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VIDEO ZINE #3 錄像雜誌第三期 / Presencing … Becoming 就在此瞬間 - p.3

1. Artistic Truths, Constructed Truths 創造性的事實

What are artistic truths? Truths that divorce art from reality (modernist aesthetics)? Or (postmodern) subjectivism about truths? Do makers of art believe that they have truths to impart? To the audience, does a work of art offer truths that are at once visionary and coming forth through thoughtful craftsmanship? In what unique ways do works of art purport to our “knowing” the world? To Alain Badiou, art produces (finite) “truths of its own, but it does so through oblique means, by dealing with sensible images, objects, bodies, or the material dimension…” The video essays in this session raise these questions and are themselves an answer.

Reference: 
Elie During, Alain Badiou: Key Concepts; Chapter 8: Art (Acumen Publishing, 2010), 82-93. 
Andy Hamilton, “Artistic Truth,” Cambridge University Press; 11 March 2013, on-line, 

藝術可賦予真相？西方現代主義美學和後現代思維都強調藝術與現實的隔離，而藝術性的真相維護所謂事實的主觀性。創作者相信他們的創作可傳授或發放真相？對讀者觀者而言，會期待一個作品透過精巧的技術帶給她們的是具洞見的真相嗎？創作能讓人獨特的認知世界嗎？對來說，藝術生產的真相是有限的，卻是別成一類的真相，只不過真相發放以隱晦為重 -- 透過可理喻的影像、物件、身體、物理條件等等的處理。這個部份的錄像文章的作者都直接或間接提出上述的問題，又或她們的文章本身就是某種特殊的對應。

singing into the virtual private network
滑惜子
Hua Xi Zi "Cecilia"
10'49" | 16:9 | 2020 | DigitalHD
Location : Chicago, USA 美國，芝加哥
Selected category:
[1] Object Lives, Object-logues 「東西自白」
[2] Detailed explanation of a single art work 「我的作品由零說起」
[4] On-site documentation 「留住一瞬即逝的」
[7] video essays that explain how algorithm works 打開編碼演算的黑盒
Keywords
關鍵字

  • Audiovisual material, Internet material, Live video
  • 影音材料 , 網絡材料 , 現場錄像

f*Warning: strobe light effect

This video documents in real time as one camera sensor looks into another. It is live documentation without editing, forming feedback loops in both visual and audio. Using the internet and the ZOOM web-conference software, I “Zoom-called” myself using two machines (phone and computer) that could initiate a video call with both their cameras and microphones.

The green dot and the pink flickering lights are camera sensor lights, shown only when two cameras interact with one another. The cameras also capture my own face, shown on both screens. It is a study: signals sent through the internet produce flickering lights and sounds while vibrating with my fingers touching the phone-screen as well as vibrating with my own voice. It is like yelling towards the internet's black hole – thus the title "singing into the virtual private network". The other sound track is a sonification synthesis of the video signal, made with jit.peek patch on Max/Jitter.

*警告：強光閃爍

這個視頻作品實時記錄了攝像頭感應另一個攝像頭的過程，現場紀錄，沒有剪輯。攝像頭信號的相互感應與拍攝，形成了反饋頻閃的影像與噪聲。通過⽹絡和zoom會議視頻軟件，我連接了手邊有攝像頭的機器:電腦與手機。

綠⾊的點是攝像頭的感應燈，粉色的視頻反饋頻繁閃爍，時而出現同時被拍攝到的⾃己的臉。這好像⼀個研究過程：信號通過網絡的傳遞產⽣了感應的閃爍與聲音，同時從我⼿指與喉嚨發出的震動、哼唱的歌聲也產⽣了迴旋。就好像是網絡⿊洞發出了無限循環的吶喊一樣，故名，向虛擬私人的網絡歌唱。另一聲軌的聲音是視頻信號所發出的，用軟件 Max/Jitter 的jit.peek製作。

BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介

Hua Xi Zi (Cecilia) works and thinks about light and the experience of seeing – in exploring the flowing life and one’s relation with outside systems. From celluloid film, analogue video signal to digital video processing, screen-based and optical projections, installed and performed, Cecilia questions the existing methods of shadow-image production by experimenting with alternative ways to “un-expose.” It is the refusal to use representational images to explicitly represent one topic, community, or ideology. Her practice and research turned into materiality while asking questions about spectatorship and participation – seeking for the tenderness that withholds freedom and forgiveness.

