As part of the biannual monthlong experimental media arts
festival in Los Angeles this month, “TV or NOT TV”
finally reaches Westwood, bringing the strange and the bizarre to
the UCLA Hammer Museum and the EDA space in Suite 104 of the
Kinross Building this weekend.
The festival finishes its run in Westwood with a series of three
video programs which touch on varying aspects of the experimental
art form.
In “Modify ““ Speculative Technology,” one of
the exhibits to be featured, artists present video works that
question the results of artificially-created human body parts,
challenging people’s views on the future of technology.
Think of it as something like Edward Scissor Hands creating art
with computers and Web sites rather than forming it with hedge
trimmers and topiaries, or Michael Jackson using his talents to
create something other than music, like performing plastic surgery
on others. In this art form, there are no boundaries, no norms, and
nothing unexpected.
To promote the exhibit, a free reception on Saturday night from
7 to 11 p.m. in the EDA space is open to the public and will
include a Genetically Modified Café, where everything served
from wine to cheese and crackers will come from a genetically
modified source.
Several of the video works can even be viewed at nighttime on
public access cable channels in Pasadena and Los Angeles.
According to Anne Bray, founder and executive director of the
festival, the public access component gives both art connoisseurs
and couch potatoes an equal opportunity to experience the video art
form by extending its accessibility outside of the museum.
“We started using public access right away to address the
fact that it was video and the fact that we wanted to increase
audiences for this experimental material,” Bray said.
“The artists will drive over and go to the gallery, but the
folks that are at home on their couches, we wanted to entice them
to come out.”
According to Bray, over 57,000 people tuned in to watch the
offbeat programming last Sunday, a number that is considered
unusually high in comparison to the ratings of many other public
access programs.
For those brave enough to trek down to the actual venues to see
the works, however, there’s still time. The last event for
the festival occurs Nov. 30 at the Vermont Music Café, where
experimental artists will showcase their original karaoke videos
accompanied with vocal performances by members of the audience.
Who knows? Maybe Edward Scissor Hands might be there singing his
own rendition of “Thriller.” Nothing should be
unexpected.
For more information and location of venues, log on to
Freewaves.org.