Vasulka Steina e Woody: differenze tra le versioni

Versione attuale delle 09:09, 19 Mag 2012

Personaggi

Vasulka Steina e Woody

http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/collection/vasulka/archives/images/buffalo_studio.jpg

Biografia:

Woody, cecoslovacco, compie i suoi studi presso l'Accademia delle arti dello spettacolo a Praga e si dedica al cinema, la moglie Steina, islandese, è violinista. Nel 1965 dalla Cecoslovacchia si trasferiscono a New York dove vi approdano negli stessi anni di Paik e lì, al Greenwich Villane, "scoprono" le possibilità estetiche del video con l’intensità di chi si è trovato improvvisamente di fronte "al fuoco degli dèi". Dal 1969 gravitano quasi esclusivamente nell’area della sperimentazione video, con una fitta attività di insegnamento in alcune università americane e con la fondazione e l’animazione del laboratorio The Kitchen (1971), uno spazio aperto alle ricerche video. Accusati sino alla metà degli anni settanta di trascurare gli aspetti sociali del nuovo medium, i Vasulka concentrano la loro ininterrotta ricerca sui processi di elaborazione di immagini e suoni con i media elettronici e informatici e apparecchi tecnici sofisticati. Le loro opere, spesso in collaborazione, riflettono l’esigenza di un controllo del rapporto arte e tecnologia, e sono accompagnate dall’invenzione di nuovi dispositivi e strumenti per la messa in pratica della loro poetica (dal

sistema MIDI alle "machine vision" agli "ibridi autonomi" alle "tavole interattive"). Essi hanno studiato la luce elettronica e il tempo dell’istante, il "punto di vista delle macchine" e l’importanza espressiva del "feedback" elettronico; e tra il 1972 e il 1976 hanno ideato la tecnica del "morphing". Ma la loro più affascinante intuizione è stata – intorno al 1970 – quella di rendere esteticamente produttivo il fatto che in elettronica una stessa frequenza elettromagnetica, se commutata in un modo origina un suono, se commutata in un altro origina un’immagine, e se adeguatamente distorta rende visibile la linea di confine che i nostri sensi percepiscono tra suono e immagine, costituendo insieme audio-visivi per la prima volta nella storia del cinema effettivamente unitari. Il contributo che essi hanno dato alla videoarte è notevole. Hanno appunto costruito nuovi modelli di comunicazione video con un’esplorazione sottile del rapporto spazio-tempo che il segnale elettronico stabilisce. Per ottenere questi risultati hanno potuto valersi di quella cultura metaindustriale che caratterizza la ricerca avanzata negli Stati Uniti. "Ho scoperto che negli Stati Uniti esiste una cultura industriale alternativa, che s'affida alla genialità individuale, quasi come nell'arte. Gli inventori-programmatori in elettronica hanno saputo difendere la loro indipendenza all'interno del sistema. Divenuti artisti a pieno titolo, essi utilizzano gli utensili elettronici che hanno creato". Sono le parole di Woody Vasulka. In collaborazione con alcuni ingegneri informatici realizzano nel 1972-73 il Digital Video Effecter e nel 1976, con Jeffrey Scheir, il Digital Image Articulator o Imager, uno strumento videodigitale di elaborazione delle immagini in tempo reale capace di un molteplicità di differenti processi, tra simultaneità, sequenza, passaggi e spostamenti. Lavori emblematici di questo tipo di ricerche sulla metamorfosi videonumerica sono diverse serie di immagini, quali le trasformazioni sinusoiidali di "Hybrid Hand Studies" di Woody Vasulka (1973), risultato di un sistema che ibrida analogico e digitale, e la serie di affascinanti elaborazioni di "Organizational Models of the Electronic Image" (1975-76). La maggior parte delle elaborazioni scoperte da questi tecnoartisti sono diventate parte integrante della base effettistica di qualsiasi buon mixer video professionale, e si ritrovano nei più sofisticati sistemi di montaggio digitali. I Vasulka hanno partecipato a numerose mostre, anche personali, e rassegne: di particolare importanza la partecipazione a Ars Electronica a Linz nel 1992. Dal 1980 vivono e lavorano a Santa Fe.

Biography:

Steina and Woody Vasulka are undoubtedly the most prolific and significant artists to have explored the potential of electronic imaging technology. Working exclusively with video and sound since the late 1960s, the Vasulkas have taken a systematic and rigorously formalist approach, evolving a working method characterised by a complex interactive dialogue with each other, their cultural community and electronic imaging technologies, in a process of exploration which they have termed "dialogues with tools".

