Re: ubu + bootlegs + youtube

From: Jack Sargeant (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Jun 11 2008 - 22:38:23 PDT


oh, I was never a collector of objects so much as the information
therein contained
jack

On 12 Jun 2008, at 13:08, Brook Hinton wrote:

> For what its worth, my students are feverish downloaders of all
> things, and it seems to have increased their desire to see the
> material in theaters and to arrange their own screenings. They
> absolutely do not equate the online viewing experience with the
> public screening experience, and if anything the former has whetted
> their appetite for the latter.
>
> And it DEFINITELY has not made them content with online versions.
> They anxiously await the chance to see, say, Satantango - clips of
> which are all over YouTube - or Jeanne Dielman (yes, I know some
> who have labored through the barely decipherable bootleg that makes
> the rounds) on film in a theater or at least via a good quality
> digital version, and their credit cards are at the ready for home-
> video-priced DVDs of work ranging from the Vasulkas to Hollis
> Frampton (who is getting a bit of a new cult following of people
> who know nothing else of experimental cinema thanks to online
> bootlegs) to Sadie Benning to Michael Snow.
>
> All that said, the idea of the existing abysmal quality clips of
> some of these works being one's only exposure makes me ill, as does
> the idea of someone profiting at the artist's expense from such
> things.
>
> I too was once a collector who spent huge amounts of intense energy
> seeking out rare music, film, and books, and understand the
> specialness of seeking and finding the scarce. Now, maybe due to
> age, I resent artificial scarcity, and am suspect of the aura
> imparted by rarity on a work - I feel it interferes with my
> understanding of it and direct experience of it on its own terms,
> and that no one should be condemned to never hear of, let alone
> experience, something that might enrich their lives just because
> they grew up and remained in a place or culture that such things
> don't penetrate, so long as getting the news and the work to them
> doesn't genuinely penalize the artist.
>
> Or maybe, as far as the collecting thing, its just my increasing
> hatred of objects and stuff and their associated consumer culture
> adding in the long term to Landfill Earth.
>
> Brook "you can have my limited edition white vinyl residents' lost
> album printed with the audio reversed or free, I'm over it" Hinton
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Brook Hinton
> film/video/audio art
> www.brookhinton.com
> studio vlog/blog: www.brookhinton.com/temporalab
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.