Tess Martin, Plain Face, video still © 2011

Andrew Binkley, Crossings, video still © 2011

Andrew Binkley: Crossing

Binkley will present a four-channel video work entitled, Crossings. His work continually acts as a way to uncover and explore our notions of time and patterns of human behavior. Through the use of an overhead perspective and layering multiple videos of the seen and unseen links between people on the streets below, ‘Crossings’ works with the themes of intersecting or sharing paths, and integrating or transforming relationships, as well as the unknown or transient connections between people through time.  Echoing those passing by e4c, Crossings offers a new insight into one’s own relationship with time and the paths around us that we continue to cross.

Barbara Robertson, Blue Field © 2011, photo by Nancy Hines

Barbara Robertson: Three Phases, Trace & Linescape

Robertson is transforming her 2D print artwork into digitally generated, abstract imagery for video. e4c will feature three of her short, non-narrative experimental animation works. She writes, “My work explores ideas related to space, mapping, motion, and light, inspired by current scientific inquiry in the fields of physics, astronomy and biology…I am beginning to explore how to embed media art in an architectural space. I imagine that people will be attracted to it in the same way they are drawn to aquariums or planetariums.” The sound scores for the works, were composed in collaboration with sound designer Johanna Melamed. The sound scores, integral to each piece, deepens and enriches their expressive range.

Learn more about all three artists on our Galleries page.

Crossing, Berlin 1927, was created from footage taken from a 1927 archive film entitled, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City by Walter Ruttman. Lasater writes about his work, “Among other things, Crossing references memory and personal narrative, especially those elements of narrative that are made prominent in memory by rehearsal and repetition. Crossing also references the idea of film as a cubist medium, and is one of my pieces, which uses time to explore or express a single moment or encounter in time.”

Michael Lasater is the creator and producer of a number of nationally distributed documentaries on subjects in music and literature and he has received multiple awards for this work. His installation projects in video, animation and sound have been exhibited throughout the United States and Internationally. Lasater has performed for more than a decade with prestigious ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra among many others. He holds a degrees in music from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School and in video, media and communications from Syracuse University.

Learn more about e4c, where to see it and how you too can apply to present video.

© 2008, Michael Lasater, Crossing, Berlin 1927, Video still

Click here to view the embedded video.

e4c, 4Culture’s storefront gallery for digital art, will show Rodrigo Valenzuela’s One Day and Bird Noise. One Day has a stuttering, stop-motion animation feel with images of two dogs playfully wrestling. The slow progression of play seems aggressive and violent.

In his video Bird Noise, clusters of birds vibrate and escalate in quantity and sound. Valenzuela writes about his work, “I use video and photography as a tool to capture and articulate images. Within this two-dimensional realm, the roles of space, characters and environment are interdependent. My pieces are brief descriptions of the moment and action from which phenomena unfolds. I am interested in this transitional zone between stillness and motion; between the purely pictorial and the cinematic. I often use digital interventions to play with the codes of representation; the narrative models are manipulated to affect the viewer’s sense of logic and reality. By modifying the pace of a video’s sequence, mood and atmosphere are also transformed.”

Seattle-based Rodrigo Valenzuela has been exhibiting his photographic and video work widely in his native Chile and throughout the Northwest. He studied photography and art history at The University of Chile in Santiago, holds a BFA in philosophy and art from The Evergreen State College in Olympia and is working towards the completion of a MFA in photo media from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Attempting to pull a rug out from under myself and Shuffling a deck of cards with one hand are two videos created by artist, Stephen Sewell, which are part of his ongoing work related to engaging in improbable actions. He writes, “Both videos are explorations of subversions and how its intentions are linked to self-destruction and failure. Through my work I explore this by attempting to undercut myself. In doing this I am simultaneously engaged in the act of wanting and not wanting to succeed. The resulting irony of the works questions the intentions and consequences of subversion.”

Seattle-based artist Stephen Sewell is an emerging artist who has presented work in Michigan, New York, and Seattle. He has a BFA in photography from Northern Michigan University in Marquette and is pursuing an MFA in interdisciplinary visual arts at the University of Washington in Seattle.

