What happened to the Video Art?

When you visit an exhibition touted as 'the only one of its kind' one expects the main attraction to make an appearance. Unfortunately this wasn't the case when I visited an exhibition by Arts North, based in the City of Playford, Adelaide, South Australia.

I read about this exhibition in two different local newspapers. Both articles talked up the exhibition, particularly the centre piece, a collection of short films created by children as well as 'video art'.

Quotes from one article implied a significantly more substantial display. For example Arts North President, Marissa Dunn, said of the exhibition, "I'm very happy, especially with showing the diversity of the artwork that comes from our society." Further to that the article goes on to say "a wide cross-section of people have been involved in the exhibition - children as young as five up to 85 year olds have all shared their creativity."

Not with standing that no actual figures, in terms of the number of artists exhibiting, were mentioned I was disappointed to find that the display filled only one wall and a small glass cabinet at the venue. All up I'd estimate twenty five to thirty artworks (not much more than can be seen in the photo displayed with this post). To make matters worse, many of the catalog numbers had either fallen off or been removed. There was no way of matching the artists to some of the works (save for trying to match signatures to names).

The biggest disappointment was the Video Art and Children's Short films. The screen (which can be seen in the photo) was still in place but there was no sign of a projector. Only the recess where it once stood, along with an empty power board gave clues as to its expected location. No explanation was given as to why it wasn't present nor who to ask to discover its where abouts. Given that I was specifically visiting this exhibition for the video component, its complete absence reflected badly on my enjoyment and appreciation of the art that remained.

One could perhaps surmise the exhibition was in the process of being taken down? The newspaper articles I read said the display would be on until the end of April. Though, it only being the 26th of April, the 'end of April' was still a few days away.

I tried my best to appreciate the art that remained but, to be honest, the majority of artworks reflected your typical cross section of local community art. Nothing you can't see in any 'art society' exhibition anywhere in Australia. That's not to say there weren't one or two stand outs but overall, not nearly as inspiring as it might have been with the video component operational.

Overall a disappointing experience that would make me think twice about viewing an Arts North exhibition in the future.

Comments

1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Fails to Impress But It is Progress For Home Humanoid Robot Assistants

1X's NEO, The Home Robot, Tends some Plants. Image: 1X website . J ust over a year ago I wrote about new robotics start up, 1X and their Plans to Build 100,000 Humanoids by 2027 in the form of their NEO Home Robot household assistant. About a year later and NEO has undergone a bit of a makeover, and you can pre-order your own NEO in one of three stylish colours, for delivery some time in 2026. At USD$20,000.00 the price is a bit of buzz kill but 1X does offer a $499 monthly subscription plan as an alternative. Unfortunately the launch hasn't been the show stopper 1X might have hoped for because NEO isn't a fully realised, autonomous robot just yet. While it can learn to do tasks around your home autonomously, there's a bit of a learning curve between when you first receive it, and when it actually becomes useful in a meaningful way. Which was not helped by a video released on The Wall Street Journal's YouTube channel, I Tried the First Humanoid Home Robot. It Go...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...

New Software Blues - Forgetting What You've Learnt

Serif DrawPlus X5 Image: Serif Website . There was a time when I could skim through a manual for virtually any application software in the space of a weekend and that would be all I'd need to find my way around the program from then on. There was even a time when I could work out applications based on my previous experience of using similar software. Whilst those days aren't completely gone I'm finding it harder and harder to learn new software simply because the software can do so much more than it used to. For example, I got very used to using Corel Draw 8 and the suite of tools that came with it back in 1995. I learnt to use it over the space of a weekend so I could complete a large commission I was working on for a client. I'm from the school of if it does the job then don't upgrade . Corel Draw 8 has done the job I need it for well for nearly 15 years. Plus I don't like spending money unnecessarily on upgrades - I just don't buy into the wh...

Momentary pauses in cyberspace... Why Leave a Comment If You Have No Intention of Coming Back?

Different Stands Out Mug by TET. View on RedBubble . I got to thinking about blogs and the fact that anyone can leave a comment to my posts. When someone comments, the polite thing to do is to respond with a comment under theirs. This may prompt an additional comment but really that person has no real intention of in depth discussion. They're just passing through. It's a lot like walking down the street with a complete stranger approaching from the opposite direction. Your intention is to simply pass them by but as you come within talking distance the stranger says "Hi, nice day isn't it?" Like they needed to share that little highlight of information to brighten your day too. You can smile and nod in agreement, or go so far as to say "Yes isn't it," whilst passing by without so much as a break in stride. It's all that is required to be polite. Sometimes though, you want a bit more from your stranger. Why did they decide to say 'Hi'...

The Worst Book I Have Ever Read - Gulp: Travels Around the Gut by Mary Roach

TET and Mary Roach's Book, Gulp . I 'm the kind of person who only reads one physical book at a time. For context I consider a 'book' to be anything over 100 pages of mostly text. Basically your typical work of fiction novel or factual biography. It's not that I can't read more than one book at a time, I just choose not to because I don't set a lot of time aside for reading. Maybe 30 minutes a day when I'm on a good run with a really engaging text. Little did I know that Mary Roach's Gulp: Travels Around the Gut *, a book of 317 pages (minus the Acknowledgments and Bibliography) would become a bottle neck for my reading for the next three and a half years. As such, I'm calling it the worst book I have ever read. Despite how long it took me to read, it is not a bad book in the slightest, and is in fact, quite light, somewhat entertaining, reading for a book that explores the science, and the resilience of the human digestive system. I'm no st...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog