catalogue - Evelin Stermitz - Mur

The Mirror Stage

NeMe is a non profit, non government, Cyprusregistered association, founded in November2004 (www.neme.org).

The Mirror Stage17-29 September 2008, Limassol, CyprusThe Mirror Stage is a series of events initiated byNeMe and presented by IMCA. It is co-organisedby NeMe, the Lanitis Foundation and the CyprusUniversity of Technology and consists of aninternational video art exhibition at the LanitisFoundation, an audio visual performance atTheatro ENA by Felipe Frozza and Luigi Vitali,talks at the Lanitis Foundation by Dr EdwardShanken, Dr Dimitris Charitos and Dr ChristosBarboutis, moderator: Dr Antonis Danos andscreenings at Dinos Art Cafe, Veni Vidi Vici andBrent Cross.

The videos presented in ‘The Mirror Stage’,were selected by a NeMe organised committeewhich consisted of Dr Antonis Danos,Dr Christos Barboutis, Helene Black andYiannis Colakides.Project Co-ordinator: Yiannis ColakidesSpecial thanks to:This catalogue contains all selected videos to‘The Mirror Stage’, which took place in Limassol,Cyprus from 17 - 29 September 2008.Editor: Yiannis ColakidesVisual Concept and Typography: Natalie Demetriouwww.ndline.euPhotographer: Christiana SolomouPrinted by: R. P. M. Lithographica LTD© 2008 NeMe.Images copyright: respective video makers.Text copyright: Yiannis Colakides.Quotations copyright: cited authors.Published by: NeMewww.neme.orgISBN: 978-9963-8932-2-5Printed in CyprusA catalogue record of this book is available fromthe Cyprus State Library.our sponsors:The Cultural Services of the Cyprus Ministry ofEducation and CultureThe United States Embassy in CyprusHadjikyriakos and Sonsour supporters:The Lanitis FoundationThe Cyprus University of TechnologyVeni Vidi ViciBrent CrossDinos Art CafeFull Moon productionsand:Yiannos Afrodisis, Christos Barboutis, HeleneBlack, Antonis Danos, Natalie Demetriou,Christina Hadjiparaskeva, Yiangos Hadjiyiannis,Jeremy Hight, Catherine Nikita, ChristinaOlympiou, Elena Onisiforou, Panikos Petrides,Giorgos Sisamos, all the video makers whosubmitted their work and made this programmepossible and all the visitors to our events.

that could potentially be determined throughthe function of its image. As such the programlooks at video art through Lacan’s “mirrorstage”. That is, how the image acts as a basicingredient in the constitution of the picture fromthe subject and how this can be translated into amethodology which would assist us to evaluatethe state of video art.For Lacan, mirror images are consideredformative in the development of the ego, orsense of self. Without the mirror image wecan never learn the difference between “I” orthe “other” as distinct to oneself. Even withthe mirror absent, “the subject finds itselfreflected in others” . This transformation which“takes place in the subject when he assumesan image” 10 is defined by Jane Gallop as “adecisive moment. Not only does the self issuefrom it, but so does ‘the body in bits andpieces.’ This moment is the source not only forwhat follows but also for what precedes.It produces the future through anticipation andthe past through retroaction” 11 . This approachplaces the mirror stage within a contemporarydialectic as it encourages an eclectic selectionand analysis of information in its parts, its ‘bitsand pieces’. For this reason, “The Mirror Stage”has chosen not to present a thematic content.Instead, by presenting the selected videos as‘pieces’, it hopes to construct an identity wherethe works can be analysed in their ‘bits’.According to Lacanian psychologists themirror stage is a process which does not endin early childhood but continues throughoutour lives. Every time we look in the mirror westare at a new ‘other’ which gives us cluesabout our process of becoming. This constantreinterpretation and reinvention of our futureperfect, can exist beyond the study of ourmental processes. Psychology looks at theobject as the subject of study. In the case of amirror image the correlation between the objectsand their reflection can be seen as dependent Yasunori Sugimura, Golding as a PsychologicalNovelist, p.5410 Jacques Lacan, Ecrits; A Selection; trans. by AlanSheridan11 Jane Gallop, Reading Lacan, p.80-81variables where the one cannot exist withoutthe other. Nevertheless the key element in thisrelationship is not the object/subject or thereflection but the ‘machine’ which allows thecoexistence of the two: the mirror. It is its shapeand quality which affects the mirror image andthe resulting relationship between the subjectsand their reflection. A non flat mirror should, inLacanian discourse, affect the “transformationwhich takes place in the subject”.Video is a recording medium, which capturesthe ‘real’ or other machine generated imagery.The recorded reality is manipulated throughediting, compositing and/or other means whichstrip the presented pieces from their context,their initially recorded ‘reality’. As such video canbe said that it constructs reality by manipulatingits appearance and thus presenting the “real inits imaginary dimension” 12 . So it may be arguedthat video generates what may be perceivedas reflective works where the image substitutesthe documentation of reality and rises superiorto it helping it to assume a symbolic presencecomparable to that achieved by the other artdisciplines.Unlike the traditional fine arts such as paintingor sculpture, video art - analogue and digital- requires a mediated process of technologyfor its full realisation and continued presenceas an art form. This technological hardwareis a permanent necessity and cannot bedisposed with after the completion of the work.However the embodiment of the mediumthrough technological mediation might not bewhat makes it unique as television functionsin a similar manner. Video art’s singularity lieswithin its processes towards embodiment,or transmateriality through the immaterialrealm of the transformation of data into ideas,the mediation between the object and itsrepresentation.The Mirror Stage program does not assumeto provide answers, but it is hoped, that it willcontribute to the dialectic by which video is viewedand placed within its temporal constraints and how12 Slavoj Zizek: Troubles with the Real: Lacan as aViewer of Alien - http://www.lacan.com/zizalien.htm10

