Video Vortex Reader II: moving images beyond YouTube

82 Video Vortex Reader II Moving Images Beyond YoutubeImages on the Move83Cultures in Amsterdam. The series of conferences named Video Vortex 4 began in 2007, andshared Clip Kino’s aim of bringing together varied perspectives and practices: artistic, aesthetic,research-oriented, reflective, exploratory, and experimental. Of course, an essentialpart of understanding what is ‘there’ online is watching video clips. In 2007, I imagined ClipKino as a screening event that could bring people together to watch and come to understandonline video. The following elaborates the development of Clip Kino, from that roll-downscreen onwards, charting many of the different venues, contexts, themes and organizationalforms which have moved Clip Kino towards a shareable set of roles, guidelines and ambitionsthat may be adopted and adapted by others.Clip Karavaani, November 2007During the ‘Self-organising and Networking’ course I was teaching at the MAA Art School(Taidekoulu) in Suomenlinna, Helsinki, 5 I gave six students an assignment. Inka Jurvanen,Emilia Liljeström, Sera Martikainen, Marianne Mäkelin, Mikko Mällinen, and Tessa Siira wereasked to create an almost zero-budget ‘clip-kino/micro-cinema’ event to take place in publicspace, as part of the Valon Voimat (Forces of Light) Festival, held in November 2007. Overthe 10 years it had been in existence, Valon Voimat had aimed to ‘research the urban spaceand its use during the darkest period of the year’, promoting site-specific urban interventions,specifically involving ephemeral and static light installations, fire-arts and mixed-media clubevents. 6 That year, the festival was focusing on site-specific works held near the city’s singleunderground metro line.Within this context, the student group formed a project called Clip Karavaani. They createda fictional master of ceremonies called Jii Hutikka (Finnish for Joe Tipsy), who despite neverturning up for the events, had interest in hobo/nomadic lifestyles, caravanning, elk-huntingand avant-garde films. The theme chosen for all the Clip Karavaani screening events was‘road movies’ and, behind the guise of Jii Hutikka, the students crafted an aesthetic, homebrewstyle of communication for a series of four ‘cinema on the road’ events, that took placeover a one week period in three different locations: an underground metro passageway, aprivate design studio, and a public media library. 7To yield clips for presentation, the group entered the term ‘road movies’ into video sharingwebsite databases, such as YouTube and Internet Archive. The screenings were curated bythe group collectively nominating clips, which they then rated and edited into a screeningorder. Some clips were played according to the context of the location, such as the ‘helsinkimetro sunset’ clip in the underground passageway; others, such as the ‘kerouac readingon the road’ clip, followed each event. Ripped from their original online viewing platform,4. Video Vortex (2007-), http://networkcultures.org/videovortex/.5. Andrew G. Paterson, Self-organising and Networking MAA Course, Taidekoulu MAA, Helsinki,October-December, 2007, http://orgcult.wikidot.com/selforg.6. Valon Voimat Festival (2007), Helsinki, http://www.valonvoimat.org/archive/HTML_2007/.7. Emilia Liljeström, Sanna Martikainen, Marianna Mäkelin, Mikko Mällinen, & Tessa Siira, ‘JiiHutikka’s Clip Karavaani’ project, Valon Voimat Festival, Helsinki, 21-28 November, 2007,http://apaterso.info/projects/clipkaravaani/.approximately 15 to 20 clips representing a very heterogeneous interpretation of the themewere played at each event. One member of the group lined up the video in the player, anotheradjusted the volume to suit. In the second and fourth Clip Karavaani events, a large whitecardboard image of a pointing hand diverted passersby into the unusual fold. The audiencefor each event was about 10 to 20 people, and there was free popcorn for everybody.The Clip Karavaani screenings followed a tradition of grassroots, specialty cinema clubs,and video activist screenings 8 using distributable formats such as Super-8, VHS and DVDformats. The ‘one night only’ nature of the Clip Karavaani events, including the forever-absentvagabond director Jii Hutikka, imparted a circus-like theatricality to the proceedings. Thegroup’s consideration of the relationship between context and content meant that Clip Karavaanibore similarities to the ‘Social Cinema’ project by Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska,albeit at a smaller conceptual and technical scale. During the London ArchitecturalBiennale in 2006, the Social Cinema project ‘turned unbuilt spaces into auditoria’, so that‘films about, set in, or commenting on London and its architecture were stunningly projectedupon the city itself’. 9Outdoor screenings, often held as part of festivals or summer seasons, operate outside of theusual cinema, room or social hall context. A good example of the success of this model hasbeen Rooftop Films in New York. 10 However, unlike these cinematic social events, the contentscreened during Clip Karavaani consisted solely of video that could be freely downloadedfrom popular media sharing platforms. 11 The screening list emerged from the video sharingdatabase, according to a simple keyword search. Videos were returned according to thetags they had been given, and then according to the subjective choices made by individualswithin the organizing group. What was shown in public was not determined by ownership orby negotiation of access rules, but by a search-engine and a subjective process of selection.Seeders N Leechers R Us, January-March 2008Clip Kino emerged from a residency application I made in March 2007 to Eyebeam Art andTechnology Center, New York, 12 in which I proposed to facilitate a space for young peopleto show and celebrate online content. Fortunately, the application was accepted, and theproject Seeders N Leechers R Us ran between January-February and May 2008. 13 Eyebeamwas known for its progressive youth program, such as the Digital Day Camp, After-SchoolAtelier and Girl’s Eye View activities for middle and high school students. Since 2000, these8. ‘How To Do A Video Screening’ (last updated 2004), Video Activist Network, San Francisco,http://www.videoactivism.org/howscreen.html.9. Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska, Social Cinema project, The London ArchitecturalBiennale (2006), London, 17-24 July, 2006, http://www.chanceprojects.com/node/37.10. Rooftop Films (1997-), Brooklyn NYC, http://rooftopfilms.com/about_history.html.11. Videovideomaker websites, Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_sharing_websites.12. Andrew G. Paterson, Residency Proposal to Eyebeam Art and Technology Center (2006), NewYork, http://apaterso.info/projects/seedersnleechersrus/eyebeam-proposal.html.13. Andrew G. Paterson, ‘Seeders N Leechers R Us’ project (2008), Eyebeam, New York,http://apaterso.info/projects/seedersnleechersrus/.