Remapping the Boundaries of Genres and Formats
paper by Tomiyama Katsue/ Producer / Image Forum
1. From Tape to File, from Cinema to Motion Graphic There is a difference in taste between today’s “artistic single-channel video” works and works of so-called “video art” from ‘60s and ‘70s. This must be a worldwide trend. Connecting digital video with computer is a technique well established since around 2000. This technical progress has made movie making a lot easier and the budget much lower. And ironically, it has also emancipated us from the act of filming. Images made through computers are easily mixed with and overwritten by other visual materials, and they are made into something new and different. One of the most prominent examples of this trend is, I think, the enormous evolution of “digital animation.” Now there are new filmmakers who have skipped the stage of learning filming skills. Sadly enough, these artists are not necessarily be inspired by a certain cinema. They are mainly interested in making motion graphics. Naturally, their works tend to more like animation. Since 1990’s, programs consist of digital animation made by young Japanese directors have been very popular at film festivals overseas, such as International Film Festival Rotterdam, Vancouver International Film Festival, Holland Animation Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival and London Film Festival. In Japan, a TV program called “Digital Stadium” started, which invites public participants for digital contents. And fine artists such as Tomoko Konoike, Tomoyasu Murata, and Tabaimo) have been adopting animations into their work. Also, a lot of galleries now exhibit moving images which are repeated endlessly. And now film festivals have to search for those installations more actively. At the first Yokohama Triennale in 2002, they showed video works projected on white cubes. I clearly remember the scene where a lot of people wondering and looking for works of “moving images,” while ignoring hundreds of other works of fine arts. How does audience access to works? In Japan, most people reach them at galleries or film festivals. In Japan a lot of exciting independent galleries have opened, which is making the situation active. Image Forum has been holding the Experimental Film Festival (1973-85) and Image Forum Film Festival (1987-) in several cities in Japan annually, screening the works of video art, installations, performances and internet art from both Japan and overseas. The works screened at the festival are put into our archive at Image Forum. Our archive consists mainly of film works. We distribute and package them into sell DVDs. The works we distribute are rented in order to be screened and exhibited at festivals, museums and galleries. There is no open list of the archive at the moment, only the catalogue of the festival. Or, a program we made for overseas film festival circuit around. Though we feel the need to make an open list of our archive, there still remain problems of media format and security of copyrights. We have to mention now the particularity of the Japanese copyright system regarding moving images. Unlike other forms of art, “director” does not own a copyright for a film which he/she directed, but a producer does. Film directors haven’t had copyrights since 1970. This is so serious a problem that even a film has made on this theme titled “Eiga kantokutte nannda!” In other words, ownership of copyrights shifts depending on what form you define your work is. But if you are an independent filmmaker, you are very likely to be a producer AND a director at the same time. 1. No Fixed Genres or FormatsI am afraid that defining video art as something “recorded by a camera and screened with single channel” will possibly narrow the range of expression. It is duty of hardware product companies to fix a format in order to make it useful for more people. In contrast, artists may constantly shift formats in order to widen the range of expression. Although it is not easy to re-define video art today, the definition will be something like this: digital images not film media and without an element of interaction (like that of media art or internet art), which include “traditional” single channel videos, motion graphics made with computers, installations and performances using images. It is quite broad a definition, but it is, in short, “digital images in general that we can look at.” I think we can regard works by the following artists as a kind of video art: Bokudeath (Fusion of animations, art objects and dance) EXONEMO (Lively bug visions made by violently taking over hardware) Doravideo (Enormous number of pictures quickly switched on and off along with drum sounds) And I think of my dear friends Nam-June Paik and Kubota Shigeko as true pioneers of all time. Kubota’s personal exhibition, opened on September 5th 2006 was called “My Life with Nam-June Paik.” It was a grant memorial show completed with Paik-style video sculptures and images shown throw a spinning projector. 2. Function as an Index We surely have received benefit by instant search results we got through YOUTUBE and Google. We are now able not only to search for the titles of visual works, but also actually to watch them online. On the other hand, we are now losing the joy of imagining before we actually get to see the work, or talking about the work with other people right after we saw it together. And the information we can get online is very limited and there are often many mistakes in it. We have to be aware of these problems. Archival network can be used as an index we all can share- an index to which we can refer in order to screen or exhibit the works in original format. It is getting more and more important to share not only the information, but also the rich experiences and better ways of communication with more people. We are now preparing to publish an anthology of Japanese experimental films in DVD. Though it won’t be possible for us to include entire piece of every work, but some are excerpted. Instead, we will attach a booklet which will contain commentaries and explanations by the artists and critics and also reprinted materials of published pieces on the works. We would like to suggest using this book like an index in a dictionary, i.e. look up about a work in it and then rent an original film or video to screen. There is no “correct ” way of expression in art, nor “ideal” way to make an archive. There are always works which are truly exciting but troublesome for curators and hardware product companies. We are somehow attracted to those kind of works.
