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Video as Urban Condition
a project exploring how video shapes urban experience
[Past] News, events and press materials: select from the list on the left.
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‘Who is Big
Brother? or The Politics of Looking’
Article
by Anthony Auerbach
in Dérive Zeitschrift für
Stadtforschung
This article on video, surveillance
and narcissism explores the intertwining
of public and private space, spectacle
and surveillance, urban screens and reality
TV. It came out in
Dérive, no. 42, January
2011. In case you can't easily get hold
of the magazine ...
read more
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Video needs art history like a TV set needs a plinth
College Art Association Annual Conference, 2008
Anthony Auerbach chaired this session at the CAA
conference in Dallas, Texas, 20–23
February 2008
read more
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Video-pool Prize
And the winners are ... 135: Anca Daucikova;
171: Klaus Schafler; 204: Perpetual Art
Machine [PAM] collective. In keeping
with the idea of the Video-pool, this
is not a jury-selection and no attempt
was made to apply aesthetic prejudices
or compare the artistic merit of the
videos. Each eligible contributor got
a number and the winners
were chosen by a the random integer generator
at random.org.
The three lucky winners share the prize
fund of USD 1000 equally. The point
is to distrubute what money I have been
able to get for the video producers in
the course of organising various events.
Thanks to all for taking part.
view documentation of the draw
Overdue Overhaul
Now online at last ... write-ups of the
discussions held at Lentos in Linz
during April and May 2007; the Video-pool
catalogue (almost complete, new videos
still welcome) with new commentaries
on video compilations; search feature
plus other enhancements. Nonetheless,
the project and the website are still
work in progress.
Linz
summaries | view images of the installation and events
Video-pool catalogue
Site search
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Video as Urban Condition
Lentos Kunstmsueum/Museum of
Modern Art Linz
Free entrance 19 April–27 May 2007
Events calendar | Veranstaltungstermine
view
images
Video as Urban Condition presents an
open archive and discussion space, exploring
how video shapes urban experience. Explore
the video archive, join the discussion,
contribute.
Video as Urban Condition reflects on
the mutability of video as it shifts
between fact and fiction, entertainment
and persuasion, urban fantasy and reality-TV,
art and activism, surveillance and control — tracing
the web of interactions between of media
and architecture, subject and commodity,
identity and desire, the city and its
phantasmagoria.
The project examines a medium whose
most distinctive characteristics are
multiplicity and diversity, a form which
is not contained by the norms and institutions
of art nor by the exclusive domains of
professionals. Video is a medium of mass
production — that is, mass participation — as
well as of mass consumption. The project
recognises the diversity of activity
in the field and challenges us to reflect
on how the relations of representation
in society are mediated by video.
Video-pool archive
The video archive transforms
the basement of the museum into an
environment for wandering and inhabiting,
for moving images and conversations.
Navigate it with the familiar buttons:
play, skip, rewind, and by the constellations
of points of contact, interest and
identification provided by the video
compilations which form the archive.
how
to contribute to the archive
CoDy TV Studio
Video as Urban Condition hosts CoDy–Collective
Dynamics, a community TV and interactive video archive
project, developed in collaboration with the Arts University
Linz. CoDy TV Studio presents the CoDy TV Beta Version,
the CoDy TV Black Box cultural archive with a series
of public lectures and workshops. Scroll down for programme.
Thursday evening discussions
Presented by Video as Urban Condition
In German. Entrance
Free.
More
information | Weitere
Informationen
Thursday
19 April 2007, 19:00–23:00
I See You: You See Me
Öffentlicher Raum und persönliche
Medienpolitik
public space and personal
media politics
with Thomas Lehner, Dorit Margreiter,
Barbara Musil, Georg Ritter, Gunda
Wiesner
Thursday
26 April 2007, 19:00–23:00
This is a Simulation
Stadtmodelle, Wunschbilder und
Spielräume
model
cities, wish images and playgrounds
with Sabine Bitter, Helge Mooshammer,
Sasha Pirker, Axel Stockburger, Helmut
Weber
Thursday
10 May 2007, 19:00–23:00
Closed Circuits
Voyeurismus, (Selbst-)Kontrolle
und Fernsehen
voyeurism,
(self-)control and TV
with Thomas Edlinger, Adrian D, Anca
Daucikova, Ramón
Reichert
Wednesday afternoon lectures
and three-day workshops
Presented by the Arts
University Linz, Dept. of Media Theory
and CoDy, Linz
Digitale Räume und Fernsehen der
Zukunft. Modelle, Medien, Politiken, Technologien,Visionen
und aktuelle Ansätze Freier Fernseh-
und Videoarbeit.
