19/4/2002
Media Field
WCMA, Williamstown
WCMA presents Media Field, a video and media gallery, and Old New Technologies, the gallery's inaugural exhibition.
Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) is pleased to announce the opening of
Media Field, a newly redesigned gallery space dedicated exclusively to video
and new media work. The gallery¹s inaugural video program, Old New
Technologies, will be on view from April 20 through July 21, 2002.
WCMA's historic Field Gallery has been converted to a media viewing space
called Media Field. Originally a reading room in the college¹s library, the
Field Gallery is the museum¹s most architecturally historic gallery, and it
has been utilized for decades as a space for traditional exhibitions. While
still maintaining the gallery¹s nineteenth-century architectural character,
the transformation to a permanent space exclusively for projected media art,
emphasizes the museum¹s continuing commitment to current art forms. Video is
among the most important and widely used mediums for artists working today
and has been established in museums for several decades. Explorations in
digital, internet, sound and other forms of new media are increasing as
quickly as the technology allows. Few institutions, however, have committed
valuable gallery space to showing video and other forms of media work on an
ongoing basis.
Media Field's twelve-seat cinema-style arrangement encourages viewers to
spend a few extra moments in the gallery and engage with time-based media
works in an intimate setting. Artworks will be shown individually or
consecutively as part of themed exhibitions that will change every two to
three months.
Among the featured artists are Emile Devereaux, Sam Easterson, Christian
Marclay, Fatimah Tobing Rony, and Leslie Thornton, Media Field's first vide
o
program, Old New Technologies, addresses one-time cutting edge technologies
that are now taken for granted. Upon their emergence, these
technologies including the train, the telephone, photography, film, space
exploration, and early computing systems-dramatically altered human vision,
perception of space and time, and representation. In spite of, or perhaps
also due to their increasing obsolescence, many of these old "new"
technologies continue to provide intriguing source material for video
investigations by contemporary artists.
Leslie Thornton¹s Strange Space, for example, juxtaposes interior views of
the body from a medical examination with archival images of lunar probes.
Emile Devereaux¹s The Subtler Matter is concerned with the transmission of
messages through the lens of nineteenth-century theories of ether as a
medium for electromagnetic waves. On Cannibalism by Fatimah Tobing Rony
shows how early medical and ethnographic uses of film helped to construct
native identities for the benefit of Western consumption. Whether the use of
older technologies in these videos represents a strictly aesthetic choice,
the primary method of production, or the dominant subject matter of the
piece, this practice suggests that there is a place for obsolete
technology in the digital age, and more importantly, places our current
technological development into perspective within a historical continuum.
Old New Technologies appears in conjunction with a video production course
taught by Williams College Assistant Professor of Art, Liza Johnson and is
organized by Lisa Dorin, Curatorial and Programs Assistant at WCMA
A portion of the museum¹s general operating funds for this fiscal year has
been provided through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, a federal agency that fosters innovation, leadership, and a
lifetime of learning, and from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state
agency.
The Williams College Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday
from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
Admission is free and
the museum is wheelchair accessible.
The Williams College Museum of Art is a participating member in The Vienna
Project, a collaboration among eleven arts and cultural institutions in the
Berkshires.
Contact: Jonathan Cannon, Public Relations Coordinator
413.597.3178; WCMA@williams.edu
WCMA
15 Lawrence Hall Drive, Ste 2, MA 01267
Williamstown