Erosion of medium purification by time-based media in the 1970s

Erosion of medium purification by time-based media in the 1970s

Video artist Nam June Paik and computer artist Lillian Schwartz were pioneers of their artistic fields. Even though both artists worked within their medium, their work with time-based media in the 1970s combined aspects from other media and therefore undermine the ideologies of medium purification promoted by Clement Greenberg.
This essay will look at the Video art works TV Buddha 'figure 1' TV Garden 'figure 2' TV Cello 'figure 3' by Nam June Paik and computer art works PIXILLATION 'figure 4', UFOs 'figure 5' and ALAE 'figure 6' by Lillian Schwartz. And discuss how the artists integrated real-time generation, illusions of three-dimensions and sculptural elements, philosophical and scientific exploration , and combined moving images, both figurative and abstract, with music and at times with spoken or written words.


For Greenberg modernism was to be the formal focus of a medium, self-reflexive, on its own specificity and it was modernisms task to purify media of all that was non specific to the medium.
Greenberg set out a series of parameters for the visual arts. Artists should refrain from the use of words to prevent perversion of the medium. The implementation of the illusion of three-dimension in two dimensional media of should be removed as pursuing the illusion conflicts with the sculptural medium. In regards to music Greenberg considered it the art of pure form and immediate sensation, and as a result its susceptibility to tainting by other media is lessened. And Literature which focuses on subject matter, is therefore dichotomous to music.¹


Time-based media therefore is antithetical when placed within the frame of Greenberg's view of medium purification. Time-based media combines aspects from other media which are not native to their medium. In the case of Paik, the integration of real-time camera feeds and sculptural elements whereas for Schwartz the illusions of three-dimensions in the two-dimensional image which therefore erodes the ideologies of medium purification. Paik's initial explorations into video art were heavily influenced by association with Fluxus art and studies in the late 1950s in music and philosophy. This influence led to his combination of elements from performance and theater, painting, sculpture, dance and music.² In his video installation TV Buddha (1974) Paik combined elements from sculpture and video. The work is perhaps one of Paik's most identifiable as it employs an iconographically identified object, a statue of Buddha who, through a closed circuit TV, is viewing a real time image of itself. This use of camera, real time circuit loop and iconographic imagery blurs the object to subject distinction.³ In another seminal video installation which combined sculpture and video by Paik, TV Garden demonstrated a new aesthetic discourse and capacity for technological composition by combining a vast number of tropical plans with thirty television sets of various sizes. The site-specific installation created a new visual experience, a liminal space between the natural and scientific, setting a new standard for immersive video. Paik's also merged real time video and sculptural elements in his work TV Cello but additionally integrated music and performance in his collaboration with classical cellist Charolette Moorman. TV Cello was constructed from three television sets which had been removed from their casing and installed into plexiglass boxes to show their inner workings. A cello bridge and tailpiece were adorned with strings to form a cello-like instrument which Moorman stated was the first real innovation in cello design since the 1600s.⁴
For Lillian Schwartz, her practice developed through her innovations with the computer as an art medium and digital film manipulation at Bell Labs, when the systems were linear in time and space. Each of her computer art works PIXILLATION, UFOs and ALAE are hybrids of medium employing the use of computational image generation, hand colored animation, film and music. Programs had yet to be developed to provide a malleable palette and the ability to control moving pixels so Schwartz intermixed hand colored animation with computer-generated black and white texture. To permit the eye to see a deeper saturation of color arrangement she developed an editing technique to match the colors between the two media. What makes these works unique is the illusion of three-dimensions which arise from the interplay of texture and saturated colors when viewed through CromaDepth 3D glasses. Essentially this technique works by sorting the three-dimensional position of colors according to their position in the rainbow, for example bringing red to the foreground. These techniques were applied to PIXILLATION (1970) which is a four minute computer art work and UFOs(1971), a three minute computer artwork . Another unique aspect of this technique is that while the works give the illusion of three-dimensions while wearing ChromaDeph glasses, the works are compositionally coherent when viewed without them.⁵