Alle Workshops finden
im Lentos statt. Eintritt ins Lentos
und Teilnahme an den Workshops ist frei.
Aufgrund der beschränkten TeilnehmerInnenzahl
wird um Anmeldung per E-Mail office[at]cody.at
oder 0664 9201325 (Otto Tremetzberger)
gebeten.
Weitere Informationen
Mittwoch
2. Mai 2007, 14:00–16:00 (Vortrag)
Die OKTO – Vision:
Community Fernsehen in Wien
Christian Jungwirth, Okto – Community
TV Wien
+ Workshop TV
Crashkurs mit OKTO – Community
TV Wien
Mittwoch
9. Mai 2007, 14:00–16:00
Wem gehören
die Medien?
Franz Fend, Journalist
Michael Schweiger, Radio FRO
Mittwoch
16. Mai 2007, 14:00–17:00
Warum Fernsehen?
Thomas Lehner, Medienkünstler,
Stadtwerkstatt
TV
Georg Ritter, Künstler, CoDy
+ Workshop Fernsehen
in Künstlerhand
Mittwoch
23. Mai 2007, 14:00–16:00
Fernsehen der Zukunft?
Thursday evening lecture
Presented by the Art University, Linz, Dept. of Media
Theory and CoDy, Linz
Donnerstag
24. Mai 2007, 19:00–21:00
User
generated Content — Wie
organisiert man das?
David Röthler, netzkompetenz.at
Tassilo Pellegrini, Semantic Web School
Vienna
Peter Wagenhuber, Ushi Reiter, Servus – Kunst
und Kultur im Netz, servus.at
Organised by Anthony
Auerbach and Thomas Edlinger with the
co-operation of Otto Tremetzberger and
Georg Ritter (CoDy), and with material
support from Ars Electronica Center,
Linz, Stadtwerkstatt, Linz, OK Centrum
für Gegenwartskunst,
Linz and Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht.
The project has been carried out within
the framework of ‘translate’ Beyond
Culture: The Politics of Translation and
with the support of the Culture 2000
programme of the European Union.
 
    
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Voyeurismo, vigilância e TV
Screening, Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, 28 April 2007
A compilation of videos from the Video-pool archive, put together by Anthony Auerbach for a screening. The videos will be shown in a series of events organised by Eduardo de Jesus under the heading Imagempensamento (thought-image, apparently after Deleuze) which is about the connections between visual arts, experimental video and cinema.
The theme of the compilation is watching: voyeurism, surveillance, TV —
arguably not suitable for a cinema presentation. The compilation therefore
includes a video-introduction aimed at shifting the expectations which go with
sitting in cinema.
catalogue of works screened
introduction by Anthony Auerbach view video | read transcript
Imagempensamento in Portuguese
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Video Yerevan
Workshop held at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental
Art, Yerevan, 15 June 2006.
At this meeting Anthony Auerbach asked, 'Who is
Big Brother?' as a way of headlining a discussion of voyeurism,
the politics and the technology of looking; Rosa Reitsamer
analysed the construction of Black masculinity in recent 'urban'
music videos. The discussion was led by Vardan Azatyan.
The Armenian translation is in preparation and will be posted at
the website of the Armenian National
Association of Art Critics. Organised by Eva Khachatryan.
Thanks to all at ACCEA.
read the papers and Vardan's
response
view images of the event
Video Yerevan
ACCEA presents Video as Urban Condition: how video shapes urban
experience
Introduction: Saturday 10 June 2006
Workshop: Thursday 15 June 2006
- Browse the Video-pool Archive 8-30 June 2006
- Take part in a conversation with Anthony Auerbach
(Video as Urban Condition organiser, London), Rosa Reitsamer
(Female Consequences, Vienna) and guests
- Bring your videos and your point of view
Video as Urban Condition about how video technologies and networks
populate and structure the urban fabric and how our knowledge, perception
and fantasy of urban environments are mediated by video. Video as
Urban Condition traces the web of interactions between media and
architecture, subject and commodity, identity and desire, the city
and its phantasmagoria.
The project started in 2004 in London. I am in Yerevan, as the
guest of ACCEA, to see and hear as well as show and tell. The presentation
is part of a series of visits intended to develop the project for
future exhibitions. The idea is to initiate a discussion about the
implications and applications of video against the background of
the myriad forms in which it appears in urban spaces. My aim is
to learn how you work out your working conditions and how video
and the city interact in Yerevan.
On Saturday, I will introduce the project with examples from the
Video-pool Archive: videos which demonstrate, interpret or alter
what we can call the 'relations of representation'.
On Thursday I will be joined by Rosa Reitsamer. She will talk about
video as an 'urban' condition, analysing the urban narratives and
gender relations in the kind of music videos which process Hip Hop
culture for the global market. I will highlight some themes which
emerge from the Video-pool collection and suggest the potential
and the challenge of video in relation to the urban environment.
Talks in English and Armenian.
Thanks to Eva Khachatryan and ACCEA team for organisation, British
Council London and Yerevan for translation and assistance, BMAA
Austria for assistance.
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Video as ... Brazil
Anthony Auerbach would like to thank everyone who contributed to
the recent research visit to Brazil. 'I am especially grateful to
my hosts, Lucas Bambozzi and Daniela Castro
in São Paolo, Carlo Sansolo and Erika
Fraenkel in Rio de Janeiro and Dellani Lima
and Louise Ganz in Belo Horizonte. Thanks also
to Eduardo Dejesus who organised the talk I gave
at PUC in Belo Horizonte, to Graziela Kunsch, Simone
Michelin and Carlo and Erika again for offering to put
together compilations for the Video-pool Archive, and to everyone
who engaged with the topic and gave their points of view. These
will become visible in future presentations.'
Here is a Brazilian supplement to Anthony Auerbach's documentation
(see also below) of the urban phenomena of video.
view
Brazil images
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Video as Urban Condition, São Paolo, 22 February
2006
Paço das Artes, 1400–1900h
Meet Anthony Auerbach for a talk about Video as Urban Condition:
how video shapes urban experience. See works from the 'Video-pool
Archive' and put your point of view. Bring your videos too.
português
What difference does video make?
What difference does it make who makes a video?
'Video as Urban Condition' is a project about how video equipment
and networks populate and construct the urban fabric; how our knowledge,
perception and fantasy of urban environments are mediated by video
— tracing the web of interactions between media and architecture,
subject and commodity, identity and desire, the city and its phantasmagoria.
The project started in 2004 with an interdisciplinary symposium
and the first showing of the 'Video-pool Archive' in London. It
comes to Brazil as part of the 'research phase' for future exhibitions.
I am here to learn from experience, to understand your working conditions
and see what you see through video. I will show some examples of
video works from the 'Videopool Archive' and invite you to contribute
to it. I will talk about the project and the ideas behind it and
invite you to tell me your point of view.
Thanks to: Carlo Sansolo, Erika Fraenkel and Lucas Bambozzi for
collaboration.
Paço das Artes
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First Monday Special Issue: Urban Screens, 6 February 2006
Following the Urban Screens Conference
held in Amsterdam in September 2005, online journal First
Monday presents a special issue exploring the impact of large-scale
video screens on the urban social and cultural environment (First
Monday, special issue #4).
read Anthony Auerbach's
paper on this site
read
papers at First Monday
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Submissions Update, 4 February 2006
We welcome submissions of original work for inclusion in future
presentations of the Video-pool Archive. Please note a modifiction
to the contributors' agreement concerning possible copyright issues.
There is no deadline for submissions.
Video-pool submissions
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Urban Screens 2006-07
January 2006: Following the success of the Urban
Screens Conference 2006, additional conferences and exhibitions
are in preparation. Anthony Auerbach was invited to join the advisory
board.
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Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 17 November 2005
Talk by Anthony Auerbach and call for participation
A talk in English with distractions, introducing the research, archive
and exhibition project Video as Urban Condition.
- Stating the obvious: Video as Urban Condition
describes how video installations have become part of the urban
fabric; how our knowledge, perception and fantasy of urban environments
is influenced by the screens and the images they transmit.
- Understanding it: Video as Urban Condition
asks how video mediates the web of interactions between
of media and architecture, subject and commodity, identity and
desire, the city and its phantasmagoria; examines how
‘relations of representation’ are established and
altered by video technology.
- What to do about it: how you can contribute
to the Video-pool Archive;
discussion.
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Urban Screens Conference, Amsterdam, 23–24 September
2005
An international conference organised by Mirjam Struppek
in co-operation with the Institute of Network Cultures
(Department of Interactive Media at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam)
welcomed a wide range of speakers to discuss the uses of large-scale
LED screens 'that increasingly influence the visual sphere of our
public spaces in urban settings'. In the words of the organisers,
the conference would 'investigate how the currently dominating commercial
use of these screens can be broadened and culturally curated. Can
these screens become a tool to contribute to a lively urban society,
involving its audience interactively?' Contributions from academics,
curators and artists were complemented by talks by architects, technology
providers, advertising agencies and broadcasters.
