VIDEO ARTISTS REACH ACROSS THE OCEAN TO CREATE

THE NEXT GENERATION OF PUBLIC ART

Cooperative Video Installations in the UK and at Columbia College Chicago

Bring Digital-Age Art to the Streets

July 18, 2005

 

Chicago, IL – VIBE, a collective of video artists experimenting with screens and video projectors in public spaces, is collaborating with Cornerhouse Gallery in Manchester, England to exchange video collections and screen them in public venues in Chicago, Manchester and Liverpool.

VIBE explores the proliferation of video screens and projections and their impact on urban space.  “For centuries we have used laws and networks of buildings and infrastructure to shape cities,” says artist and one of the exhibition organizers, Mat Rappaport. “VIBE explores alternatives of city-building that transform public spaces to influence the urban experience. Our intention is to create works that intervene and engage the public through site-specific video and media works that respond to the urban environment.”

 

This August 2-14 VIBE will redefine public art with VIBE SUMMER05: CHICAGO

 

In a multi-projection outdoor installation environment at the intersection of Wabash and 11^th Street on the campus of Columbia College Chicago, VIBE will premier four site specific works that integrate the built environment and media imagery in a public space. The installation will take place on Tuesday, August 2 from 8:30 – 10 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Artists and site specific works:

Annette Barbier, Chair, Department of Interactive Arts and Media Columbia College Chicago (as of August 15). Currently with Northwestern University’s Department of Radio/TV/Film.

Escape: The first in a series of works reflecting on the life of buildings – what has happened in their past, what lies within, and how they relate to the natural environment. This work uses the evocative potential of the fire escape to speak about flight, disappearance and leave-taking.

Drew Browning, Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois Chicago School of Art and Design.

Preserving Disorder: Based on the social unrest of 1968 in the area of the conference, this piece looks at issues of dissent and disorder. A person walking on the sidewalk will interact with images from the summer of ’68, triggering behavior in virtual agents that reflects that of the protestors and police.

Mat Rappaport, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee

rove: rove explores the notions of alertness through an examination of travel and commute patterns as well as body language. Rove is comprised of two video screens with audio. The first video screen is mobile and mounted in the back of a moving van which traces a path in Chicago’s inner loop. A second screen is located at the corners of Wabash and 11^th. Once every four minutes the mobile screen will pull up to the stationary screen and rests for one minute, then continue its loop.

Conrad Gleber, College of Visual Arts & Dance, Florida State University.

Building Id, A sequence of projected video images suggest a building achieves its status as a cultural edifice by the place it has in our social life and its role as a witness over time. The images, all subjects about movement, seen together with the building create an entity, a character, out of the relationship between the juxtaposition of the building’s place and how we see it.

From August 2 – 14, in the street level windows at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, VIBE will screen two video collections. Screenings will take place daily from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. The one-hour combined program will run continuously and is free and open to the public. Works will include a collection selected by Kate Taylor of the Manchester UK, Cornerhouse Gallery and a collection of short works from artists in the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, Serbia, India and Canada selected by VIBE organizers, John Marshall, Mat Rappaport and Conrad Gleber.  

            During the same period of time, videos will also be screened in Exchange Square in Manchester and the Big Screen in Clayton Square, Liverpool. The Columbia College Chicago venue is sponsored by the college’s Department of Television and Office of Campus Environment. VIBE SUMMER05 CHICAGO is being presented in association with the University Film & Video Association Conference.

Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Founded in 1890 as a communications school for women, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D. Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Through the diversity of its students and graduates, the school brings a rich vision and multiplicity of voices to American culture. For further information visit www.colum.edu.

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