It is important to note that this scientific exploration within Schwartz's practice is dichotomous to the self-reflexive nature of medium purification. Paik's practice was also non self-reflexive in that his works often delved into philosophical and spiritual dialogue. The scientific exploration into the boundaries of technology by Bell Laboratories in the 1970's was influenced by popular news and culture of the times. For Schwartz her investigations into the science of vision were prompted by her contraction of chorioretinitis, which manifested in inflammation and scar tissue of the right retina. Causing permanent visual distortion and loss of depth perception, a devastating ailment for a visual artist but one that had a profound effect.⁶ While the exploration in PIXILLATION primarily focused on chroma depth her exploration in UFOs expanded into a film breakthrough that developed an individualised viewing experience. Schwartz reshot film using an optical bench through a series of specialised filters to exponentially intensify color saturation, which was inter-edited with black frames. The stimulation of the rods and cones in the human eye disrupt the brains alpha rhythms a process called stroboscopy, thus when combined with the ChromaDepth glasses, created a unique viewing experience.
While Paik also explored the boundaries of technology, in his case the television and portable camera, he pioneered its transformation into a post-modern art form due to his understanding of technologies meaning and social presence in the 1970s. He believed that it was short sighted to view television as the equivalent of a radio with pictures or as a commodity for entertainment.

television represented a new communications technology of enormous potential and signaled the beginning of a post-industrial age where manufacturing, the organization of society, and the making of art would be transformed.⁷

Composer John Cage suggested to Paik to integrate religion, which was influenced by his oriental heritage, into his practice. Later Paik proposed that technology had the potential to explore elements to visualise spiritualization. This exploration is evident in TV Buddha, the buddha, in a meditation mundra, is denied its transcendence from its own physicality as it sits contemplating its own projected image in the closed-loop circuit. The buddha, grounded by the surface of reality and time, caught in its own reflection becomes the exemplification of ceaseless meditation on thought and non-through. The inward looking contemplative state of Buddhism is transformed by Paik in TV Buddha, to outward looking state and through the use of technological multiplication the buddha has been prepared for mass media consumption and secularization.⁸


Finally it is important to note that while time-based media used by Paik and Schwartz in the 1970s relied on using technology as a visual and audio medium, combining elements from other media further eroded the ideologies of medium purification. Aspects such as the combination of moving images, both abstract and figurative, with music and at times with words, spoken or written. Sound for Paik was integrated into his works in varying ways. In the video installation TV Garden the thirty televisions are all playing Global Groove, the 1973 collaboration with John J Godfrey. Global Groove contains a mix of music and spoken word, still and animated images both figurative and abstracted from performers from around the world. Where as in TV Cello the often distorted images of cellist Charollette Moorman and other cellists were visible on the screens when Moorman moved the bow or plucked on the strings and a ominous electronically distorted sound was produced and amplified.⁹
For Lillian Schwartz her works relied heavily on music, figurative and abstracted images to enhance her practice. And due to the limitations of the technology available, she integrated traditional materials such as silkscreen, cell animation and film into her early works.¹⁰ PIXILLATION ,one of Schwartz's earliest works at Bell Laboratories, is an intense assault on the senses with soft blossoming forms that transform into labyrinth patternations of flickering hard-edged abstraction, while swirls of blood drop shaped forms phase in and out of existence. During the course of the work the effects escalate in a crescendo. To achieve this effect Schwartz combined hand colored animation with black and white computer generated textures. The optical experience is accompanied by a auditory score produced by composer Gershon Kingsley, in which each visual queue is punctuated by Moog-synthesized industrial sounds.¹¹ As technology improved so did the reduction in editing time and the complexity of elemental shapes. UFOs was created using 35mm black and white microfilm reshot through colored filters onto 16mm film, the video effects were programed on a computer and visual resembled an early Richter animation.¹² While at no point the forms seen in UFOs are in the same frame together the illusion of three planet like rotating spheres is produced and in the background abstracted computer generated landscapes flash in rapid succession. The electronic music for UFOs was produced on a Moog-synthesizer by composer Emmanuel Ghent. Drawing on inspiration from Eadweard Muybridge, ALAE depicts digitally broken down, optically scanned images of sea birds in flight. They are accompanied by geometric overlays, which when viewed with ChromaDepth glasses create the illusion of depth. The animation is glitched, transformed chromatically and geometrically phasing between figurative and abstraction. The electronic audio track produced by composer F.Richard Moore is hauntingly unsettling, intensifying the viewing experience.


Even though Nam June Paik and Lillian Schwartz were pioneers of and worked within their medium, their work with time-based media in the 1970s combined aspects from other media. In the case of Nam June Paik as the pioneer of video art he integrated video, real-time camera feeds, sculptural elements, music, spoken word and live performance into his works TV Buddha, TV Garden and TV Cello. Whereas for Lillian Schwartz who pioneered computer art , her computer art works PIXILLATION, UFOs and ALAE are hybrids of medium employing the use of computational image generation, hand colored animation, film and music. The scientific exploration into chroma depth which produced the illusions of three-dimensions in the two-dimensional image and the unique viewing experience through Stroboscopy within Schwartz's practice is dichotomous to the self-reflexive nature of medium purification. Additionally Paik's interests within his video works were non self-reflexive as they often delved into philosophical and spiritual dialogues. In conclusion, time-based media for Paik and Schwartz therefore erodes the ideologies of medium purification when placed within the frame promoted by Clement Greenberg.

