Midterm Asst. 1: YouTube as an Opportunity and Innovative Video Art

I am not a huge fan of YouTube. That does not mean I do not utilize it. Even for someone like me, who finds the majority of the videos to be unfunny and of poor quality, YouTube is useful. Users take time to cut up every scene of a movie, post popular commercials, and simply spout their opinions. YouTube makes it so that anybody can be a video artist, a filmmaker, or a TV director. Anyone with the Internet is able to find a video on almost any topic and viewers have even more choices than with a premium cable TV. Video artists who have not yet made a name for themselves can start off on this website and gain a following. It no longer always has to be about who you know. YouTube viewers also have the opportunity to immediately respond with comments and possibly forge an interactive relationship between artist and audience.

The way that YouTube videos with a high volume of viewers become almost cult classics, allows for regular people to get their voices heard on various issues. YouTube itself, due to the broad number of viewers, has created a channel called YouChoose ’08. This adds an entirely new level, including videos from the actual campaigns and nominees as well as from consituents. In this sense, video art could very well be affecting choices made in the 2008 election and on various other issues.

The interesting thing about video art in terms of display, is that it can be in more than one place at a time. Many pieces can even be broadcast on the Internet and YouTube as long as they are simply videos without extra screens or objects involved. Rodney Graham’s piece Rheinmetall/Victoria 8 uses such objects to send an additional message. I wouldn’t even call this work a video, it is like photography with moving images, and the photography is beautifully composed. Graham’s piece is different because it is shown using a Victoria 8 projector, and the projector is half of the artwork creating a video art installation piece. He is showing the dying out forms of media by filming one (the typewriter) as it is slowly immersed in white powder and facing it off with the other (the projector). The two work together to send a message about old media being replaced by the new.