Anthony Auerbach's paper 'Interpreting Urban Screens'
offered a critical reflection on phenomenology and dialectics of
the screen in an urban context from the point of view of the research
that has contributed to the project Video as Urban Condition.
read Anthony Auerbach's
paper on this site
read
conference papers at First Monday
Urban Screens
website
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Research Award 2005–2006
The emphasis in the current phase of research is on broadening geographic
scope of the project by exploring the implications and applications
of video in cities conditioned by other cultures and by other economic
and technological conditions than the big cities of Europe and north
America. Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Karachi, Cairo, Lagos, Sao Paolo,
Mexico City are examples. The research will investigate what role
video plays in propagating the image of the 'big city', the ways
in which video conditions urbanisation and the extent to which video
is able to articulate specific urban experiences: What difference
does video make? What difference does it make who makes a video?
In parallel with a series of research visits abroad, Video as Urban
Condition will explore the role of video in expressing aspects of
migrant experience and identity in London, the city proud to call
itself the most diverse in Europe.
The aim of the research is to develop the Video-pool Archive as
the principal curatorial resource for a touring presentation and
a large-scale exhibition/installation for major institutions.
Anthony Auerbach has been awarded a grant by the
Arts Council of England to carry out and document this research
over the next twelve months. Additional support is provided by the
Austrian Cultural Forum, London. Please get in touch if you would
like more information or if you would like to contribute by hosting
an informal event as part of the development process.
send e-mail
 
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Urban Phenomena: photos by Anthony Auerbach
Anthony Auerbach’s photo-documentation is an inventory of
the urban phenomena of video familiar to everyone. It demonstrates
how a small set of technologies supports a large set of applications
at different scales: from network infrastructures, through the equipment
of the home, the workplace, commercial and public spaces, to systems
of surveillance and control. Each photograph offers a document which
would repay analysis, tracing the web of interactions between of
media and architecture, subject and commodity, identity and desire,
the city and its phantasmagoria.
view images
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Video-Café Bratislava, 12–13 March 2005
Meet me at the Video-café Bratislava, brought to you in co-operation
with Burundi media-art organisation, whose guest I am for a short
residency.
Open Saturday 12 March 2005, 1700–2400h c/o V-Club
Sunday 13 March 2005, 1600–2000h c/o Burundi displej
Nám. SNP 12, Bratislava http://www.burundi.sk
view images of the event
We present Video as Urban Condition: a project exploring how video
shapes urban experience. The project was launched in 2004 with an
International Symposium and the first presentation of the Video-pool
Archive, a mobile collection of moving images reflecting on the
mutability of video as it shifts between fact and fiction, entertainment
and persuasion, urban fantasy and reality-TV, art and activism,
surveillance and control. The Video-pool Archive forms the basis
of future exhibition projects I am developing now.
Video-café Bratislava is an invitation to view some of the
works from the Archive and add some of your own. Video as Urban
Condition acknowledges that video is a medium which is not constrained
by the norms and institutions of art: that it is distinguished by
the multipicity of claims it can make and the variety of experience
in can mediate. A café suggests an urban infrastructure and
social space of multiple conversations: we aim to bring video into
the conversation.
Bring your videos on VHS or DVD
"The distribution of video technology suggests the possibility
engendering as many approaches as there are users. Among them, perhaps,
ways of contesting the conventions and habits which video (from
soap opera to CCTV) persuades us are second nature, and means of
making the specificities of urban experience perceptible."
Anthony Auerbach
I am in Bratislava until the middle of March. If you’d like
to meet me and show me your work and/or your city, please contact
me
hosted
by Burundi media-art organisation
supported by British Council
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Academy of Fine Arts, Bratislava, 8 March 2005
introduction to Video as Urban Condition by Anthony Auerbach
Artists don't make videos because they are special. Artists make
videos because everybody does. Video as Urban Condition accepts
that video is a medium which is not constrained by the norms and
institutions of art and explores how video shapes urban experience.
Video as Urban Condition examines video as part of the urban fabric
and as urban phantasmagoria, acknowledging the mutability of video
as it shifts between fact and fiction, entertainment and persuasion,
urban fantasy and reality-TV, art and activism, surveillance and
control.