1. Ernst van Alphen, "On the Possibility and Impossibility of Modernist Cinema: Peter Forgács Own Death" Filozofski vestnik 35, no.2 (2014): 255–269, ttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/279044989_On_the_Possibility_and_Impossibility_of_Modernist_Cinema_Peter_Forgacs_Own_Death.

2. Bruce C. Jones "Projects: Nam June Paik", MoMA, No. 3 (Summer, 1977), p. 6 Published by: The Museum of Modern Art http://www.jstor.org/stable/4380700 Accessed: 05-06-2018

3 Faye Ran, A History Of Installation And The Development Of New Art Forms; Technology And The Hermeneutics Of Time And Space In Modern And Postmodern Art From Cubism To Installation (Peter Lang Publishing Inc, 2009), 189, ProQuest Ebrary.

4 Elizabeth Bacharach, "Charlotte Moorman: Shattering Barriers Between Art And Technology," Medill Reports Chicago, February 24, 2016, http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/charlotte-moorman-shattering-barriers-between-art-and-technology/.

5. Maureen Nappi, "Lillian F. Schwartz redux: In Movement, Color and 3D Chromostereoscopy." Leonardo 48, no. 1 (2015): 55-59, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/566119.

6. Lillian Schwartz, "Oral History Of Lillian Schwartz" Interview by Christopher Garcia, Computer History, Computer History Museum, 2013.
http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2016/06/102746737-05-01-acc.pdf.

7. Robin Oppenheimer, "Video Installation: Characteristics of an Expanding Medium." Afterimage, (March-April 2007): 14+, http://link.galegroup.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/apps/doc/A161758501/EAIM?u=griffith&sid=EAIM&xid=d33b00db.

8. Bert Winther-Tamaki, "The Oriental Guru in the Modern Artist: Asian Spiritual and Performative Aspects of Postwar American Art" Questioning Oriental Aesthetics and Thinking: Conflicting Visions  of “Asia” under the Colonial Empires 38, (2011):321-336. https://doi/10.15055/00002439.

9. "Arirang Special(Ep.312) Nam June Paik's Art and Revolution 1 _ Full Episode" Youtube video, 48.10, posted by "ARIRANG TV", January 22, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0E2v_rbY7s&index=113&list=WL&t=0s.

10. Sue Gollifer, "ACM SIGGRAPH Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art: Lillian Schwartz." Leonardo 48, no. 4 (2015): 324-325, https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01083.

11. Claire Voon, "Paying Tribute to Lillian Schwartz, a Computer Art Pioneer", Hyperallergic, last modified October 19, 2016, https://hyperallergic.com/329466/paying-tribute-lillian-schwartz-computer-art-pioneer/.

12. Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg, Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite (Peachpit Press 2008), 307.

Frank Murri - for the love of pi

Frank Murri : Beauty in the infinite

Figure 1. Frank Murri, The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi - Panel #1 (1-322 digits), 2016. Timber,acrylic and ink on board. Source: Artcollector 2017. Accessed March 14, 2018. http://www.artcollector.net.au/FrankMurriThePrimeIngredientinaBigPieceofPi

For those who celebrate international Pi Day on March 14th (3/14) , you are in for a visual treat. Artist Frank Murri's exhibition The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi (π) is on display at Tweed Regional Gallery, murwillumbah from 24 November to 22 April 2018.

Why Pi ? Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi is a transcendental and irrational number. Pi has been calculated beyond one trillion digits past its decimal point without repetition or pattern. It is the epitome of randomness. What comes before has no influence on what comes next, there is no evident structure or pattern. It appears to be infinite and random yet it embodies order inherent in a perfect circle. The beauty of pi, is that it puts infinity within reach.

Frank Murri (born 1967, Newcastle) is an australian artist who's practice is based in Newcastle , New south wales. Murri is a Self taught Sculptor, who travelled extensively through Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia obtaining the knowledge and developing the theories and skills of sculpting. Over the past 10 years Murri has exhibited at Newcastle, Sydney and Hamilton galleries in solo and group exhibitions as well as being a finalist in various artprizes [1].

For Murri his practice revolves around his interest in capturing not only the truth but the beauty hidden within pure mathematics which transends usual visual forms by abstraction from data representation. The visualisation of data as art is not a new concept. Artists such as Ryoji Ikeda , Nadieh Bremer and Martin Krzywinski have explored the various applications of pi to diverse aesthetic outcomes [2].