These works will join the ongoing rotation of pieces by other selected artists for e4c including: Anna Norton, Ben Houge, Brit Bunkley, Britta Johnson, Drew Christie, Eduardo Calderon, Evertt Beidler, Jonathan Monaghan, Joseph Farbrook, Julie Alpert & Andy Arkley, Miguel Jara, Piper O’Neill, Scott Shuldt, Tony Buchen & Jazzmean Goodwin and Longhouse Media.

e4c has received generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and in-kind assistance from Mind Opera.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In early September, a peer-selection panel chose 16 artists/artist teams from a highly competitive pool of applicants. From creating a narrative using recycled film footage to a video about recycling, selected works represent a diverse sampling of electronic media. Projects will be presented as soon they have been adapted to meet technical requirements of the site, as early as November.

Selected Artists for e4c’s 2011-2012 Season:

Evertt Beidler — Portland, OR e4c will feature Moves Manager, a four minute experimental film by Beidler that features a custom walking machine, which integrates the human body. Beidler writes, “Generating objects and then using them in a fashion that is demonstrative of the ideals they embody allows me to explore the relationship between concept and function while asserting the importance of cathartic activities.”

Andrew Binkley — Mililani, HI Binkley will present a four-channel video work entitled, Crossings. He created this work by layering multiple videos of pedestrians, using an overhead perspective. Binkley shares, “The e4c venue is ideal form of display for this body of work, in that the videos echo the passersby along the street, offering a new insight into their own relationship with time and the crossing of paths around them.”

Betty Jo Costanzo — Seattle, WA e4c will show Topical Ointment, which Costanzo describes as a short, video poem. The layering of images of swimming-pool-blue water and text written on slips of paper creates a calm, contemplative video. Costanzo writes, “I work in layers. Each layer tells me where to go next. Like memory, each layer has a place, but only for an instant.”

Carol dePelecyn — Seattle, WA dePelecyn’s first video work entitled, Sort will be presented on e4c. This video was created with the intent to take the behind-the-scenes act of recycling to the public. dePelecyn writes, Sort reveals the reality of workers employed to sort our garbage already sorted before arriving at the recycling center.”  The mesmerizing flow of random materials is punctuated with hands combing through waste.

Salise Hughes — Seattle, WA Hughes will create a new short work, which utilizes the four-channel opportunity of e4c. She intends to reference the film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, by F. W. Murnau by manipulating recycled film footage. Hughes notes, “I would like to make a video work…that says something about the cyclical nature or ‘ebb and flow’ of relationships and conflicts.”

Bradley Hyppa — San Francisco, CA e4c will present three experimental motion graphic videos by Hyppa that show dynamic prisms of color that move throughout abstracted spaces. He states he wants to “… allow the viewer to consider alternative narratives about space communicated by the impressions afforded from a distribution of sensation sequenced by the experience of color and form.

Ellen Lake — Oakland, CA e4c will show a collaborative project by Ellen Lake and Chris Green entitled, Seaworthy. This video is part of a series about urban bodies of water, later animated with people swimming, floating inner tubes and other recreational activities that may not be possible in industrial areas, much like the ports in the Oakland and Seattle areas.

Ronald Lambert — Nashville, TN Lambert has proposed a new site-specific work for e4c, similar to his past work City Order and Land Slices. He is interested in utilizing the imagery of the city and the grids of steel and concrete found in an urban area, as well has short bursts of landscape imagery. He is interested in the competing images of cities and landscapes.

Michael Lasater — South Bend, IN e4c will present Lasater’s Crossing, Berlin 1927. This single channel video presents multiple images of the same historic footage of a woman crossing the street in Berlin in 1927. Crossing, Berlin 1927 references memory and the notion of film as a cubist medium.

George Lee — Seattle, WA Lee will show his light-hearted, stop-motion animation of woodcut figurines entitled, When Wooden Sheep and Penguins Dance on e4c. These simple figures dance on a cupboard and form an animal friendship over a piece of hay.

Tess Martin — Seattle, WA 4Culture is pleased to welcome back Tess Martin to e4c. This season, we will feature Martin’s latest film, Plain Face. This stop-frame animation is created using back-lit paint and plastic cut-out materials. The story told is that of the arrival of an outsider to a fantastical land where she is met with prejudice, violence and ultimately, love.

