ETC History 1999 - 2000

 

 History 1999-2000

 

The RESIDENCY PROGRAM offers self-directed creative time to mediamakers from throughout the country. Since 1971 we have assisted over 1100 artists in the creation of works using new electronic video, audio and computer technologies. Each year from among 80 applicants, about 45 artists are invited to work in the studio, in a retreat-like workshop environment, which offers access to an image processing system, intensive individualized instruction and time for exploration and personal creative growth. This year's artists included Matt Biedermann (San Francisco, CA), Peer Bode (Hornell, NY), Yael Braha (San Francisco, CA), Greg Bowman (Troy, NY), Torsten Burns (New Haven, CT), Lynn Cazabon (Philadelphia, PA), Graham Collins (Ottawa, Canada), Tim Dallett (Ottawa, Canada), Lisa DiLillo (New York, NY), Robert Doyle (Palmyra, NY), Sarah Drury (New York, NY), Brendan Earley (Ireland), Raymond Ghirardo (Ithaca, NY), Nancy Golden (Jersey City, NJ), Jackie Goss (Boston, MA), Alex Hahn (Zurich, Switzerland), Susan Hamovich (Brooklyn, NY), Genevieve De Monvel Hayes (New York, NY), Pamela Susan Hawkins (Hornell, NY), Janene Higgins (New York, NY), Sara Hornbacher (Atlanta, GA), Jody LaFond (Buffalo, NY), Kaelo La Belle (Luzern, Switzerland), Kristin Lucas (Brooklyn, NY), Mary Magsamen (Brooklyn, NY), Dena Mermelstein (Brooklyn, NY), Cara O'Connor (New York, NY), Bob Paris (New York, NY), Megan Roberts (Ithaca, NY), Lynne Pidel (New York, NY), Ron Rocco (New York, NY), Mary Ross (Binghamton, NY), Lynne Sachs (Baltimore, MD), E Jessie Shefrin (Alfred Station, NY), Alan Sondheim (New York, NY) Jed Speare (Boston, MA), Jim Supanick (Brooklyn, NY), Diane Teramana (Cincinnati, OH), Liselot van der Heijden (New York, NY), Julius Vitali (Flicksville, PA), Walter Wright (Boston, MA), Jud Yalkut (Dayton, OH).

Tapes produced at the Center were again included in EXHIBITIONS throughout the United States and Europe. Artists have been recently included in the 18th Annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Reel NY and the 11th Annual MIX Festival in New York. Tapes were shown at such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum Biennial, the New Museum of Contemporary Art and at museums and galleries throughout Europe. Tapes are distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, Filmmakers Coop, Drift Distribution, Facets, Women Make Movies and many others. Artists working at the Center this year have received awards and recognition from the Ohio Arts Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Canada Council and won numerous awards and citations in festivals around the world.

Motion, a two month long exhibition curated by John Knecht for the Munson Williams Proctor Institute in Utica, included a tape exhibition honoring the artists who have worked at the Center over the past 25 years. The Center also organized a panel, The Video/Cyber Connection: Technologies in the Arts, exploring the common grounds between the historical evolution of video art and the emerging Web works.

This year, the DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY provided to artists in residence has been upgraded; with support from the Technology Assistance and Planning Grants Program, we have added a G4 Mac computer with non-linear editing and image manipulation software. The computer will be used within the image processing system, and is interfaced to provide artists with uniquely integrated analog and digital tools. We also added several DV decks and other ancillary equipment to enhance the processing capabilities of the system. The Center was founded on the principle that artists require hands-on experiences with their art-making tools and those tools must be powerful, interactive and flexible.

 

The Center serves as a SPONSORING ORGANIZATION for artists’ projects in the electronic and film arts. We provide support services, assist with development and provide fiscal and administrative management services. We sponsor about 20 projects. Since 1996, total requests to foundations were over $800,000. We have administered awards to artists totaling $186,100. Completed projects have received worldwide exhibition and distribution.

Irit Batsry received support from the New York State Council on the Arts for “These Are Not My Images (neither there nor here)”, a work which questions the way we see and show reality. It was premiered at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam in 2000, and has been widely screened in Europe. It received additional support from Academy of Media Arts,La Sept/ARTE, The Experimental TV Center, Central St. Martins College of Arts (London), Grand Canal (Paris),and The Lux Center (London).

Slawomir Grunberg completed “School Prayer: A Community Divided”, an Emmy-award winning documentary illuminating the debate over prayer in the public schools. The project received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, the Soros Documentary Fund and the Independent Television Service. Slawomir’s new documentary, “Through the Eyes of Albert Maysels”, received support this year from the New York State Council on the Arts.

 

Alan Berliner received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for work on “The Sweetest Sound”. This project has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, ITVS, ARTE-TV, and Channel 4. Alan’s new film, Elegy, received support this year from the New York State Council on the Arts. The Righteous Person’s Foundation awarded Alan major support for his film work in 2000.

 

David Blair, a visual artist working in New York City whose feature-length film and Internet text project “Wax” has received world-wide exhibition and distribution, received support from the New York State Council on the Arts for “The Telepathic Motion Picture of the Lost Tribe”, a feature-length project with Internet, installation and videotape versions.

 

The New York State Council on the Arts also supported “Time Shifts: A Visual Narrative”, a new work for computer graphics, text and video installation by collaborators Peer Bode, Joseph Scheer and Jessie Shefrin.

Barbara Hammer was able to complete work on “The Female Closet”, with assistance from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Wexner Center; she received support in 1998 for Culture Doctor.

Susan Muska completed “The Brandon Teena Story”, a documentary which received two awards from the Astraea Foundation. Muska’s new work in collaboration with Greta Olafsdottir, “Women and Genocide”, has received support from the Mary and John McCarthy Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Chase Manhattan Foundation, and the Rosie O’Donnell Foundation.