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Bush TV Bratislava, 24 February 2004
US President Bush appeared in the centre of Bratislava for a 'public'
speech while he was in town to meet Russian President Putin. Putin
made himself scarce. Anthony Auerbach introduced Video as Urban
Condition at Burundi in the evening, augmented by documents from
the day's events.
comment and images by Anthony
Auerbach
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Vivid Hothaus Seminar, Birmingham, 4 December 2004
Anthony Auerbach presented Video as Urban Condition for Vivid's
'hothaus' series of seminars at Birmingham Institute of Art and
Design, University of Central England. The day's discussion focused
on new media artistic and curatorial practice in the
context of social and cultural places and spaces. Other speakers
were: Drew Hemment, Bill Fontana, Janet Vaughan, Mark Hancock, Martin
Rieser (Chair)
read the paper
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Video-pool Showreel, 2004
A showreel is now available presenting examples from the Video-pool
Archive. A 35-minute compilation represents a cross-section of works
from the archive, including (excerpts from) videos by artists, artists’
collectives, activists and architects from a wide range of subject
positions. This selection also reflects the emphasis on works from
central and south eastern Europe which was developed for the Austrian
Cultural Forum edition, 2004.
- D-Fuse (Axel Stockburger/Mike Faulkner): Brilliant
City, 16:00, 2004, UK, VP 059
- Adla Isanovic: Mi/Me, 1:30, 2002, Bosnia Herzegovina,
VP 098
- Superflex: Tenantspin, 27:30, 2004, UK, VP
038
- Ursula Damm: reMind, 2:30, 2002, Germany,
VP056
- Undercurrents News Network: Videocops 10:00
2003 UK, VP 039
- Undercurrents News Network: Bournemouth Monster
3:00 2003 UK, VP 040
- Blast Theory: Trucold, 14:00, 2003, UK, VP
026
- ambientTV.NET (Manu Luksch/Ilze Black): Broadbandit
Highway, 40:00, 2001, UK, VP 054
- Pasic-Husanovic Family (Vedad Pasic/Azra Husanovic):
Home Video, 180:00, 1992–95 Bosnia Herzegovina, VP 095
- Neutral (Tapio Snellman/Christian Grou): Real
Fake, 8:36, 2004 UK, VP 110
- Martin Bruch: Handbike Movie Vienna, 60:00,
2002, Austria, VP 025
- Milica Tomic: Portrait of my Mother, 63:00,
1999 Serbia, VP 109
- Karin Ludmann: Cultivated Plants, 0:54, 2002,
Germany, VP 016
We are currently developing the project on parallel lines: proposal
for a National Touring Exhibition in the UK, informal international
co-operation and a show for a contemporary art museum.
If you are interested in hosting a presentation of the archive
or contributing to it please contact us. The showreel is available
on VHS or DVD please send us your details if you would like a copy.
Contact
Hosting
Submissions
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Video-pool Archive, 21 June–2 July 2004
Symposium, 2 July 2004, Austrian Cultural Forum London
with: Juha Huuskonen (Katastro.fi), Manu
Luksch (AmbientTV.net), Anna McCarthy
(New York University), Paul O’Connor (Undercurrents
News Network), Ole Scheeren (Office of Metropolitan
Architecture), chaired by Anthony Auerbach
Reflecting on the mutability of video as it shifts from club visuals
to media-art, from fact to fiction, from entertainment to surveillance,
from advertising to social commentary, from urban fantasy to reality-TV,
from architectural visions to political critique, Video
as Urban Condition offers a way of rethinking what is all
around us.
The Symposium and the Video-pool Archive
which accompanies it explore how video technology has become part
of the urban fabric and how our understanding and fantasy of the
city is mediated by video: in the hands of television professionals,
software designers, artists, architects and indeed everybody with
a camcorder.
The symposium speakers bring a wide range of experiences to a public
discussion on the implications and applications of video.
People
read more about the symposium speakers
The Video-pool Archive presents diverse interpretations
of video as urban condition in selections made by the symposium
speakers and other practitioners, curators and critics. It features
photo-documentation of the urban phenomena of video by Anthony Auerbach
and Anna McCarthy, the results of a call for 'Urban Road Movies'
from Manu Luksch (including works by Blast Theory, Martin Bruch,
Surveillance Camera Players), an investigation of the video-psycho-geography
of south central Europe from Diana Baldon (including works by Tomislav
Gotovac, Calin Dan and Apolonia Sustersic) and a juxtaposition of
urban fictions from 'visual analysts' Neutral.
Video-pool
read more about Video-pool compilations
People
read more about Video-pool contributors
Press
service Vargas Organisation, London
Video as Urban Condition is funded by the
Austrian Cultural Forum London and the Arts Council of England with
additional assistance from the Embassy of Finland, London, and the
Royal Netherlands Embassy, London
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