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HITO STEYERL
When asked to research an artist who uses technology creatively in their practice I immediately thought of Hito Steyerl. Steyerl is a German filmmaker, writer, and educator whose new media works explore politics, capitalism, digital technology, society etc. Some of her work, like November, 2004 are documentary style, with a mix of archival footage and her own. Others, like Factory of the Sun, 2015, are a mix of computer generated images and archival footage and are situated within an immersive environment.
I recently saw her work How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013, at the Hirshorn Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In this 15 minute long "instructional" video, Steyerl creatively uses video editing, computerized voice over, green screen, overlay effects, computer generated images, etc. to create a piece that is an uneasy, yet laugh-out-loud, investigation into surveillance and what it means to be visible/invisible.
Steyerl states that the video was initially an investigation into the question "Is there any way for me to basically disappear and not be visible for surveillance?". How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013 borrows the first half of its title from and is an homage to a 1970s Monty Python sketch.
Surveillance, and the dichotomy of visibility vs. invisibility are serious issues. Steyerl states "being invisible can be deadly" and How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013 shows that both being invisible and visible can be dangerous depending on who and where you are. However, it seems our human nature that humor provides a way for us to tackle serious issues. The humor in Steyerl's films is a key element to how her ideas are conveyed but also to the ways she uses technology creatively. Steyerl uses a hodgepodge of highly technical and low-fi editing techniques and the juxtaposition of images (often times computer generated and live-action) to express humor.
Steyerl is also known for her "performance-like" lectures such as "I Dreamed a Dream: Politics in the Age of Mass Art Production". She is a professor of New Media Art at Berlin University of the Arts and co-founded the Research Center for Proxy Politics. RCPP "aims to explore and reflect upon the nature of medial networks and their actors, that is, machines and things as well as humans"
Their website is also pretty amazing.
Steyerl's films are innovative, impactful and surprising because of how she uses technology and also in how she approaches large-scale issues in an increasingly digital world.
HITO STEYERL
When asked to research an artist who uses technology creatively in their practice I immediately thought of Hito Steyerl. Steyerl is a German filmmaker, writer, and educator whose new media works explore politics, capitalism, digital technology, society etc. Some of her work, like November, 2004 are documentary style, with a mix of archival footage and her own. Others, like Factory of the Sun, 2015, are a mix of computer generated images and archival footage and are situated within an immersive environment.
I recently saw her work How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013, at the Hirshorn Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. In this 15 minute long "instructional" video, Steyerl creatively uses video editing, computerized voice over, green screen, overlay effects, computer generated images, etc. to create a piece that is an uneasy, yet laugh-out-loud, investigation into surveillance and what it means to be visible/invisible.
Surveillance, and the dichotomy of visibility vs. invisibility are serious issues. Steyerl states "being invisible can be deadly" and How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013 shows that both being invisible and visible can be dangerous depending on who and where you are. However, it seems our human nature that humor provides a way for us to tackle serious issues. The humor in Steyerl's films is a key element to how her ideas are conveyed but also to the ways she uses technology creatively. Steyerl uses a hodgepodge of highly technical and low-fi editing techniques and the juxtaposition of images (often times computer generated and live-action) to express humor.
Steyerl is also known for her "performance-like" lectures such as "I Dreamed a Dream: Politics in the Age of Mass Art Production". She is a professor of New Media Art at Berlin University of the Arts and co-founded the Research Center for Proxy Politics. RCPP "aims to explore and reflect upon the nature of medial networks and their actors, that is, machines and things as well as humans"
Their website is also pretty amazing.
Steyerl's films are innovative, impactful and surprising because of how she uses technology and also in how she approaches large-scale issues in an increasingly digital world.
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