these constraints assist its ‘process of becoming’validated with a comprehensive theoreticalbody which may position it within its own theorystructure. The choice of selecting Lacan’sdiscourse as a reference and understanding forthe investigation of video may be a sign of ouruncertain times when “meaning evaporates, wedevote ourselves to… psychology!” 13 but afterall, “one must go beyond this stage, […] andpsychology as well” 14 …Nietzsche observed, “our machines areworking on our thoughts”. In the case ofvideo, the relationship which is generated,is interchangeable. On the one hand, thereis the recorded object and the subject of theresulting video, and on the other, the recordedsubject and the object which video becomes,the transmaterialisation of the material intoimmaterial and back again. The various evolvingtechnologies which mediate between the two,‘the mirror’ if you wish, inherently determine theshape of the object and hence the presentedimage. In the words of Marshall McLuhan “Weshape our tools and then our tools shape us” 15and it is this which provides us with a premisewhich crosses between the disciplines of art,technology, theory and psychology and theplatform for “The Mirror Stage”.Yiannis Colakides, September 200813 Sean Cubitt: Crisis in the meaning of meaning,http://seancubitt.blogspot.com/2007/12/crisis-inmeaning-of-meaning.html14 Jean Baudrillard, From Radical Incertitude,or Thought as Imposter, International Journalof Baudrillard Studies, Volume 2, Number 1(January 2005)15 Marshall McLuhan “Laws of Media: the NewScience” 1964, xi-xiiYiannis Colakides (AA Dipl) is a practisingarchitect, a founding member of NeMe and a peerreviewer of Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABs).11

Ziad Al-Halabijust new yearDuration: 5’52”15

Muhammad AliFace/Shadows/VertingDuration: 3’00”16

Sonia ArmaniacoHigh Velocity OblivionDuration: 5’12”17

Neil Beloufa2007 April the secondDuration: 13’46”19

Orit Ben-Shitrit and Harold MossThe Long InsideDuration: 3’09”20

Cristiano BertiSilent NightsDuration: 0’30”21

Nisrine BoukharimonoconceptDuration: 5’09”22

Nathan BoyerThe World as Will and RepresentationDuration: 8’11”23

Rose ButlerPlatformDuration: 3’47”24

Domenico BuzzettiWhy My BodyDuration: 3’20”25

Blake CarringtonSky Wires: At Home and HomelessDuration: 9’31”26

Christodoulos ChristodoulouThe Only O[n]ceDuration: 7’31”28

Paul DestieuEC-101, Maribor/Ljubljana, 15h14Duration: 4’03”29

Alexei DmitrievDubusDuration: 4’09”30

DubrassLimbo SketchesDuration: 9’30”31

Yiannos EconomouAfternoon EchoesDuration: 1’26”32

Please Pass The Dark ChocolateOver Before I commit SuicideJoëlle FerlyDuration: 1’38”33

