THE AUDIOVISUAL BREAKTHROUGH Ana Carvalho
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THE AUDIOVISUAL BREAKTHROUGH Ana Carvalho and Cornelia Lund (eds.) 21 41 83 109 129 THE AUDIOVISUAL BREAKTHROUGH 7 PRACTICE AND DISCOURSE. AN INTRODUCTION AS MANUAL Ana Carvalho and Cornelia Lund The Audiovisual Breakthrough guides us across the landscape of artistic live practi- ces that present sound and image through technological means. This landscape has been radically reshaped during the last 20 years due to technological developments causing what we might call an “audiovisual breakthrough,” which means that audio- visual artistic production has gained a certain visibility and a certain, even institutionalized, standing. The main objective of this book, however, is not to portray this landscape with its main players and their activities, but to find out more about the underlying concepts that help us explain these activities. � Whoever has been trying to write an academic or curatorial text on this area has probably felt trapped in a confusing web of unclear, or even inconsistent, definitions. Visual music, expanded cinema, VJing, live cinema, and live audiovisual performance are the most widely used concepts here, each of these terms addressing a different angle of contemporary audiovisual pro- duction contextualized within specific fea- tures and a related history. Holding this in mind, The Audiovisual Breakthrough aims at developing useful definitions for both the theoretical debate and the performance obvious that clarifications were needed for context. � � � We might of course say— meaningful communication about and with- especially as performers—that we “really 9 in the field of artistic AV production to be don’t care” and that we are “more interested possible in the future. Outsiders will in doing than explaining,” 1 [ find it much easier to understand a given The survey was carried out in 2014. It consisted context when a clear terminology is applied of an international online survey and, parallel and mutually understood by those involved to it, a survey mostly addressing the Viennese in it, those who construct it. The variety community and undertaken in the context of the in the designated meaning of terms used sound:frame festival. The results are discussed by festivals, symposia, and other events below in this text. does not really offer this for our context at the moment. Although permanent use and as one of the participants in our survey put critique belong to the process of practically it. At this point, it can prove interesting defining each term, the use of a clear syntax to introduce the history of this book and the of terms is still important for all practical project behind it, which will show that purposes now that audiovisual performative what at first glance might seem like a purely practices have become well established. theoretical problem is in fact very closely For example, artists need to situate and linked to actual developments in the world of describe their work, and festivals and insti- audiovisual artistic production. Some time tutions need to announce events in their ago, Cornelia was invited to the LaptopsRus programs to facilitate the development of conference at the Reina Sofía in Madrid. expectations on part of the public. Then Discussing the possible subject of her contri- it is also necessary to set a stable ground bution with the curators, Shu Lea Cheang from which academic researchers on an and Maite Cajaraville, they told her how they international level can move forward beyond had been struck by VJs telling them that definitions, to elaborate on philosophical, they were “not doing VJing any more” but aesthetic, and theoretical implications “AV performances.” At first sight, this might related to contemporary practices. Accord- seem of little consequence, and yet such ingly, this book is addressed to artists, statements lead to some interesting ques- researchers, students, and teachers within tions: Why is it so important to former VJs to the field of audiovisual practices and anyone be considered AV performers? And were they working at their intersection with other really doing something different? Or were fields of knowledge. � Even if its history they opting for another term for other rea- is sometimes traced back to Pythagoras, sons? These initial questions led deeper artistic audiovisual production owes its into the aforementioned confusing tableau current blossoming to rather recent techno- of terms and concepts and their relations logical developments. It is in fact continu- to actual performances. It soon became ally evolving, which is one of the difficulties of working out stable definitions. This Carvalho, a Portuguese live video composer, complexity of defining live practices with performer, and editor for live audiovisual sound and image has led us to the decision 11 performance; Eva Fischer, an Austrian art to approach The Audiovisual Breakthrough historian, curator, visualist, and founder as a collaborative project—an approach that and director of sound:frame Festival for also mirrors the collaborative approaches Audiovisual Expressions for VJing/visualists; dominant in the audiovisual field itself. � Cornelia Lund, a German art historian, A group of six experts gathered around the media theorist, and curator for visual music; project and decided to work out definitions Adeena Mey, a Swiss-Cambodian critic and for the five aforementioned main categories. researcher for expanded cinema; Gabriel Considering the ever-changing nature of Menotti, a Brazilian curator and lecturer the field, they set out to try and define at the Federal University of Espírito Santo these terms within a contemporary context, for live cinema. The survey was designed describing the permeable borders of the and organized by Maria Pfeifer, an Austrian different categories, while also showing up comparative literature scholar and part of possible future developments. A survey was the sound:frame festival team. This group organized to foster the dialogue with artists was later joined by Eva-Maria Offermann, and professionals involved in audiovisual a German graphic designer working on production and to gather knowledge about experimental book projects and poster art, their ways of working and defining their own who has designed the publication as a work. � When the group met for the first graphic comment on audiovisuality. ∫ While time at sound:frame festival 2014 in Vienna, the final texts are each written by a single it was decided that the final outcome of author and informed by her or his specific the project should take the form of a book, background, the framework of the whole including texts on the five categories and project is the result of collective research the results of the survey. Each text is written and discussions that started before and by a member of the group who is a recog- went on after the meeting in Vienna. As the nized expert in the topic. Collectively, the five terms in question are, on the one hand, group gathers different approaches to the fashioned by academic and non-academic subjects at stake: as writers, teachers, debate and, on the other hand, by contem- researchers, artists, curators, and editors, porary audiovisual art practice, it seemed the authors come from different contexts imperative not only to analyze the discourse and approaches, while also moving between but also to survey the field of audiovisual different countries. The texts are informed art practice. Another vital part of the project by these discursive differences, providing was therefore the exchange with artists and the readers an opportunity to gain insight professionals involved in audiovisual produc- into other, wider discourses and examples. tion. Parallel to the meeting in Vienna, the � � The project group members are: Ana team had the opportunity to swap ideas with several Vienna-based artists including useful to come to an understanding about Anita Hafner (Lost in Bass), Jan Lauth (media- the basic meaning of the term “audiovisual.” opera), Gerald Moser, Station Rose, and 13 � Generally speaking, audiovisual works others in the framework of a public discus- range across media such as TV, cinema, and sion at the sound:frame festival. Apart from live shows to include all the possibilities personal meetings and our intimate knowl- that present a stimulus to both auditory edge of the field, the survey proved an and visual sensorial systems. These media important tool for getting into contact with may not even be technologically developed, as many practitioners as possible. Although puppetry and theater can be audiovisual. the results are not fully representative but To refer to a work as audiovisual already rather indicative of an international scene, 2 [ implies an intermedia connection, one whose The number of participants was not large enough very nature lies in the combination of the and their countries of origin were not diverse two words put together: audio and visual. enough to make the survey truly representative. By itself, “audiovisuality” is not an artistic practice but describes a generic group of they were very helpful for verifying perceived practices. Within this group, production is tendencies and also the pertinence of the continually developing. Our main fields of discussions the group had been leading interest are the live practices that include during the workshop in Vienna. The survey audio and image, and even there the is included in this publication on different variety of works presented expresses the levels: some articles refer to it directly, like enormous