Fase 3. Implementación de la propuesta de intervención

TITLE(S) DATE

CYT: An Acoustic Journey through YouTube  

exhibition) / October 2012 to July 2013 (radio broadcast)  

STATUS   FUNDERS  

Fully accessible on CYT blog but original YouTube video content is lost / Exhibition and radio broadcast fully archived on CYT blog  

Self-funded with artists’ support / Gallery exhibition supported by ŠKUC Gallery.

CURATOR(S) (occupation)  

Robert Sakrowski (founder director of CYT, curator and new media art historian)  

EXHIBITION FORMATS  

HTML soundbanks displayed on CYT blog and at SKÜC Gallery as an interactive installation / Monthly radio broadcast of new HTML

soundbanks.  

PATTERN of MIGRATION  

Artistic production on the Gridr database and display on CYT blog (FOLLOWED BY) Gallery exhibition (FOLLOWED BY) radio broadcast.  

ONLINE OFFLINE

ARTISTS (YouTube users) / (11) Robert Sakrowski / Andreas Dorwarth, Ute Fischer, Vlado Repnik and Martina Ruhsam, Laturbo Avedon, Dick Whyte, timineaux, Kim Asendorf, John Dekron, Jonas Lund and Jan Thoben.

Same

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies CURATORIAL:

Intent  

To explore the modes of artistic expressions enabled by YouTube, the curator created a free and publicly-accessible tool for curation based on adopting YouTube as a sound/video database: the Gridr. The tool is both a piece of software and a database, enabling the creation of HTML soundbanks, which are aggregations of videos in visual grids. The CYT blog is used for presentation, contextualisation and archival purposes.

To create different experiences of the HTML soundbanks,

emphasising some of their aspects and to reach different audiences. The gallery installation was created to respond to the exhibition Radio as an Art Space at SKÜC Gallery, and the radio broadcast to an invite from the community radio station CoLaboRadio.

CURATORIAL:

Approach  

The first part of the project (in response to the gallery invitation) saw the production of an HTML soundbank by Sakrowski himself, after an open call for artists submissions failed. For the second part (in response to the radio

invitation), the curator commissioned 10 artists to create HTML

soundbanks to be presented as a sound mix, live, on the CYT blog and, as recordings, on the radio station.

In response to the theme of the exhibition, Sakrowski proposed an installation of An Acoustic Journey Through YouTube. For the radio broadcast, Sakrowski acted as mediator between CoLaboRadio and the

commissioned artists, with whom he also carried out interviews.

ORGANISATION AL

STRUCTURE:

The Site  

The CYT blog comprises various sections, each of which is related to the research strategies of Sakrowski into the YouTube phenomena. The use of tags allows content search as categories. The top menu includes:

Blog / About / Exhibitions / Interviews / CuratingYouTube BOX / Links / Events / Archiving NetArt. The Exhibition section is where the CYT exhibitions are archived and HTML soundbanks displayed. / The Gridr website is not clearly accessible from the blog. It presents the series of HTML soundbanks with no contextual information and search features. / The YouTube channel ikonoskop hosts the screen

recordings of the artists' playing their own HTML soundbanks, which are then embedded on the blog.

At SKÜC, the project was showcased, along with the work of other participants, in an allocated room. / CoLaboRadio presented monthly broadcasts of the recorded HTML soundbanks at 1am.

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies ORGANISATION

AL

STRUCTURE:

The Exhibition

An Acoustic Journey page includes:

a project description; an embedded YouTube video of the recording of playing the soundbanks; links to the sound files of such recording;

information about the gallery

exhibition at ŠKUC gallery and link to the documentation on Flickr. The actual work opens on a separate page. / The artists’ commissions for CoLaboRadio are archived under the Events section as follows: title and description of the piece; date and time of broadcast and artist bio; an embedded YouTube video of the recording of playing the soundbank with a link to the original work on the Gridr database.

The An Acoustic Journey soundbank was shown on a laptop connected to a sound system and placed on a plinth. A mirror display was played on a wall-mounted screen. A series of (empty) CD cases were hung on an adjacent wall as a grid. Each of the cases presented the titles of one of the video assemblages constituting An Acoustic Journey and the credits related to the source material on YouTube. / Each of the radio broadcasts was followed by an interview between curator and artist that focused on the artistic practices and the content of the work. Interviews were never made available on CYT blog.

ARTISTIC CONTENT: Site and Mode of Production

The artworks are determined by the format enabled by the Gridr tool for which YouTube is the source material and hosting server of the content, and the grid is the format adopted to aggregate the content. / The HTML soundbanks consists of one or more grids of 2x2, 3x3 or 4x4 videos, which can be combined to create soundbanks of various sizes.

Once created they are ready to be played by the artists themselves or the viewers.

Sakrowski's An Acoustic Journey was shown directly from the CYT website and was presented as a contextually-mediated piece. / The works for radio broadcast were produced online by screen recording the playing of the artworks/grids. platform and includes 48 grids of appropriated YouTube videos. It includes content taken from TV news and also other thematic sonic

collections, such as: sound of the Space, 500 wikiLeaks of Civilians killed in Bagdad, Noisy Transformer, public messages from the

Anonymous groups and a series of video instructions of how to make a gun. / The soundbank can be played live and it can also be experienced in the form of a sound recording of Sakrowski playing it, i.e. the 1h10min-long version of Acoustic journey.mp3 or the Teaser of 10min.

For CoLaboRadio, Jonas Lund (NL), who also programmed the Gridr tool with Sakrowski, presented a sound piece of thematic video assemblages that explored themes that ranged from our relationship with social media, such as Facebook, to ideas related to glitch aesthetics, such as Glitchy.

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies

Figure 55: CYT: An Acoustic Journey Through YouTube, 2011. Analysis table.

