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19 June 2007 > 29 June 2007
The title of thesis isn't meant as linear path from old to new media. It is meant to be understood literally. It is like some kind of intermediate state, between old and new media, with use of and respect towards both. It is best seen in the only independent video work, which I have included in this master thesis.
The project Feeling Highway is designed as a spacial video-projection for a single viewer. Before the room, in which the projection takes place, is a fingerprint reader. Here the visitor, if he wishes to enter further, leaves his mark - his fingerprint. The reader then sends the fingerprint to the computer, which transforms the informartion into a digital code. The computer compares the code with the in advance recorded code of my fingerprint. Depending on the parameters of resmblance between the visitor's and my fingerprint, the computer prepares one of the three versions of the Feeling Highway video.
The method of selection by resemblance of fingerprint points out to the totalitaristic power of the creator as someone who can manipulate with the viewer. The choice, accomplished on the basis of completely absurd terms and is therefore of zero value, draws attention to the dividing of population, which is executed on more and more nonexistent factors (national identity, biological appurtenance, cultural affiliation … ). These factors, on which in the past the division was being carried out, are becoming increasingly blurred (for example, we can change sex, take on customs of other cultures … ). They are becoming irrational and senseless , as much as the dividing of people in different groups on the base of their fingerprint is.
The project Archaios xene was designed with the title Female heroic acts, which is the title of Plutarch's essays, written in 2nd century AD. These essays are the basic motif of the project. They are combined out of 27 stories, in which the author describes real, contemporary and mythical female figures. In the project I tried to reestablish the parallels between almost two thousand year old biographical essays and the problems of a modern human in nowadays society.
»Transformation is a strange word. It alludes that arts transformes itself. But it doesn't, it just produces forms (plain forms).« (Roy Lichtenstein)
Lichtenstein's quotation is the motto and at the same time the source of the in progress title of the project, in which the visitor is a co-shaper of the work of art. The project, on one hand, works as a dialogue between the giants of contemporary art: the famous sentence of Josepha Beuysa: »Everybody can be an artist.« completes Sigmar Polke with: »Everything can be art«. Which pessimistically upgrades and overturns the Fluxus, more specific Maciunas and Paik with: »And you cannot buy it.«. Bruce Nauman draws a conclusion and turns upside down everything again with: »Every idea can be art, pa naj vam je to drago ali ne«.
The paintings are made on a 1 m x 1m metal plate and are concave. This bending should draw viewer's full attention. The angles of gaze are not reflecting outwards like flat surfaces, but are coming back to their source, meaning - to the viewer himself (viewer, who stands perpendicular to the painting's surface). Metal as a painting surface has different characteristics than canvas. It doesn't absorb colours, and thefore while painting we are making several visible layers. Also, the metal paint has different chemical structure and is much more reflective than acrylic paint or oil. At the same time the metal makes possible to pile up various printed elements much better, which is essential for a colage that I want. The Einstein's thesis on increasing intensity of occurrence within a specific frame among with ''withinframe'' content of individual scene, means constant building of every part of the painting.
In the video Me V(isual)S(ound) You are video images, took from the internet, combined with author's shots, made with S-VHS camera. These shots are illuminated twice, so they are firstly shot with a camera and then the shot is broadcasted on television. And from the television's screen the detail is recapitulated as the final photo. A photo created with this manner (like with the projct Feeling Highway and some of the older videos) has a specific texture. And in combination with pure shots creates a certain tension, which gives the whole video additional charm.
The title of master thesis Experimental video among old and new media: from acrylic on canvas to digital icon on desktop should be understood literally. In my work I am tied between old and new media. Path from paintings (acrylic on canvas) from the begining of after graduate study to the last project, made as a part of the study programme, Plain Forms (digital icon on desktop) isn't a path of improvement, but Borghese Garden, with paths, that split.