Her recent performance was live-streamed at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, her installations exhibited at “思考回路 • Shikoukairo II-III” by Asian Improv aRts Midwest, 2019 Setouchi Triennale in Japan, and 2019 New Blood Performance Festival in Chicago. Her films were screened at SF Cinematheque CROSSROADS 2020 Film Festival and the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival, among others. Hua Xi Zi received her Master of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

滑惜子的創作與思考圍繞有關光和看的事，探尋流動的生命及個體與外界系統間的關係。從膠⽚、模擬視頻信號到電子視頻數據，螢幕到投影，裝置的亦是表演的，向已有影像生產提出質疑，實驗⾮傳統的「去曝光」⽅法，轉向對影像材質、處理及觀看問題的研究。這些實驗與探索從她決定放下相機的那⼀刻開始，不再為了傳遞信息與代表任何話題、群體、意識形態而將影像機器當作工具使用，從⽽轉向對生產影像的⼯具本身的研究，探索抽象的、過程的、材料的。實驗新的曝光、觀看⽅式與介入的關係，是一种保留了最后的自由与原谅的温柔。

近期在網絡線上表演與芝加哥 Experimental Sound Studio，裝置作品展出於2020、2021 《思考回路 • Shikoukairo II & III》，2019日本瀨戶內藝術祭、2019芝加哥New Blood 表演藝術節；錄像作品於2020 SF Cinematheque CROSSROADS 電影節、2018帕克城Slamdance 電影節等放映。畢業於芝加哥藝術學院修獲藝術碩士學位。

WEBSITE
創作者網址

https://ceciliahua.com/
Jurors’ notes:

I like video feedback. (John Chow)

She has set up an interesting game and she plays (experiments) for herself. (Linda Lai)

And she did it just using light. … I felt anxiety watching it, almost like I had to puke. And yet I enjoyed it so very much. Beauty in simplicity. (WONG Fei-pang)

I wish this work could be presented live here because it addresses the Video Conferencing tools of growing importance recently. (Hoi Wong)

The Years Flow Like Water
日落照
PUN Tsz-wai
潘子懷
14'02" | 16:9 | 2021 | HD
Original Language : Cantonese 廣東話
Subtitle : English 英文
Location : Hong Kong 香港
Selected category:
[5] Video essay: thematic 「有板有眼，有話要說」
Keywords
關鍵字

  • Time, Nostalgia, Collective memory
  • 時間, 懷舊, 集體回憶

The Years Flow Like Water details a fictional encounter between the video essayist and an elephant opposite a playground in Lai Chi Kok. By evoking and interweaving Lai Yuen Amusement Park and Canto-pop Icon Anita Mui as emblems of Hong Kong’s collective memory, the work explores the nature of nostalgia and the passing of time.

如果大象擁有記憶，他會否忘記，又或懷念那不能留住的昨天嗎？《日落照》虛擬昔日荔園大象天奴和我的對話，穿插起梅艷芳出道和道別的故事，嘗試去探討回憶與時間流逝的主題。

BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介

Pun is a Hong Kong-based emerging video artist. In the age of speed and sight-and-sound saturation, she reflects upon the meaning of stillness. In her work, she explores the nature of time, freedom and memory. Challenging the conventional split between documentary and fictional storytelling, she experiments with narrativity and imaging in a playful way. Pun holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Sciences from the University College London and is currently an MFA student at the School of Creative Media, the City University Hong Kong. 

潘子懷 ，2019年畢業於倫敦大學學院, 主修文理本科與哲學。現於香港創意媒體學院修讀藝術創作碩士課程。她的影像作品，試圖探索回憶、自由與時間，在快速、聲影所滲透的時代，她思考靜態的意義，又質疑傳統上紀錄片與虛構的敘述的必然分割，並以嬉戲的語調和創作手法去回應。

WEBSITE
創作者網址

https://www.instagram.com/_sz_wai/
Dear Mr. Ishida
Sebastian Bobik
8'21" | 16:9 | 2020 | Digital HD
Original Language : English 英文
Location : Austria
Selected category:
[2] Detailed explanation of a single art work 「我的作品由零說起」
Keywords
關鍵字

  • Bologna, Japan, Cinema, Film
  • 巴隆拿, 日本, 電影 , 錄像

In 2017 I saw a film called Hana Chirinu** in Bologna at a festival. It was just one of many cinematic encounters I have had with Japanese cinema over the years, yet this one stuck with me in particular. Since then I have realised how hard it is to see the film outside of Japan. I have decided to send its maker a filmic letter through time and space.

**Editor’s note:
Hana Chirinu 花ちりぬ (Flowers have Fallen), 1938, dir. Tamizo Ishida, Japan 

BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介

Sebastian Bobik is an Austrian filmmaker. In 2020, he graduated from the Friedl Kubelka School of Independent Film.

Jurors’ notes:                   

It is simply enchanting to see videos of this kind -- using moving images to “rescue” lost moving images, especially lost films. It opens a different door to cinematic history -- is it really not possible to write film history when the film text is lost or restrictively viewable? (Linda Lai)

I simply find the idea of the work romantic, and the piece is easy to digest. (WONG Fei-pang)

The___________World
OUYANG Peixuan
歐陽霈萱
17'55" | 16:9 | 2020 | HD
Original Language :
Subtitle : English 英文
Location : USA, China 美國，中國
Selected category:
[5] Video essay: thematic 「有板有眼，有話要說」
Keywords
關鍵字

  • Disconnection, Connection, Globalization
  • 失聯, 聯繫, 全球化

The ____ World is a personal essay about connection and disconnection, in and through different realities.

BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介

OUYANG Peixuan (b. 1996) is an artist primarily working with experimental nonfiction videos. Ouyang is interested in how images infiltrate and mediate everyday life, and how humans negotiate with the world and connect with each other through images. Many of Ouyang’s projects focus on monumentality, globalization, and the absurdity of living.