Woody Vasulka (Bohuslav Peter Vasulka, born 1937, Brno, Czechoslovakia) trained as an engineer and then as a film-maker at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. Steina, (Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir, born 1940, Reykjavik, Iceland) studied violin and music theory and received a scholarship to study at the music conservatory in Prague where she met Woody. They married and emigrated to the USA, settling in New York City in 1965.

Initially Steina worked as a freelance musician, and Woody was employed as a multi-screen film editor, but by 1969, they had decided to work exclusively with video, producing their first joint video tape- Participation that same year. Soon involved in the core of the New York Avant-Garde film and experimental video scene, they founded "The Kitchen-LATL" (Live Audience Test Laboratory) with Andres Mannik in 1971 in order to continue and extend a collaborative exchange with other artists and activists working with video, sound and performance.

Over a period that continues up to the present, the Vasulkas have explored the potential for video via a comprehensive body of work that seeks to provide the foundation for a new electronic language in order to explore and define the frontiers of digital and televisual space. In an interview I made with him in 2000, Woody explained his early fascination with the electronic image and the political implications of his decision to move from film to video in the late 1960's:

"The idea that you can take a picture and put it through a wire and send it to another place- you can broadcast from one place to another- this idea of an ultimate transcendence- magic- a signal that is organised to contain an image. This was no great decision, it was clear to me that there was a utopian notion to this, it was a radical system and so there was no question of deciding that this was it. Also I was not very successful in making films- I had nothing to say with film. This new medium was open and available and just let you work without a subject."

The Vasulkas have characterised their early approach to video as primarily "didactic", for many years working with the materiality of the video image towards the development of a 'vocabulary' of electronic procedures unique to the construction of what they termed the "time/energy object". They saw this formal approach to video as very much aligned with the American avant-garde film movement of the time, and felt initially that they were part of a new wave of formal experiment in video: (Steina)

"...when we conceived of video as being the signal- the energy and time and all of that, we thought we were right there, smack in the middle of it. These were the radical times in experimental film and there were all these people starting up in video. We were all discovering this together. We erroneously thought that everybody conceived of video this way: this 'time/energy construction'. Now I realise we were very much alone. We were never lonely because we thought we were in the middle of it, but we were. We never had any followers who practised this time-energy organisation."

This conception of video as 'pure' signal enabled the Vasulkas to identify the significance of the fundamental relationship between sound and image in video, an inherent property of the electronic medium that set it apart from film, and it was an exploration of this idea that characterised their earliest work. Steina sees this relationship as crucial to an understanding of video as a medium for art:

"It was the signal, and the signal was unified. The audio could be video and the video could be audio. The signal could be somewhere 'outside' and then interpreted as an audio stream or a video stream. It was very consuming for us, and we have stuck to it.....Video always came with an audio track, and you had to explicitly ignore it not to have it."

This exploration of the relationship between the electronic encoding of picture and sound also provided the Vasulkas with their first model for their emerging dialogue with electronic tools- the audio synthesiser, an instrument which also enabled them to begin to explore 'pure' video imagery which was free from the camera, or more specifically, from images produced via the lens. For the Vasulkas, it was a question of exploring a potential for video that was entirely different from either film or broadcast television.

Working with electronic imaging technology to produce video works in this period, the Vasulkas were not interested in making 'abstract' video, but were attempting to develop a vocabulary of electronic images through a systematic deconstruction process. Alongside their videotape and multi-screen works produced throughout the 1970's, the Vasulkas developed a range of special machines in collaboration with a number of electronic engineers including George Brown, Eric Seigal, Geoffrey Schier, Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, which were designed to explore and develop a medium-specific vocabulary. These devices and others enabled the Vasulkas to produce a body of work with a very clearly identified analytic objective:

"...the problem was not really to mix the images, but to deconstruct them, and we went through a long charade of building these machines that would deconstruct the images- meaning they would show the elements- including the codes, because that was the mystery."

Woody and Steina's collaborative work across more than 30 years of commitment to video is complex and multi-layered; the Vasulkas have constantly influenced, inspired and challenged each other. Their oeuvre includes scores of works; collaborative and solo video tapes, multi-screen displays and installations, live performances and broadcast television.