  Since 1989 the Film and Electronic Arts GRANTS PROGRAM, has awarded over $600,000 to individual artists and arts organizations in the State.
 

Presentation Funds provides support to New York State organizations for in-person appearances by film and media artists. The program brings innovative cinema programming, including independent film and media art created with new technologies, as well as audio installation works to new audiences and to underserved communities in all regions of the State. In addition the program assists organizations which serve special constituencies and encourages the development of new presentation venues throughout the State. This year we provided partial support to 43 organizations representing 18 counties throughout the State, providing over 12,000 people the opportunity to view independently produced work. The organizations contributed over $235,000 from other sources in support of these exhibitions. Cornell Cinema, the NY Expo of Short Films, Educational Video Center, Neto Hatinakwe, CEPA Gallery, Dance Theater Workshop, Visual Studies Workshop, Thread Waxing Space, the Saratoga Film Forum, Squeaky Wheel, and the Foundation for Hellenic Culture have all received support.

Now in its 11th year, the program has provided over $135,000 in support of New York State artists, to assist with the completion of diverse and innovative work. Finishing Funds 2000 supported 24 electronic media and film projects by artists from all regions of the State. Panelists were Mara Alper, Assistant Professor of Media at Ithaca College and a producer of experimental documentary works, and independent filmmaker and art installation consultant Robert Attanasio. This year’s work is very diverse, encompassing web projects, 16mm hand-processed and experimental films, interactive installations, single channel digital video, live mixed-media performance and audio collage. The work includes experimental documentary, stereo 3-D film, mixed media performance, site-specific installations and personal narrative. Artists address topics including urban homesteading, the Esperanza Gardens, representations of lesbians in popular culture, New York City booksellers, the film work of Tom Chomont, the erotic politics of sailor hazing rituals and futures trading. The works have received additional support from the Frameline, the New York State Council on the Arts, Creative Capital Fund, The Playboy Foundation, Harvestworks, Downtown Community TV Center, Rotterdam Intermedia, Red Dive, and Manhattan Neighborhood Network. This year’s recipients include Zoe Beloff, Brian Frye, Neil Goldberg, Barbara Hammer, Jody LaFond, Ken Montgomery and Diane Nerwen.
The newly created Media Arts Technical Assistance Fund is designed to help non-profit media arts programs in New York State stabilize, strengthen or restructure their media arts organizational capacity, services and activities. This year we supported 14 organizations throughout the State for programmatic and administrative development projects including attendance at the Association of Moving Image Archivists annual conference in Montreal in November 1999. Assistance was provided to such organizations as the Columbia County Council on the Arts, Film/Video Arts, Media Alliance, Paper Tiger Television, Standby and the Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival.

In keeping with our EDUCATIONAL objectives, we will host the 6th Annual International Student Residency, a 10 day intensive residency for 17 graduate and undergraduate students representing Alfred University; University of Buffalo; Binghamton University; Atlanta College of Art; Syracuse University; Temple University. The workshop is co-taught by Pamela Susan Hawkins and Hank Rudolph. Students may register for credit. The Center also participated in the Funding Opportunities for Independent Digital/New Media Artists panel, sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Thundergulch and Media Alliance. We consulted with curator John Knecht and curator Mary Murray at the Munson Williams Proctor Institute in Utica regarding Motion, which presented installations and a tape program featuring the media work of upstate artists. The Center also organized a panel, The Video/Cyber Connection: Technologies in the Arts, exploring the common grounds between the historical evolution of video art and the emerging Web works.

 

The Center is committed to the early history of media art and its PRESERVATION. Housed at the Center is a collection of over 1000 videotapes which chronicle work produced here over the last 27 years. We are a member of the steering committee of Independent Media Arts Preservation. As a past participant in the National Moving Image Database project of the American Film Institute, we have constructed computer-based catalog of videotapes, which will be integrated with institutional library holding around the world.

 

Since 1994, the Center has been working on the VIDEO HISTORY PROJECT an on-going research initiative which reflects the multiple and interrelated histories of the media arts field, and gives voice to the those engaged with the early historical development of video art and community television. The project involves an interrelated set of activities combining the identification of primary resource materials, research, the collection of oral histories, the creation of educational resource materials, a World Wide Web site, and Video History: Making Connections, a conference concerning the links between the early history and contemporary practice.

 

The project goals are to identify and make accessible information which describes and locates resources concerning independently created media; to facilitate partnerships for preservation of the works; to encourage the exhibition and study of these materials among curators, educators, and scholars; and to increase public awareness of and appreciation for media history throughout the State and nationally.

 

The Video History: Making Connections conference concerning the links between the early history and contemporary practice was held October 16-18, 1998 at Syracuse University in conjunction with the Common Ground Conference, sponsored by the NYS Alliance for Arts Education. Bringing together pioneering practitioners and contemporary artists working in new media and interactive technologies, the conference celebrated our history and established new partnerships with cultural and educational institutions nationally. Over 250 individuals from around the country attended.

 

Launched in the Summer 2000, the Video History Web functions as a both a research collection and dissemination medium. The site is dynamic and interactive, encouraging contributions by visitors. Resources include critical essays, manuscripts, interviews, biographies, an extensive bibliography and information on collections, distribution, tools, preservation, organizations, and individuals. The site is fully searchable.

 

The Center's programs are supported by the Electronic Media and Film Program at the New York State Council on the Arts, the Statewide Challenge Grant Program, the Media Arts Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Media Action Grant Program of Media Alliance, by corporate support from Dave Jones Design and Black Hammer Productions and by the contributions of many individual artists.