[spectre] Two recent DVD titles from Aspect Media

[Joel S. Bachar]

The Blackchair DVD Collection Recommends:
TWO recent titles from Aspect Media:

ASPECT – THE CHRONICLE OF NEW MEDIA
VOLUME I – ARTISTS OF THE BOSTON CYBERARTS FESTIVAL 
&
ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES – PROJECTS FOR TV by Douglas Weathersby
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ASPECT – THE CHRONICLE OF NEW MEDIA
VOLUME I – ARTISTS OF THE BOSTON CYBERARTS FESTIVAL 

Aspect is a biannual DVD magazine of new media art. The mission of the 
publication is to distribute and archive works of time-based art. 

Each issue highlights 5-10 artists working in new or experimental 
media, whose works are best documented in video or sound. Each work 
can be viewed with or without an additional commentator audio track.

The 2003 Boston Cyberarts Festival is an international biennial 
festival that brings together artists in all media who are using 
computers to advance traditional artistic disciplines and to create 
new interactive worlds. The Festival will take place at museums, 
galleries, theaters, educational institutions, and public spaces in 
and around Boston. This unique DVD magazine will allow for people to 
view video, installation, sound, and performance work of some of the 
oustanding participating artists.

Copyright 2003. 65 minutes. $25.00 with Public Performance Rights.
Wholesale discounts available!

Included in this issue: 

CHRISTY GEORG: Attainment 
with audio commentary by Roland Smart 

Attainment is a device going through the motions, using a measured 
process, to attain harmony, or curb discord. A scientific instrument 
slowly drips water into a glass, which periodically spins to 
be "played" by a cork-tipped player arm. Concurrently, a small hammer 
strikes a tuning fork, indicating the aural goal. Again and again, as 
the glass fills with water, it alters its pitch closer to that of the 
tuning fork. Its struggle is in the attempt to attain perfect pitch, 
which once attained, is fleeting.

RAVI JAIN: 3speed 2000 
with audio commentary by James Hull 

3Speed 2000 documents the journey of three ‘transportation pioneers’ 
aboard the first high speed train in America, Amtrak’s Acela Express. 
The video is part of an ongoing performance based piece in which I 
strive to be the first to traverse notable large-scale transportation 
systems. For each of these milestones I adopt a different personality. 
Drawn from literary and historical sources, these personae celebrate 
the romance of explorations past. Clad in matching flight suits and 
helmets, the 3Speed 2000 trio radiates a bravura and optimism that 
recalls the glamour of early space travel.

HENRY KAUFMAN: The Memory of Your Touch 
with audio commentary by Denise Markonish 

When someone touches you and takes their hand away, what do you feel 
afterwards? Is that tingling warmth sensation something of them, or is 
it created in your body? What do you leave behind of yourself when you 
touch something? If you could see the imprint of your touch, what 
would it look like? "The Memory of Your Touch" is one result of my 
exploration of these thoughts. My vision was to make it possible to 
see what you leave behind and turn that ephemeral residue into 
something physical with weight, and yet light at the same time.

PETER TUCKER: Irrigation 
with audio commentary by Bill Arning 

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to 
have been only like a child playing on the sea-shore, diverting myself 
in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst 
the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”   Sir Isaac 
Newton 

Like Newton, I play. I use a variety of materials in the search for 
that smoother pebble, with the hope that the process or product will 
have some truth to it, a point of inspiration or moment of 
contemplation for the viewer. 

Play embraces ways of seeing, doing and being that are easily lost in 
our fast-paced world. I strive for an openness or awakening in 
attitude and approach to the world around me. My goal is to bring this 
approach to my artwork and, through the work, to transfer it to the 
viewer. 

Irrigation focuses on the creation of new and merging forms and lines. 
It alters reality to help us focus on reality. The sound serves to 
disturb the environment as the mirrors disturb the image. 

For me, Irrigation represents the disjunction between watering and the 
desert environment of the southwest. It also recalls the pleasure of 
performing this simple, solitary task.

DAVID WEBBER: Language Extension#4 
with audio commentary by Dana Moser

The two blenders sit on top of a TV and mimic the speech of the people 
in the soap opera video. Blender noise becomes a vocal extension of 
the TV character that relays the sibilance of speech manifested in 
mechanical form. The voices pitch and loudness control the speed and 
intensity of the blender creating a sonic envelope of words. This 
piece deals with the McGurk effect, in the mismatch between the 
auditory signal and the visual signal to create a third phoneme 
different from both the original auditory and visual speech signals. 
Here the McGurk effect changes the perception of meaning by forcing 
one to rely on the visual reading of lips and gesture for the 
decipherment of the sound meaning. The meaning is altered but conveyed 
through implied meaning associations of lip motion and gesture. This 
piece is one in a series that investigates language and the 
multiplicity of meaning.

Editor: Michael Mittelman

Copyright 2003. 65 MINUTES
$25.00 (with Public Performance Rights)
To order: orders at microcinema.com
Or go to: 
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=%20204

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ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES – PROJECTS FOR TV by Douglas Weathersby

Douglas Weathersby creates site-specific installations by combining 
artmaking with the business of cleaning, home repair, art 
installation, and other services. Weathersby uses his commercial 
enterprise, EnvironMental SerVices, as a means to support and create 
his art. Clients hire him to perform an agreed upon service while 
giving him permission to make art. Using light and the dust and 
detritus accumulated while performing these services he creates 
temporary installations which he documents with video and photographs. 
DVD includes: 18 videos and over 40 still images.

Copyright 2003. 40 MINUTES
$30.00 (with Public Performance Rights)
To order: orders at microcinema.com
Or go to: 
http://www.microcinema.com/programResult.php?program_id=%20205