My contribution for KSA:K Found Footage Workshop will be to help familiarize participants with the reuse of archived, appropriated, and found media sources for critique, satire, and poetic investigation. I will work alongside presenters and participants to assist in demonstrating practical techniques for utilizing sources such as Super8 and 16mm film, VHS, DVD, TV, radio and the Internet. I will be previewing a range of American and international films that utilize archival and found footage sources, the titles of which can be viewed on the Works For Preview page.

The pages on this site are designed for those participating in the workshop. The format encourages dialog, so please post ideas, comments, suggestions, inspirations, and thoughts to the Comments page which appears under the Workshop Bibliography. The various links pages here are a wealth of information for artists and media junkies. Although many of these sites are based in North America, they are nonetheless treasure troves of information about funding, networking strategies, calls and opportunities, downloadable content, as well as links to broader networks and beyond.

Here are summaries of two presentations I will provide:

1) The Rise of Sampling and the Specter of Ownership

Artists who sample source material from the landscape of popular media take advantage of a highly effective means for engaging social critique and the examination of contemporary culture. With increasing accessibility to digital media tools that encourage free expression and experimentation with media sources, examples of this mode of practice are more prevalent than ever before. However, in spite of its popularity and historically rich tradition, artists face challenges resulting from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, intellectual property litigation, and opposition to Copyleft. This presentation will touch upon legal issues facing media artists today, while providing a practical toolkit for those who seek to recycle culture for personal artistic use. We will view examples from within the genre, as we encourage personal projects in spite of the looming threats from the intellectual property overlords.

2) Extant Poetics: Sifting Through the Dustbin

Inside the blitzkrieg of contemporary consumer culture a treasure trove of visual and sound source material exists for artists. Nevertheless, acquisition can be a challenge, not to mention just knowing where to begin looking. This presentation will emphasize the poetics of found media, and the unique opportunity utilizing archival footage has for eliciting complex layers of meaning. Additionally, we will investigate some technical hurdles for working with sources in various formats such as film, VHS video, DVD, Television, and the Internet, highlighting resourceful ways to engage this mode of practice. Examples from experimental film and video artists whose work emphasizes the poetics of archival/appropriated media will be viewed.

Additional workshop leaders include:

Joanne Richardson (synopsis) (Cluj, Romania) is a cultural theorist, video artist and coordinator of D Media, an NGO producing digital media & engaged art.

* Introduction to history of found footage and detournement, its relation to struggles against intellectual property, and the political dimensions of “counter-documentary.” Assisting participants with developing concept/montage. Screening of 1960-70s French films and post-1989 found footage from Eastern Europe.

Stevan Vukovic (Belgrade, Serbia) is an art critic, film theorist, curator, and co-founder of Belgrade Art Initiatives. (baza.org.yu, o3.co.yu)

* Introduction to recent documentary film and video production from the Balkans. Screening of films by Zelimir Zilnik and other Serbian directors.

Kathrin Becker (Berlin, Germany) is an art historian, curator and the director of NBK (Neuer Berliner Kunstverein) Video Forum. *Introduction to the NBK Video-Forum Archive. Screening of international artist videos from late 1960s to the present from the NBK collection.

Stefan Rusu is an artist, curator, and the program director for KSA:K. He is the FFW project curator. E-mail: suhebator@gmail.com, ksak.info@mail.md

Center for Contemporary Art-[KSA:K] is a non-profit, independent institution registered in the year 2000. The new strategy of the Center is the development of cultural forms and art practices, which would reflect the dynamic of the social, political and economic transformations of the society. Center pleads for the advocacy activities in promoting of the cultural policies suitable for the defining and the consolidation of the artist position and contemporary art practices in the society.

Address:
Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau -[KSA:K], Independentei, 1, str.
Postal code: MD-2043, Chisinau, Republica Moldova
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