Read by January 14: Hampton, Chris. “BUMP TV broadcasts 24/7 from the basement of an old Victorian — and anyone can have their own show.” CBC Arts, 2019.
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/bump-tv-broadcasts-24-7-from-the-basement-of-an-old-victorian-and-anyone-can-have-their-own-show-1.4972943
-Article detailing the Toronto-based online community television network BUMP TV, inspired by the New York-based 8 Ball TV. BUMP was short-lived, but 8 Ball continues.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER FOR THE ABOVE READING:
-Where do you go to see video art?
-Consider the nostalgia of cable TV in something like BUMP or 8Ball: a time for gathering together, ephemerality of a broadcast vs streaming
-What might the shadow sides of public access TV be? (The flip side of being able to say anything you want… of being uncensored)
-How is the experience of watching something like BUMP TV different from watching Netflix?
-Apart from Planet SLEDD, the examples we’ve looked at bring communities of artists together to create work collaboratively. What other “fine art” mediums are collaborative? How might artists’ TV or artists’ broadcasting fit into the art world?
Read by January 21: Masayesva, Victor. Selections from “Indigenous Experimentation.” Transference, Tradition, Technology: Native New Media Exploring Visual & Digital Culture. Walter Phillips Gallery Editions in association with Art Gallery of Hamilton & Indigenous Media Arts Group, 2005, pp. 173-177. (“Northern Lights” section pp. 169-174 is optional.)
-Selections from this longer essay focus on how new media has been used to advance settler colonial aims, including by pushing Indigenous new media works to the margins as “experimental”. Victor Masayesva is a Hopi filmmaker, video artist, and photographer.
Read by January 21: Loft, Steven. Selection from “Aboriginal Media Art and the Postmodern Conundrum: A Coyote Perspective.” Transference, Tradition, Technology: Native New Media Exploring Visual & Digital Culture. Walter Phillips Gallery Editions in association with Art Gallery of Hamilton & Indigenous Media Arts Group, 2005, pp. 89-96.
-This is a 2-part essay but we will only read “Part One: The Conundrum”, which posits new media technology as a shape shifter. Loft considers how this technology has been used by Indigenous artists as an accessible and immediate medium to assert a kind of sovereignty. Steven Loft is a curator, writer, and media artist of Mohawk and Jewish heritage.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER FOR THE ABOVE READINGS:
-What are some examples of mainstream, alternative, and experimental media? What differences can you identify between them?
-These essays were written 20+ years ago, before the rise of streaming, social media, and AI. How do these new(er) technologies fit within the categories of mainstream, alternative, and/or experimental (if any)?
-What do you think about the story of Coyote gifting fire to the humans in relation to the above emergent technologies?
-How does Loft respond to Masayesva? How might you respond to Loft, from your own socio-cultural perspective?
Read by March 16
CHOOSE ONE PAIR (RUSSELL+NEVES MARQUES OR PAGLEN X2)
Russell, Legacy. “Reality, Televised: On The Rodney King Generation.” Black Meme: A History of the Images That Make Us. Verso, London; New York, 2024, pp. 97-109.
–CW: Descriptions of violence against Black people, including youth. This essay that examines the hypervisibility and virality of Black pain and death in Western media, including television and the Internet. Legacy Russell is an African-American curator and author.
Neves Marques, Isadora. “How to be Responsible Irresponsibly: On Art Beyond Immediacy.” E-flux, Issue #155, June 2025, pp.1-7. https://www.e-flux.com/journal/155/677214/how-to-be-responsible-irresponsibly-on-art-beyond-immediacy
-A critical essay on art and politics within the age of instant gratification. Isadora Neves Marques is a Portuguese filmmaker, visual artist, and writer.
Paglen, Trevor. “Society of the Psyop, Part 1: UFOs and the Future of Media.” E-flux, Issue #147, September 2024, pp. 1-8.
Paglen, Trevor. “Society of the Psyop, Part II: AI, Mind Control, and Magic.” E-flux, Issue #148, October 2024, pp. 1-16.
-The first two essays in a 3-part series about the history of psyops (psychological operations) and their relevance in contemporary new media. Trever Paglen is an American artist, geographer, and writer.
Read by March 23: The Powers (Katherine Kline, Emily Pelstring, Jessica Mensch). “Some thoughts on wicker and the playpen in the shitstorm.” Self-published, 2020, pp. 1-5.
https://files.cargocollective.com/c611162/WickerText.pdf
-Short text on the implications of interconnectedness in our contemporary moment. The Powers are the collaborative identity of Katherine Kline, Emily Pelstring, and Jessica Mensch – a trio of settler intermedia artist-scholars (and one psychotherapist) working across Canada.