Murri has taken a unique approach to mathematical based visual art by developing an art form that attempts to synthesise a design aesthetic, sculpture and advocation of pure abstraction.

The body of work,The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi , consists of a collection of 43 panels. Each 94 x 58 x 5cm. Timber, acrylic & ink on board. The sculptural relief works are constructed from hardwood timbers such as ramin and white wood and are wall-hung. These panels have the first 12,586 digits of Pi enconded in them through the carving and color coding the panels.

Describing the visual process embued into these panels can be as dry for many as sitting through a maths class, but it is nessesary for understanding the work. In The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi - Panel #1 (1-322 digits) (Figure 1) Murri represents each integer of pi by carving a groove into the black timber strips which are joined to form the panels.. The first number, 3, is carved 3cm down from the top left hand corner, next the decimal point and from this point the next integer is carved 1cm down, the following 4cm from the last. The numbers are placed top to bottom, left to right and the process is repeated for the 12,586 digits. The first four prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7) have been highlighted with the primary colors red, yellow and blue sequencially [3] . This structured and formulaic approach has produced a visualisation of pi that creates a tension between order and randomness.

The Tweed River Art Gallery has displayed murra's artwork in a long , climate controlled, hallway . This space is brightly lit by natural light from several windows and with artificial lights which are shone down apon the panels. The windows are located on the north side of the hallway, causing disjointed breaks in the placement of the panels and ultimately lossing the sense of an infinite number which is in contrast to the connecting panels on the opposite wall.

This being said, the works were designed to be modular, with Murri commenting that the body of work itself, as it is based on an infinite number, is limited by the gallery space in which it inhabits.

The strength of this exhibition is that on seeing the digits of pi visualized in physical space, the hidden beauty of mathematics is revealed. It is not just numbers on a page. We see the beauty in the infinite complexities around us which are often overlooked. The Prime Ingredient in a Big Piece of Pi (π) gives you the opportunity to take a moment to appreciate and recognize the extent to which math has allowed us to describe reality. Exposing the inner workings of our universe and putting the infinite within reach.

[1] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c

[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102

https://www.facebook.com/frank.murri




[1] https://m.tweed.nsw.gov.au/CommonLatestNewsDetail.aspx?css=tsc&Domain=www&id=2221


[2] https://m.tweed.nsw.gov.au/trgExhibitionsDetail.aspx?css=trg&id=131


[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102


[4] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/images/MURRI,Frank_CV_2.pdf


[5] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/


[6] http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4634719/neverending-story-of-beautiful-fractals-photos/#slide=5




[7] http://mrag.org.au/exhibition/frank-murri-the-prime-ingredient-in-a-big-piece-of-pi/


[8] https://www.echo.net.au/2017/11/the-art-of-mathematics/


[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c


[10] https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/pi-day-why-pi-matters








[3] http://www.franceskeevilgallery.com.au/essay.php?artistID=102


[9] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/14/10-stunning-images-show-the-beauty-hidden-in-pi/?utm_term=.b21c68f5b91c
[5] https://frankmurri.wordpress.com/cv-bio/

“This art form I’ve developed advocates pure abstraction in an attempt to synthesise a design aesthetic,”

Says Kryzwinski, "Pi Day is a great time to take a moment and recognize the extent to which, as a language to describe reality, math has allowed us to write the details of the workings of our universe."

"Thanks to numbers and math, we can build devices that will deliver this text to you. And, as you read it, we know how fast the photons will be traveling and what happens when they hit your retina. The rest is up to you." [9]

considering the sequential nature of the work seems an odd choice, unless a collector purchased purely for aesthetic consideration.

What else can we take away from these graphics? For one, seeing all of the digits of pi visualized in physical space should help bring home another attribute of mathematics. Math isn't just numbers on a page: From physics to architecture, math is the language that we use to describe and construct the physical world around us. That's especially true for pi, which describes a perfect circle that appears everywhere in nature.

Interpretations of modernism : Clement Greenberg and Walter Benjamin'

Interpretations of modernism :  Clement Greenberg and  Walter Benjamin

This essay discusses interpretations of modernism through the writings of Clement Greenberg's Avant-Garde and Kitsch and Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. For Greenberg modernism brought about two distinct arts, the avant-garde and kitsch, with the avant-garde striving to resist the exploitation of culture by kitsch. He makes his case based on  social, historical, and political observations.
For Benjamin modernism was profoundly impacted by mechanical age of reproduction, which resulted in  concepts such as aura of authenticity, creativity and genius, eternal value and mystery, being made obsolete. Art therefore would be based on process of politics in the absence of traditional and ritualistic value.

