8/8/2019 Video as Social Agent (Michael Shanks)

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8/8/2019 Video as Social Agent (Michael Shanks)

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Art: Video as SocialAgentus to encounter he implications.Walczak and Wattenberg reachoutothers with participatoryWeb 2.0" softwareand an algorithm o mine theresourcesof the web and to create ndividually ustomised isionsof Utopia.

many, including he artistshere, celebrate he potentialoTwhat Lessig,n Hershman'spiece,calls a creativecommons. A digitallyenabledde-f information s at the heartof this "remix"culture.Vast amountsofocial,and other nformation,aluable r not,organized r random, nformationwas once held in specific ocations, ontrolledby restricted irclesof specialists ror simply n the possessionof individuals,s now spread ar and wide,reworkingand recirculation,emixed hrougha few items of information

But there are, of course,dark sides o all this. Not everyonehas access o informationand the internet though isten o Gilberto Gil). Digiial media,with theirrowingubiquityand easy management,acilitatea societyof surveillance, genciesus, mergingprivateand public the solo authoredvideos of Under Scanprojected nto he most surveilled pace n the world). Meanwhilepowerful nterestsaremakingconsiderable fforts o treat information s privateproperty, o restrict tscirculation,o thwart a creativecommonsand to captaliseon controlled reativity. nhe new global echno-military-entertainmentomplex, he biggest nvestor nsimulation nd videogame echnologys the US military.For too long we have been encouragedo treat mediaas institutionalizedorms, suchas Televisionor the Movies.or with reference o the materialsand methodsused in theproductionof a work (oil on canvas,video,print),or in terms of messagesandmeaningscommunicaledby an author o an audience.The threeworks n Video asSocialAgent challengesuch ideas. hey are all about ocationand process:a virtualorld,a city square, systemsand algorithms or soliciting reativeparticipationnutopia/noplace,my space.They deal in archilectures nd theatersof encounter,interaction nd performance. hey suggest hat media are as much about modes ofengagement between people, ideas, artifacts and settings as they are aboul thecommunication f messagesor the representation f "reality'. n our informationagethe irony of digitalmedia s that the task is not so much to read the signalagainstbackgroundnoise, o figureout meaning,but to establish he arrangementof interestedpartiesand works, amidst he circuitsof distribution,esourcesand products.Somelimes t is hard enough o simply ind stuff.In this politicaleconomyof new mediawe are presentedwith various oles or lheartist: hey may act as prompt, nstigating rtwork; hey may be commentator r critic,standingback to generate nsight;above all, perhaps, hey may act as dramaturgorscenographer, ettingup arrangements nd assemblages o as to enhance hispopulardigitalpoeticsof collaborative ocreation.This performative pace s indeed about socialagency the abilityof individuals ndcommunities o effect changes hat matter, o exert nfluence, o be represented,o bethe agents at the root of the creationof values andgoods.Radicaldistinctionsbetween real world and virtualwodd, between ealityand representation re secondarymatters,becausewe have always ived n mixed realities onstituted y imagination.Our individuality as always been negotiatedn termsof others- we are ourrelationships ith others.For as long as we have been human we have presentedavatars o the world, profer1edepresentations Tourselves,memoriesof who we were,storiesof what we are, dreams of what we could be, worlds hat we might buildtogether.

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MichaelShanks'swebsite

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MichaelShanks 2008

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