Taryn FitzGeraldPortrait #27Duration: 7’17”34

Adonis FloridesWhy we FightDuration: 4’25”36

Felipe FrozzaFlaneur IDuration: 4’57”38

Jonathan GitelsonThe QuitterDuration: 2’24”39

Suguru GotoCsODuration: 20’39”40

Ann Guest2 Minute WarningDuration: 2’00”42

Henry GwiazdaClaudia and PaulDuration: 3’29”43

Rich HeemanOrdersDuration: 3’44”44

Sonja HinrichsenEmbroidering Leaves2 channelDuration: 7’06”45

Sam Holden70 Still Frames and 5 Minutes 50Seconds of VideoDuration: 6’06”46

Tammy HoneyFrom the series ‘iLandscape’2 channelDuration: 5’51”47

Sharon Horodi and Cheb M. KammererSimply a Love SongDuration: 4’49”48

Chris IrelandDecember 25th 2005Duration: 3’16”49

Maria Rosa JijonRosa’s Cut_ReloadedDuration: 4’46”50

Aditi KulkarniUntitled WarDuration: 1’42”51

Robert Ladislas DerrManholesDuration: 10’13”52

Aileen LambertMmmmmnnnn...Duration: 0’34”53

Brendan LeeShooting from the HipDuration: 17’16”54

Study on Human Form andHumanity #01LEMEH42Duration: 1’49”55

Maria LianouFlowDuration: 2’32”56

The history of every art form shows critical epochs in whicha certain art form aspires to effects which could be fullyobtained only with a changed technical standard, that is tosay, in a new art form.Walter Benjamin, The work of art in the age of mechanicalreproductionAs artists begun to use the technologies of massmedia to make art (be it photography, films,radio art, video art, or digital art), the economyof art system dictated that they use technologiesdesigned for mass reproduction for the oppositepurpose – to create limited editions. (Thusvisiting a contemporary art museum we find suchconceptually contradictory objects as “videotape, edition of 6” or “DVD, edition of 3.”)Lev Manovich, Post Media AestheticsAlthough there has been important scholarship on artand technology, there is no comprehensive technologicalhistory of art…Edward A. Shanken, Historicizing Art and Technology58

“the mirror stage is aphenomenon to which Iassign a twofold value.In the first place, it hashistorical value as it marksa decisive turning-point inthe mental developmentof the child. In thesecond place, it typifiesan essential libidinalrelationship with the bodyimage”Jacques Lacan,Some reflections on the Ego59

Youssef LimoudThe CityDuration: 2’02”60

Ron LongsdorfChromosomeDuration: 5’38”61

Simon LongoYellow Sparks, Self SimilaritiesDuration: 7’50”62

LustreDisappearDuration: 4’14”63

Avigail MannebergRitualDuration: 3’36”64

Jonathan David McPhersonrockinDuration: 1’43”65

Michaela NettellFragmentsDuration: 2’57”66

Anne NiemetzVoid/LightDuration: 4’07”67

Jonas NilssonMe & MyselfDuration: 2’59”68

Eric OlofsenPublic FiguresDuration: 10’19”69

Eva OlssonTaking ControlDuration: 2’28”70

Sharon PazMinor ProtestDuration: 1’21”71

Anat PollackPeek-A-BooDuration: 3’33”72

Stuart PoundDominant CultureDuration: 14’53”73

Zach RockhillThis Side Down, Damn if I knowDuration: 2’12”74

Daniel RodrigoFashion DeathDuration: 4’51”75

Antti SavelaHow to Explain Paintings to aBronze HareDuration: 1’46”76

Guli SilbersteinRe: CommandmentsDuration: 5’00”77

Roddy SimpsonStairDuration: 2’57”78

Sean SimpsonRailDuration: 2’03”79

Elizabeth SmolarzFreund HeinDuration: 4’18”80

Megan SmithChildDuration: 9’19”81

Oliver Smithin:visible frenzyDuration: 2’56”82

Tobias SternbergMy Own Personal Portable PanopticonDuration: 3’01”83

Evelin StermitzGender TransmissionDuration: 9’30”84

Dia TheodorouTwo at a TimeDuration: 3’23”85

Jennie ThwingMicroballDuration: 1’28”86

John TronsorUntitledDuration: 5’07”87

Lee WellsAnd They Took To The Streets(The Run/Hands Away)2 channelDuration: 7’36”88