While reproduction of art was not a new concept, for Benjamin the advent of the mechanical age and modernism brought about two new methods of reproduction. The process of technological reproduction as a work of art, for example film. And technological devices such as photography which can reproduce any art form, which affects the originals authenticity. For Greenberg the industrial revolution, urbanization and an increase in literacy led to the development of the dichotomous relationship between the kitsch and the avant-garde. The relevance of folk culture dwindled and popular culture filled its void. The  new popular culture, kitsch, demanded nothing from the consumer other than their money. The traditions, acquisitions and refined self-consciousness of a developed culture were exploited, for the mass produced kitsch. It was highly profitable, tempting to the avant-garde and had the potential to masquerade as genuine culture.

Mass-production and kitsch allows mass culture to easily assimilate a work of art, this assimilation is discussed by both authors. Greenberg states that a work by Repin is kitsch , the work predigests the art for the spectator,  the spectator in this case being a Russian peasant.  Repin paints so realistically; with a continuity between art and life; that everything is obvious; presenting no difficulties in interpretation; nothing is left to the viewer.  In contrast an avant-garde work by Picasso relies on a cultivated spectator, permitting viewer reflection. “Where Picasso paints cause, Repin paints effect” But to appreciate Picasso's work the viewer requires the necessity of leisure and education. Class dynamics therefore are recognised in the disparity of the avant-garde and kitsch as few have the privilege, time and means to appreciate high art.
For Benjamin the reaction toward art by the masses changed with mechanical reproduction. The cameraman penetrates the veil of reality where as the painter maintains a distance. Resulting in a progressive reaction towards a Chaplin movie as opposed to a reactionary attitude towards a Picasso painting . And as Greenberg also noted, Benjamin identifies the distinct difference between the educated viewer and mass audience. The educated viewer appreciates the aesthetic value of the work through close observation and is absorbed by it. Where as the artwork is assimilated into the mass audience who only seeks to be entertained and distracted . Once the process of assimilation by the masses is complete the work of art then becomes an instrument of political mobilisation.

Greenberg claimed that artists whom were influenced by historicism, drew on revolutionary political ideas to oppose the masses. The emerging avant-garde liberated themselves of this political foundation and of society, in the pursuit of progressive art, “art for art's sake”.
The art of the avant-garde became reflexive, concentrating on the medium itself. For Greenberg that meant that art was and should be justified in its own terms, and was the subject matter of itself. Regarding film, Benjamin found the defining feature of was the relationship between the actor and the mechanical apparatus. The 'aura' of the actors original performance dissolves as it is replicated apon screens. Benjamin notes that the concept of authenticity of the work of art originates in tradition and ritual . And “even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be” . With the creation of art in secular settings, a work of art is liberated from its ritual roots by technological reproduction. The aesthetic authority of a work of art is absent in the reproduction by changing its cultural context. And the social-value is diverted to political goals once separated from its ritualistic origins. The value is thus determined by is exhibition value, as opposed to being defined by its ritualistic cult value . Quality therefore is found in quantity, and the viewer an absent-minded examiner.

Both authors discuss the political relationship with the arts. Greenberg notes how kitsch was used as the official culture in Russia, Italy and Germany. To ingratiate themselves with their subjects, totalitarian regimes employ kitsch as an economical tool. Regimes flatted the masses by bringing culture down to their level, instead of raising the cultural level. Kitsch was used as a tool for fascism, propaganda was imbued into the entertainment of the masses. Where as avant-garde art, due to its critical nature, was not suited for this purpose. On the contrary, it posed a threat not only to totalitarianism but to capitalism. Benjamin presents an analysis of art in capitalist and fascist society. For capitalism he explains that mass production and the socio-economic conditions result in the exploitation of the proletariat and creates conditions which lead to its downfall .  A formulation of a new theses is therefore identified, diminishing the arts traditional concepts which would render fascism dysfunctional. Factual material is susceptible to manipulation by fascism if these concepts are applied. In the end if aesthetics are integrated into politics, it will lead to war.

Both authors acknowledge the political relationship with the arts and the consumption of the arts by mass culture. For Greenberg modernism brought about two distinct arts, the avant-garde and kitsch, with the avant-garde breaking free of society and historicism, to develop art for arts sake. For Benjamin modernism was profoundly impacted by mechanical reproduction, which resulted in concepts such as aura of authenticity being dissolved.

























Bibliography

Greenberg, Clement. Avant-Garde and Kitsch. Partisan Review, 1939.

Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Translated by Harry Zohn.. New York: Schocken Books, 2007.