has resulted in artists like Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno releasing Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006) in cinemas. Though interpretive, these films are more contextually assertive than Turner Prize nominee style documentaries and betray a more inter-disciplinary function. The movies are an example of how the relationship between art and film can work effectively; not only do they hook you, making you curious about the projects themselves but each one is an engaging film.

Free Media opens with a Mongrel artist talking about the origins of the collective’s name, but there’s more to them than the reclaiming of a playground insult. This film speaks volumes not just about Mongrel as a collaborating group of artists, but about the shifting definitions of media art itself. An informal mixing together of styles, subject matter and cultural background forms the work of Mongrel and David Valentine has made what could be described as a documentary short about how this collective functions. Mongrel’s digital workshop project Media Shed, based in Southend-on-Sea, is a free resource space for technology, education and networking based on an idea of a ‘free’ uncontrolled experimental ‘media’. So Mongrel are not just about a technical authorship and expertise but a separation of new media art and new technology, in that the projects can work in a lateral and simple lo-fi way, challenging preconceptions about the hi-tech aspect of this kind of art work. Video Sniffin’, a project that features in Free Media makes CCTV in Southend “strange” and funny, suddenly it’s not a process of moderation or surveillance but one of liberation through inversion and intervention, as people hold up signs to the cameras with slogans like “I DON’T PAY”, “WHY PAY?” or “WON’T PAY”. This grainy CCTV footage is cut with clips of Mongrel interviews, backed with Electronica by Hibernation. Mongrel describe their work as “free without pretensions to being too arty…” and Free Media is just that.

The Polyfaith project would particularly intrigue anyone who was brought up in a religious tradition that they no longer follow; the idea of looking for spiritual experiences within the normality of daily life and everyday surroundings is understandable. Polyfaith is the last will and testament of Agnostic Physics teacher Erica Tetralix, a website and tour of Edinburgh for digital pilgrims featuring details of sites of suggested spiritual experiences. Paint peeling on a wall becomes a rabbit looking over its shoulder by Greek artist Hebe Buxfolian, a pavement paint spillage is transformed into calligraphy painted by a Zen priest. These ‘miracles’ are all defined as the “Erica Tetralix effect” by artist Chris Dooks, who also made this film. The film inhabits a strange yet familiar universe, which alludes to Chaucerian tales of pilgrimage and the interpretative qualities of Rorschach ink spot drawings. Dooks describes engaging with this world as entering a “spontaneous paradigm shift”; a shift where a playful take on spirituality, puts an amusing spin on the dogma of organised religion and conversely the increasing secularisation of society. Cut with beautifully framed dreamlike images of these ‘holy sites’ is a voice over explanation of the project as a whole. Polyfaith the film taps into an almost childlike fascination with spiritual ephemera in the style of a Fortean Times fairytale.

In his film about this online collaborative performance software, Michael Szpakowski recalls the experimental nature of early video art by emphasising the materiality of VisitorsStudio. A commentary explaining the tenets of the project is interspersed with sounds and images created within the real-time online audio-visual mixing platform. Furtherfield emphasise this idea of accessibility to people of varying experience, and the film itself elicits feelings of freedom and elation heightened by the soundtrack, with framed and pixellated shots, and split screen effects. I was really struck by some of the music and images created for this film and mixed within VisitorsStudio. Though I am sometimes awed by the technical aspects of new media work, Szpakowski and Furtherfield have left me wondering what kind of work I could produce using this kind of framework. Furtherfield talk about the project breaking down the identity of the artist and that it’s about collaboration and joint representation; a democratic collective without membership structures, and ultimately an online socially networked environment and space for people to use from all over the world. The utility of this technology is paramount but the primary concern is the experimental nature of this project which is absolutely reflected in the film, and also contains exploration of sound and vision in its own right.

Golden Shot (Revisited) is three parts kitsch 70s TV quiz show, one part political war movie, Simon Poulter describes his work as an intentionally political game, and Anya Lewin the film-maker exploits this association using music and movie voice overs as a trigger. Poulter enjoys the idea of this artistic shoot ‘em up being fun with a serious message and talks about it being on some level research into the viewer’s engagement with these weapons within a gallery and online set-up. A paintball gun is connected to a computer, which controls aim at a target, featuring a makeshift ‘Axis of Evil’ as well as Cuba and the USA. In preparing the networked installation he handles the paint-balling gun with trepidation, mentioning how he’s never shot one of them before, Lewin focusing on Poulter’s vulnerability in that moment. The project and film is then placed within a cinematic framework using music reminiscent of the Apocalypse Now soundtrack while a maniacal voice states “You people are evil”, Lewin has added another layer to Poulter’s comment on global conflict by using inherently American cinematic memories, and for me these memories run the gamut of action movies to Noir gangster flicks. Most of all, this film makes me want to play the game. Can you choose who you play as?

Want and Need, like Golden Shot, highlights media connotations of globalisation by using recognisable images and formats from advertisements. The film and project by C6, is a music video anti-commercial that simultaneously describes the Want and Need project. A faint Laurie Anderson meets Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy narration explains how the organisation printed posters and stencilled graffiti saying “What Do You Want?” or “What Do You Need?” alongside an SMS number. These posters were put up around a city, on transport systems and buildings, shots of the group distributing this message are cut with image after image alluding to commercialism and consumerism; a brightly coloured graphic of a Nike Air trainer, or a glass of Guinness on a table. C6 are asking people to interact, and in so doing question their part in consumerism. This film may be a fascinating assault on the senses, but much like the advertising and music video it is a parody of, the message is partly subliminal. C6 have mimicked the daily bombardment of images and advertisements and you are distracted by the sheer sensory overload before the underlying message kicks in; we just don’t need as much as we think we do. C6 are relying on our familiarity with the constructs of advertising on TV and in cinemas to make their point.

Exploration of this space between media, like networked art projects and artists’ film, can provide an interpretive gateway to media art. We make associations even if we’re not familiar with this kind of work – watching the films involves you in a kind of Proustian remembrance of images and connotations that allow us to connect with a specific work, project, or on-line community though our own memories of films, television, or even an early religious education. Whether these constitute negative or positive evocations – it’s a riot of religious symbolism and war films for me… 5+5=5 gives you this point of entry to these networked projects, opening up this sometimes daunting technological world to a new inclusiveness and creativity through participation. This is not about consumption or passive acceptance, you can engage directly, you can enter the worlds within and explore.

http://netartfilm.furtherfield.org
http://www.http.uk.net/