Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube

334 Video Vortex Reader II Moving Images Beyond Youtubeonline video art335from its content yet still medium specific. I wanted to solve the question ‘how to show contemporaryonline art in a physical exhibition space’ in an ironic, crude and simple manner,really physically showing an icon that would make people film the sculpture. I did not quotethe contemporary online or software semantics in the physical realm, but I only quoted thevisual appearance of one of the most influential gateways on the World Wide Web, YouTube.Visitors saw the sculpture and immediately thought of the YouTube loading balls, pulled outtheir video camera devices and then also uploaded their documentation back onto YouTube,contextualizing the documentation of the representation of an online experience all overagain. I also partially curated the exhibition, and the theme was to see the comment as amedium, and how to view a change in commenting practice after having become part ofpopular culture and then translated in this physical space of art presentation.CG: You are at the same time an artist, curator and lecturer, easily switching between onlineand gallery environments, and translating digital things into physical objects. Can one stillspeak of rules, divisions and categories in contemporary society where much is interconnectedand mingled?‘YouTube as a Sculpture’, 2009, in the group show Versions, at Netherlands Media Art Institute,courtesy of the artist.century media world. In particular, YouTube is a ‘space’ for experimenting with new formsof cooperation between artists, and between artists and independent and amateur creators.In ‘YouTube as a Subject’, do you consider the collection of videos as art objects in and ofthemselves, or do you consider the responses/feedback that people make about the workson the YouTube channel as part of the work?CD: I consider them part of the work. I feel honoured to have initiated a discussion thathopefully leads to the possibility to view YouTube for what it is, just a very large video hostingplatform, like so many others, even a badly designed one. I consider the original work as astone thrown into the social pond so to say, and am happy that I see the ripples continue (thesocial visual impact), it makes the original stone look bigger, and heavier.CG: As a response to the reactions of your ‘YouTube as a Subject’ series you made the installation‘YouTube as a Sculpture’ (2009). In this work, which was exhibited at the NetherlandsMedia Art Institute in Amsterdam for the group show ‘Versions’, a black fabric-covered roomis presented in which a series of 20cm styrofoam balls hang in a circle that are illuminated bya rotating light moving from one ball to the next. Why did you decide to make a work similarto that of your online work, in the physical space of the museum? Physical and online spacesare different worlds requiring distinct languages to speak to a diverse audience. Do you feelthat these two spaces are distinctly separate, and how do you see your work as connectingthe online with the offline (museum/gallery)?CD: The rules are there, I just think these limits exist to be broken. Basically, these sociallyimplicated limitations prohibit and limit discussion. There is an end to specialization, andthis end is where people will only operate in a tiny field and not learn from trying somethingoutside of that field. This tends to make people lazy and dependent. Next to that I do notfeel my work only functions best in one form, let alone the form of a commoditized productbasedpresentation.CG: Would you consider YouTube a free territory when it comes to artistic practice?Is there another space now, another platform, that offers more creative freedom for artisticintervention and practice than strictly YouTube?CD: No, I do not consider YouTube a free territory, it is very censured (copyright issues,nudity, etc.), there is a time limit, it is badly designed, it is not open and accessible from allover the world. I actually think Ustream or just using a search engine for privately hostedvideos is unbeatable. This is just not as easy, and lacks the wonderful comment and searchoption. YouTube solved the issues of finding an easy way of uploading videos and convertingthem to appropriate and playable formats and was accessible through its crudeness. Butthis work was never meant to celebrate YouTube. YouTube is temporary, and its importanceis made by its users, not by the form. The celebration is ironic. I hope YouTube will changefor the better, or people will find their way out of this constricting, although wonderfully easy,medium again.http://constantdullaart.com/www.youtube.com/constantdullaartCD: Media iconographic images, like television test images for example, are always interestingto juggle between media. So many of these images are printed on clocks, t-shirts, mugs,etc. People seem to identify with them, the basic common icon that is shown, disconnected