Broadcast Yourself

A selection of TV and web-based works which demonstrates how artists have successfully challenged the dominant broadcast culture since the 1970s, complemented by a wealth of online content (see online content page, on the left).

Broadcast Yourself is a group exhibition that contextualises the current trend for sharing videos online through the presentation of artists’ video and TV from the 1970s,’80s and ’90s and more current web-based TV art. The exhibition reveals how artists have questioned the passive relationship viewers have with television by taking control of TV and the way it is both produced and consumed, challenging its cultural influence and exploring what it means to put oneself ‘on-air’.

The exhibition includes:
– collaborative projects from 56kTV and TV swansong which demonstrate how the development of the internet and affordable web cameras gave artists the chance to create their own broadcast networks;
– individual broadcasts of alternative news, like Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s guerilla webcast performances El Naftazteca: Cyber-Aztec TV in 1995, and Alistair Gentry’s ‘landing’ on Mars a decade later;
– Active Ingredient’s MakeTV installation which allows audiences to be interviewed and streamed live online as though they were a celebrity;
– Shaina Anand’s CCTV projects in India which demonstrate how artists continue to create their own systems to contest the fact that they have limited access to the technologies needed for television broadcast.

All the works in this exhibition revise our perceptions of broadcast television (from reality TV and soap operas, to the news and commercial breaks) while at the same time questioning our role in the creation of television culture. How we individually understand television will continue to change as new digital technologies expand the distribution of audio/video work on the web.

But, as the artists in this exhibition have demonstrated, it is possible for us all now to broadcast ourselves.

As well as being an exciting show in a physical space, Broadcast Yourself also has an extensive presence on line:

• Broadcast Yourself Official Website

An invaluable resource, the online catalogue for the exhibition includes background information about the artists and the projects, including links to the artists’ own websites, where you can experience some of the projects directly. The website also include texts, essays and interviews with the exhibition curators as well as reviews of the exhibition and views of the installation. www.broadcastyourself.net

• Fantasy A-List generator website

Active Ingredient’s new comission, The Fantasy A-List Generator (in Gallery 1), is a live video booth where you can take on the personality of a randomly generated celebrity and be interviewed live on the Internet, adding to a growing list of video portraits.
You can watch interviews with previous gallery visitors (and check your own) at www.make-tv.net

• Podcast: Van Gogh TV (1hr 27 mins)

Karel Dudesek, Benjamin Heidersberger and Mike Hentz (Van Gogh TV), Chris Clarke and Duncan Hay (Cornerhouse) discuss Van Gogh TV, their history and their experiences in using mass media technology to create interactive communication projects for both television and Internet.
Recorded at Cornerhouse on 13 June 2008.

Listen on line at http://streaming.cornerhouse.org/vgtv.htm

To listen online you need Windows Media Player 10 minimum or the free VLC player (downloadable from www.videolan.org/vlc). When you listen online it is best to use Internet Explorer and you may need to tweak the volume up.

• Video Interview: Active Ingredient

Active Ingredient discuss their practice and their continued research into new uses of interactive video on mobile devices, the internet, and video in performance.

Active Ingredient is an artist led company that specialise in interactive media. Their innovative approach to new technologies has led them to national and international acclaim, creating innovative projects that merge location, social networking, bio-sensing and play.