For Steina this collaborative influence led to the development of an extended series of works called Machine Vision, begun in 1975, which include Signifying Nothing and Sound and Fury (both 1975), Allvision (1976), Switch! Monitor! Drift! (1977), Summer Salt (1982) and The West (1983). These works all feature an interrelationship between the camera and a series of increasingly complex devices including rotating turntables and reflective spheres. Steina sought methods of distancing the camera from human intervention, using physical space, initially using her studio and later the desert landscape of New Mexico as her subject matter. Her primary intension in this series of works was to explore the potential to reconfigure the viewer’s relationship to space.

The Vasulkas consider the development of the Machine Vision series to be part of the 'dialoguing' process, both with each other and with the machines they developed:

"First of all, we have always wanted to be inspired by the machines, we always wanted to have an equal partnership where the machines will suggest to us what we do; or the machine shows us. You put a camera on a machine and you see what it does. It's not imposing your 'superior' view on the camera. Especially for me it led to this whole thinking about what is the hegemony of the human eye, and why are we showing everything from this point of view , and who is the cameraman to tell the rest of the world what they can see, wasn't it just out of the view of the camera that all of the action was? All the things that I had never thought about before because I was a musician. This whole idea of the tools as hardware, and then the tools as the signal and signal processing was very important, and there was the dialogue in between."

For Woody, the influence of their collaboration has lead to an engagement with sculptural gallery installation work that he had avoided until comparatively recentl:

"We've always been united by an interest in the signal. That was something that we could never think outside of any machine or an installation. We've really struggled together, and we still do. (Steina) does something and there's a signal involved, and that unites us, looking or appreciating. But I was never interested in the object- I was interested in the screen only until about ten years ago. In Steina's case she was always interested in the instrument, probably because of the violin, and she adopted these instruments as instruments of play. But I always denied that because instruments came too easy to me. I knew that life had to be much more miserable. So I thought to try to find the secrets of the metaphysical content of the time-energy and the code. These were the highest calls."

Since completing two major single screen works "The Commission" (1983) and "The Art of Memory" (1987), Woody has abandoned his commitment to an exploration of the single frame to concentrate on the development of "The Brotherhood Series", a cycle of 6 large-scale installations. The Brotherhood Series consists of 6 “tables” ("Translocations, Automata, Friendly Fire, Stealth, Scribe, The Maiden") constructed from scrapped military hardware that Woody has reconfigured into complex creative machines or “Interactive Media Constructions” which engage the viewer in a blend of robotics, architectural and virtual space.

Individually and in collaboration, Steina and Woody Vasulka have devoted themselves to a systematic and profound exploration of the video medium as a tool for artistic expression. They have produced a unique and complex body of work that is impossible to categorise or contain, spanning the entire range of formats and configurations of electronic media; single and multiple screen video, live performance, installation and interactive technology. The collaborative dimension of the Vasulka’s practice also extends beyond their own profound interaction to include the artist/engineers with whom they have worked to develop new imaging machines; both hardware and software. This crucial dialogue between “‘art” and “technology”, “engineering” and ‘aesthetics” lies at the centre of their work, but does not in any sense define it.

The Vasulkas enjoy a well-deserved international reputation for their pioneering contribution to video as a creative medium in many countries, but until recently their work was little known in the UK -something that I am certain is finally about to change.

Sito web:

http://www.vasulka.org/

Poetica:

Woody e Steina Vasulka hanno il merito di aver operato, con una costante ricerca, un’umanizzazione delle nuove tecnologie elettroniche. I Vasulka impostano la complessità dei propri lavori su un dialogo strettissimo con le macchine, intese come fattori del processo creativo, indagando a livello tecnico oltre che estetico i problemi della visione e le potenzialità delle modificazioni delle immagini. Vasulka: "solo oggi si può cominciare a immaginare un film privo di stacchi, tendine o dissolvenze, dove ogni immagine si trasforma in quella successiva secondo possibilità infinite con conseguenze emotive e psicologiche illimitate." L’importanza degli strumenti degli "utensili elettronici" è essenziale per gli ampliamenti dell’area della nuova percezione che il lavoro dei Vasulka propone. Essi hanno dichiarato "il nostro lavoro è un dialogo tra l’utensile e l’immagine. Invece di rappresentarci un’immagine in uno spazio astratto per farne in seguito un modello cosciente e tentare di realizzarla, noi fabbrichiamo o adattiamo un utensile con il quale dialoghiamo. Ma è anche più complicato perché alcune volte concepiamo degli strumenti, effettuando così un lavoro puramente concettuale." Il rapporto stretto tra immagine e strumenti capaci di modellare le stesse immagini dentro nuovi ritmi, spazi e criteri visivi, conferisce all’opera dei Vasulka un sempre rinnovato carattere sperimentale. Questo non è mai disgiunto da un’ironica, e creativa, riflessione sull’universo dei nuovi mezzi elettronici. Woody Vasulka "Sto dalla parte della macchina. La macchina ti lancia una sfida e tu reagisci. Semplicemente mi considero una specie di guardiano del processo e mi piace chiamare "rituale" ciò che fa la macchina. Un rituale molto preciso. Più la precisione aumenta, più il rituale diventa potente. Il rituale si ripete come una performance, anche se talvolta perde il controllo perché anche una macchina può fallire. Si ferma o balbetta. Ci sono dei momenti impossibili da prevedere. A poco a poco la macchina assume un carattere culturale."

