The Moving Image as Public Art: Sidewalk Spectators and Modes of Enchantment

302 Pages·2021·7.751 MB·English

by  Annie Dell'Aria

EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND ARTISTS’ MOVING IMAGE
The Moving Image
as Public Art
Sidewalk Spectators and
Modes of Enchantment
Annie Dell’Aria
Experimental Film and Artists’ Moving Image
Series Editors
Kim Knowles
Aberystwyth University
Aberystwyth, UK
Jonathan Walley
Department of Cinema
Denison University
Granville, OH, USA
Existing outside the boundaries of mainstream cinema, the field of
experimental film and artists’ moving image presents a radical challenge
not only to the conventions of that cinema but also to the social and
cultural norms it represents. In offering alternative ways of seeing and
experiencing the world, it brings to the fore different visions and dissenting
voices. In recent years, scholarship in this area has moved from a marginal
to a more central position as it comes to bear upon critical topics such as
medium-specificity, ontology, the future of cinema, changes in cinematic
exhibition and the complex interrelationships between moving image
technology, aesthetics, discourses, and institutions. This book series stakes
out exciting new directions for the study of alternative film practice–from
the black box to the white cube, from film to digital, crossing continents
and disciplines, and developing fresh theoretical insights and revised his-
tories. Although employing the terms ‘experimental film’ and ‘artists’
moving image’, we see these as interconnected practices and seek to inter-
rogate the crossovers and spaces between different kinds of oppositional
filmmaking.
We invite proposals on any aspect of non-mainstream moving image prac-
tice, which may take the form of monographs, edited collections, and art-
ists’ writings both historical and contemporary. We are interested in
expanding the scope of scholarship in this area, and therefore welcome
proposals with an interdisciplinary and intermedial focus, as well as studies
of female and minority voices. We also particularly welcome proposals that
move beyond the West, opening up space for the discussion of Latin
American, African and Asian perspectives.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15817
Annie Dell’Aria
The Moving Image as
Public Art
Sidewalk Spectators and Modes of Enchantment
Annie Dell’Aria
Department of Art
Miami University
Oxford, OH, USA
ISSN 2523-7527 ISSN 2523-7535 (electronic)
Experimental Film and Artists’ Moving Image
ISBN 978-3-030-65903-5 ISBN 978-3-030-65904-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65904-2
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect
to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
Cover Illustration: Projection by Brave Berlin at BLINK Cincinnati festival, 2017,
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Photo credit: Scott Meyer / Alamy Stock Photo
Cover design: eStudioCalamar
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
A
cknowledgments
This book is indebted to a wealth of formal and informal support over the
past ten years. From Miami University, I have been very fortunate to receive
time to write thanks to an Assigned Research Appointment and a Summer
Research Appointment as well as the PREP Grant to help secure image
rights, the moral support and camaraderie of the Howe Center for Writing
Excellence, and the helpful faculty and staff of the Miami University
Libraries. This project also developed through the support of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, particularly through enriching participa-
tion at the Summer Institute on Space, Place, and the Humanities in 2017
at Northeastern University, as well as from a research residency at Signal
Culture (then in Owego, New York) in 2018. In the early days of this proj-
ect, when it was a doctoral dissertation at the Graduate Center of the City
University of New York, I was very fortunate to have the steadfast guidance
and support of my advisor, Harriet F. Senie, as well as generative feedback
from my committee members, Amy Herzog, Mona Hadler, and Margot
Bouman, and the resources of the Mina Rees Library.
I am very grateful for the time and generosity of many of the artists
included in this book, including Judith Barry, Dara Birnbaum, Bill Brand,
Anne Bray, Tiffany Carbonneau, Alex Criqui, Jane Dickson, Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer, Mary Clare Reitz, Dan Reynolds, and Paul St George.