Vagner M. WhiteheadWorld Music 2Duration: 10’17”89

Shaun WilsonFrom the series ‘Uber Memoria’Duration: various90

Gordon WiniemkoMeet the ArtistDuration: 16’53”91

David YatesChangedDuration: 1’37”92

Theodore Zeldin and Poppy Sebag-MontefioreGerry and TheodoreDuration: 14’34”93

ParticipantsZiad Al-Halabi (SY)www.allartnow.comMuhammad Ali (SY)www.allartnow.comSonia Armaniaco (CH)Paulo R. C. Barros (BR)www.paulorcbarros.comNeil Beloufa (FR/DZ)Orit Ben-Shitrit and Harold Moss (US)www.orit-ben-shitrit.com + www.flickerlab.comCristiano Berti (IT)www.cristianoberti.it.Nisrine Boukhari (SY)www.allartnow.comNathan Boyer (US)www.nathanboyer.netRose Butler (GB)www.rosebutler.comDomenico Buzzetti (IT)www.shoggothnooz.comBlake Carrington (US)www.blakecarrington.comMarina Chernikova (RU)Christodoulos Christodoulou (CY)Paul Destieu (FR)www.pauldestieu.comAlexei Dmitriev (RU)Dubrass (RU)Yiannos Economou (CY)Joëlle Ferly (FR)Taryn FitzGerald (US)www.rur.comThorsten Fleisch (DE)www.fleischfilm.comAdonis Florides (CY)Michael Fortune (IE)Felipe Frozza (IT/BR)Jonathan Gitelson (US)www.thegit.netSuguru Goto (JP)suguru.goto.free.frGruppo Làbun (IT)www.labun.itAnn Guest (GB)Henry Gwiazda (US)www.henrygwiazda.comRich Heeman (US)www.richheeman.comSonja Hinrichsen (US)www.s-hinrichsen.netSam Holden (GB)www.samholden.comTammy Honey (AU)www.tammyhoney.blogspot.comSharon Horodi and Cheb M. Kammerer (IL)www.hamifal.netChris Ireland (US)www.chris-ireland.comMaria Rosa Jijon (IT)www.rosajijon.blogspot.comAditi Kulkarni (IN)Robert Ladislas Derr (US)94

Aileen Lambert (IE)www.aileenlambert.comBrendan Lee (AU)www.brendanlee.comLEMEH42 (IT)lemeh42.indivia.netMaria Lianou (CY)www.marialianou.comYoussef Limoud (EG/CH)Ron Longsdorf (US)Simon Longo (GB)Lustre (US)www.lustrecreative.comAvigail Manneberg (US/IL)www.avigailmanneberg.comJonathan David McPherson (US)jdmcphersonjr.morpheus.netMichaela Nettell (GB)www.michaela-nettell.comAnne Niemetz (DE)www.adime.deJonas Nilsson (SE)www.jonasnilsson.orgEric Olofsen (NL)www.erikolofsen.comEva Olsson (SE)www.evaolsson.netSharon Paz (IL)www.sharonpaz.comAnat Pollack (US)www.anatpollack.netStuart Pound (GB)www.stuartpound.infoZach Rockhill (US)Daniel Rodrigo (ES)www.danielrodrigo.comAntti Savela (SE)www.anttisavela.seGuli Silberstein (IL)www.guli-silberstein.comRoddy Simpson (GB)Sean Simpson (US)www.throwcomputer.netElizabeth Smolarz (PL)www.smolarz.comMegan Smith (CA)www.megansmith.caOliver Smith (US)Tobias Sternberg (SE)www.tobiassternberg.comEvelin Stermitz (AT)www.es.mur.atDia Theodorou (CY)Jennie Thwing (US)www.undergroundarthouse.comJohn Tronsor (US)Lee Wells (US)www.leewells.orgVagner M. Whitehead (BR/US)www.vagnerwhitehead.comShaun Wilson (AU)www.shaunwilsonresearch.blogspot.comGordon Winiemko (US)www.enjoythesign.comDavid Yates (GB)www.davidyates.orgTheodore Zeldin & Poppy Sebag-Montefiore (GB)95

Organisers:Sponsors:Cultural ServicesMinistry of Education and CultureHadjikyriakos & Sons LtdSupporters:97

ISBN 978-9963-8932-2-5