Opere:

Alcune opere di Steina e Woody Vasulka:

• Don Cherry, 1970

• C-Trend, 1974

by Woody Vasulka

• The Matter, 1974

by Woody Vasulka

• All Vision, 1976

by Steina Vasulka

• Violin Power, 1978

by Steina Vasulka

• Machine Vision, 1978

by Steina Vasulka

• Four Short Programs, 1979

• Cantaloup, 1980

• The Commission, 1983

by Woody Vasulka

• The Pen, 1986

• Art of Memory, 1987

by Woody Vasulka

• In the Land of Elevator Girl

• Borealis, 1993

by Steina Vasulka

• Orka, 1997

by Steina Vasulka

Woody Vasulka Work:

Adagio (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 10 min

The Art of Memory (1987) 36 min (also installation)

Artifacts (1980) 23 min

Black Sunrise (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 21 min

Trend (1974) 9:03 min

Calligrams (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 12 min

The Commission (1983) 45 min

Continuous Video Environment (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) installation

Contrapoint (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 3 min

Decay # 1 (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 7 min

Decay # 2 (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 7 min

Digital Images (with Steina Vasulka) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

Discs (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 6 min

Distant Activities (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) 6 min

Don Cherry (with Steina Vasulka and Elaine Milosh) (1970) 12 min

Ecce (with Steina Vasulka) (1987) 4 min installation

Electronic Environment (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) installation

Elements (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 9 min

Evolution (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 16 min

Explanation (1974) 11:45 min

Golden Voyage (with Steina Vasulka) (1973) 27:36 min

Heraldic View (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 4:21 min

Home (with Steina Vasulka) (1973) 16:47 min

In Search of the Castle (with Steina Vasulka) (1981) 9:29 min

In the Land of the Elevator Girls (with Steina Vasulka) (1989) 4 min

Interface (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 3:30 min

Jackie Curtis' First Television Special (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 45 min

Keysnow (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 12 min

Matrix (with Steina Vasulka) (1970-72) installation

Matrix (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

The Matter (1974) 3:56 min

Noisefields (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 12:05 min

Objects (with Steina Vasulka) (1977) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

1-2-3-4 (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 7:46 min

Participation (with Steina Vasulka) (1969-71) 60 min

Progeny (with Steina Vasulka and Bradford Smith) (1981) 18:28 min

Reminiscence (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 4:48 min

Sexmachine (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 6 min

Shapes (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 13 min

Six Programs for Television (with Steina Vasulka) (1972-79) 174 min

Sketches (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 27 min

Solo for 3 (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 4:15 min

Soundgated Images (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 9:22 min

Soundprints (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) endless loops

Soundsize (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 4:40 min

Spaces I (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) 15 min

Spaces II (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) 7:50 min

Steina (with Steina Vasulka) (1977) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

Swan Lake (with Steina Vasulka) (1971) 7 min

Telc (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 5:10 min

Tissues (with Steina Vasulka) (1970) 6 min

Transformations (with Steina Vasulka) (1975) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

Update (with Steina Vasulka) (1977) 30 min

Update (with Steina Vasulka) (1978) 30 min

Vocabulary (1973) 4:17 min

Vocabulary (with Steina Vasulka) (1974) 29 min (included in Six Programs for Television)

The West (with Steina Vasulka) (1972) installation

Bibliografia:

• 1989, L’immagine video, Fagone Vittorio, ed. Feltrinelli, Milano, pp. 109-110
• 2004, Le arti multimediali digitali, Balzola Andrea e Monteverdi Anna Maria, ed. Garzanti, Milano, pp. 157, 164-165, 273, 341
• 2004, Arte elettronica: video, installazioni, web art, computer art, ed. Giunti, Milano, pp.31-32, 88-89.

Webliografia:

http://www.lacritica.net/nicolasani.htm

http://www.vasulka.org/

http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/collection/vasulka/archives/index.html