Conversations and correspondence with Desma Belsaas, Anita Bhalla,
Kerry Brougher, Jean Cooney, Steve Dietz, George Fifield, Kevin
Heathhorn, Julia Muney Moore, Maria Niro, Chris Nriapia, Daniel
Palmer, Erin Taylor, and C. Jacqueline Wood have also enriched this
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
book’s development of ideas and perspectives. Research was also aided by
the Creative Time and Public Art Fund archives at the Fales Library and
Special Collections at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at New York
University and the Special Collections at Stanford Libraries.
Conversations in the classroom with my students continue to fuel my
ideas, and I am grateful for their enthusiasm and intellect. Feedback and
informal conversations with colleagues at Miami, including Ann Elizabeth
Armstrong, Ron Becker, Andrew Casper, Joomi Chung, Jordan Fenton,
Katie Day Good, Mack Hagood, Michael Hatch, Kerry Hegarty, Elisabeth
Hodges, Katie Johnson, Ben Nicholson, Rob Robbins, Pepper Stetler,
and others have also contributed to my thinking as well as my approach to
the book-writing process. Informal conversations with Leticia Bajuyo,
Dave Colangelo, Tim Cresswell, Nicole Fennimore, Nicholas Gamso,
Margaret Herman, Cara Jordan, Sarah Kanouse, Zach Melzer, Sarah Mills,
Andrew Neumann, Morgan Ridler, Rachel Stevens, Andrew Uroskie,
Hyewon Yi, Greg Zinman, and so many more have helped me work
through ideas and develop new ones in countless ways. Feedback from
audience members and fellow panelists at the College Art Association and
Society for Cinema and Media Studies conferences has also been invaluable.
Sections of Chap. 2 appeared previously as articles in Moving Image
Review and Art Journal (MIRAJ) and Public Art Dialogue, and I am
grateful to those editors and publishers for granting permission for me to
reprint revised versions of them here. Nike Dreyer, Grace Hong, Renee
Santos, T.J. Wiltham, Schmidt Associates, and many others were instru-
mental in helping me secure images and check facts about artworks and
exhibitions.
I am grateful to Kim Knowles and Jonathan Walley for their editorial
feedback, as well as that of anonymous peer reviewers. Thanks also to Lina
Aboujieb, Emily Wood, Raghu Kalynaraman, and the rest of the team at
Palgrave Macmillan for their support in helping a first-time book author
through the publishing process.
The personal support and patience of Scott Dimmich and many friends,
as well as the boost to the spirit provided by the 2019 Washington
Nationals, helped me see this project through to the end. Finally, complet-
ing this book would not be possible without my family: my sister Madeline
Dell’Aria, and my parents Mary Logan and Stephen Dell’Aria. I thank
them for years of constant and unconditional support.
Praise for The Moving Image as Public Art
“Annie Dell’Aria offers a timely and illuminating taxonomy of the prolif-
erating sites, aims, and functions of the moving image in public spaces.
Moving beyond familiar critiques of spectacle and capital, Dell’Aria pays
careful attention to the ways artists, institutions, and communities negoti-
ate the complex goals and utility of art in the public sphere. In doing so,
she prompts us to rethink our continually evolving relationship to the
moving image.”
—Gregory Zinman, author of Making Images Move: Handmade Film
and the Other Arts
“Being outdoors in shared public spaces with strangers has taken on
nuanced meanings of late. It is both a liberating respite from different
levels of lockdown, but also fraught with an invisible risk to our health. It
is therefore prescient when so much of our lives has been increasingly
confined to the digital sphere, that The Moving Image as Public Art con-
siders how outdoor moving image artworks may reconfigure experiential
encounters between strangers, spatial interaction with public space, and
the fabric of cities.”
—Pat Naldi, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Enchantment: Encountering Moving Images on Urban
Surfaces 31
3 Commercial Breaks: Intra-spectacular Public Art 63
4 Screen Spaces: Zones of Interaction and Recognition 101
5 The Light Festival Phenomenon 145
6 Precarious Platforms: The Paradox of Permanent Moving
Images 187
7 Superimposition: Forms of Moving Image Site-Specificity 211
ix
x CONTENTS
8 Postscript: Reflections from a Summer Without Public
Space 255
Bibliography 265
Index 287