A.1.2. eBayaday

ENGAGEMENT:

Type and Navigation Patterns

The viewer actively engages with the artworks, in that they require to be played to be activated/experienced.

The viewer becomes a DJ and the artwork operates as a curated database of audio/video material.

The audience is less active when listening to or watching the recordings of playing the soundbanks. The audience experience takes place within the CYT blog, where the original work is contextualised and archived.

Visitors were offered different ways of engaging with the work in the gallery such as: browsing the soundbank with a mouse or watching other visitors doing it by looking at the monitor. They also had access to contextual

information and a list of the original authors of the YouTube videos. / Radio listeners would get one aspect of the artwork: the sound resulting from playing the soundbank. More details about the artworks emerged in the following Q&A.

TITLE(S) DATE

eBayaday / eBayaday: World Travel of Complete Artists Listings / eBayaday: DOCUMENTS URL: www.ebayaday.com

1 to 31 December 2006 (web-based exhibition) / January 2007 (catalogue) / 9 February to 2 March 2007 (gallery exhibition)

STATUS FUNDERS

Website URL banned by eBay, hence no longer available online.

University of Michigan’s School of Art & Design, Institute for the Humanities at Rackham Graduate School

CURATOR(S) (occupation)

Rebekah Modrak (artist, author and educator at University of Michigan), Aaron Ahuvia (assistant professor at UM-Dearborn, School of Business) and Zack Denfeld (artist and designer).

EXHIBITION FORMATS

Series of artwork-listings auctioned on eBay and archival project website / Mail exhibition catalogue / Gallery exhibition of material included in the catalogue.

PATTERN of MIGRATION

Artworks produced for display and auction on eBay (IN PARALLEL TO) eBayaday website archive (FOLLOWED BY) Exhibition catalogue (FOLLOWED BY) Gallery exhibition.

ONLINE OFFLINE

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies SITE(S) eBay and eBayaday websites Mail-box catalogue / Work gallery

(Ann Arbor, US) ARTISTS (26) Abishek Hazra, Ellen Harvey,

Annie Varnot, Matthew Bryant, Slope Mountain College Faculty (Adriane Hermann & Brian Reeves), Nancy Hwang, Davy Rothbart, Conrad Bakker, Robin Kahn, John Roos, Osman Kahn, Karen Eliot, Josh Greene, Christine Hill Volksboutique, Dan Price, Sheryl Oring, Nick Tobier, Institute of Infinite Small Things, Charls Fairbanks, William Pope L., Marc Ganzglass, Carl Diehl, Rebar, Yashas Shetty and Stefano Pasquini.

Same

CURATORIAL:

Intent

To explore the domain of e-commerce, its language and symbolic value, and its impact on artistic production, presentation and

Artists whose practices engaged with the field of commerce and its

language were invited to produce artworks to be presented as listings on eBay, each for a seven-day-long auction. The curators mapped the auctions’ processes and archived them on the eBayaday website simultaneously.

The curators collected

screenshots of the artwork-listings on eBay, transcripts of

conversations between artists and buyers and details of commercial transactions. The format was chosen to mirror the

characteristics of the exhibition, such as mail distribution. / The gallery exhibition proposed enlarged versions of the print material included in the catalogue.

ORGANISATION AL

STRUCTURE:

The Site

eBayaday adopted the blog format (without comments) and functioned as a placeholder and archive of the auctions on eBay. It was structured in two main columns with content displayed in the centre. The left column hosted: Navigation, which included Featured Auction / About / Artists / Auction Archive / Live Auctions. The Auction Archive displayed a calendar showing the auctions schedule. The right column hosted the sections Press and Essays, which included commissioned critical texts.

Unbound print material contained in a postal box including: a booklet with three curatorial essays and a calendar for the auctions schedule; 26 postcard-like cards (17.5x12.7cm) of the artwork-listings; a poster showing the commercial transactions on a map (front), and conversations between artists and buyers plus details of the artworks (back). / The exhibition was hosted in the main room in the upper floor of the gallery.

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies on eBay and accessible through database search enabled by the platform. Each artwork was displayed/published under one or more eBay categories (34 at the time of the project) that had been chosen by the artists to contextualise their work. They functioned as sub-exhibition sites. / The individual auctions were brought together in the eBayaday website which also linked to the individual auctions on eBay when they were live.

Each artwork/auction was

‘transferred’ into print on each of the 26 postcards as it appeared on eBay website at the time of the auction. Each postcard (back) would display the artist’s name and work title with the text used to describe it in the listing. / The exhibition displayed,

chronologically, blown-up versions of the postcards along with the conversations between the artist and the collectors on eBay. The poster map was painted as a mural on the central wall and displayed the

Artworks responded to the context and parameters of eBay. They were not web-based but documented in the form of listings. / They ranged from sculptural objects and paintings to sound works. Many artworks were performative pieces that conceptually responded to eBay as a context of display. They adhered to the eBay interface and format of the listing including: an image of the

artwork/idea, a short description with link to the eBayaday website, auction details and shipment conditions. The artwork/listing included a section for questions and answers between the artist/seller and the audience/buyer.

Abishek Harza's (India) Own my voice you can use it for anything was listed under the Musical Instruments

> Other Instruments category. It offered the right to use his digitally recorded voice, “for any purpose”, for up to 5 hours. Annie Varnot's (US) Uncharted territory/Scenic parcel, Wildlife Sanctuary, listed under Real Estate > Land, was a series of paintings of tracts of scenic land in Varnot County, a fictional area near the artist’s home in New York. John Roos (US), a car salesman, sold consultancy sessions presented as compiled by the curators— see Site and Mode of Production.

Curating Web-based Art Exhibitions: Appendix A: Case Studies

Figure 56: eBayaday, 2006. Analysis table.