Nichole Rathburn — Seattle, WA Alongside Rathburn’s existing work entitled, 1000 Ports, a collection of animations of slow-moving eyes, e4c will feature her new work, which will include faster-moving animations of arms and legs.  The subtle movement of body parts is both humorous and eerie.

Barbara Robertson — Seattle, WA Robertson is transforming her well-respected, 2D print artwork into digitally generated, abstract imagery for video. e4c will feature three of her short, non-narrative experimental animation works. She writes, “I am beginning to explore how to embed media art in an architectural space. I imagine that people will be attracted to it in the same way they are drawn to aquariums or planetariums.”

C. Andrew Rohrmann — Seattle, WA e4c will present Undone, Rohrmann’s experiment in ambient cinema. His macro video is paired with text, to form an abstract, yet somewhat narrative, tale of the universe. Colorful bursts of swirling liquids look like living cells, or possibly the solar system.

Stephen Sewell — Seattle, WA Sewell will show Shuffling a deck of cards with one hand and Attempting to pull a rug out from under myself, two short videos that depict the artist engaging in improbable actions. He writes, “Both videos are explorations of subversion and how its intentions are linked to self-destruction and failure.”

Rodrigo Valenzuela — Seattle, WA e4c will feature Valenzuela’s cinematic One Day and Bird Noise. Footage of dogs playing and birds in flight are abstracted by pace, desaturation, layering and perspective. Valenzuela shares, “I present narrative models that affect the viewer’s sense of logic and reality, often using animals and landscapes as allegories for human activities.”

This year’s panelists included Lisa Dixon, Program Director for the Alliance for Pioneer Square; Visual artist, Paul McKee; and filmmaker, Kaie Wise of Renton. Learn more about e4c, where to see it and how you too can apply to present video.

4Culture is pleased to finally announce the 2011 Individual Artist Project award recipients! In late June, our Board of Directors approved recommendations from the 4Culture Arts Advisory Committee to support 72 artist-generated projects to benefit of citizens of and visitors to our region.

The Individual Artist Projects peer review panel reviewed 314 applications. Project budgets totaled $4,676,895 with requests to 4Culture totaling $1,725,457. This year’s peer-panel recommended that 72 artists receive a total of $345,070 in award funds this year.  The criteria for this program includes: excellence as demonstrated in the work sample and project application, project feasibility, and the public benefit to the citizens and visitors of King County.

Eligible projects may be at any stage of development including initial planning, development and final production. The presentation of funded projects provides public access to creative experiences to residents and visitors across our County. 4Culture is the largest annual funder of projects by individual artists in Washington State.

A few projects recommended for funding include:

• Abdoulaye Sylla, a master dancer and drummer from Guinea, West Africa, will create an instructional video for students and audiences.
• Toby Campbell will compose, perform and release new music for string quartet in conjunction with film-scoring workshops for youth.
• Leah Warshawski will continue production on her documentary film about Rwandan filmmakers struggling to create and present film in their country.
• Sondra Simone Segundo will complete a Native American art and design book for educators.

This year’s selection panelists: Yadesa Bojia, Visual Artist, Shoreline; Jayme Yahr, Art Historian & Exhibitions Director, Kirkland Arts Center, Kirkland/Seattle; Vincent Orduña, Actor, Director & Theater Manager, CARCO, Renton; Laura Ciotti, Musician & Project Manager, Sweet Bird Classics, Seattle; Christine Juarez, Director of Dance, Vashon Allied Arts & Faculty, Cornish College of the Arts, Vashon/Seattle; Mary Longhurst, Documentary Filmmaker, Federal Way; Tish Lopez, Writer/Screenwriter & English Faculty, Bellevue Community College, Bellevue/Seattle. Please contact us if you’re interested in becoming involved with 4Culture as a panelist, advisory or board member.

We strive to reach out to artists working around the County. From January 20^th through March 1^st application workshops were conducted in communities throughout King County, including Auburn, Issaquah, Des Moines, Richmond Beach/Shoreline, Redmond and Seattle. Following the March 9, 2011 deadline, peer panels were held on May 16^th, 17^th and 18^th for applicants applying in the disciplines of visual arts, literature, music, media, dance and theater.

4Culture also encourages artists from across King County, working in all disciplines, to learn about our opportunities. Artists can access information about 4Culture’s funding programs by signing up to receive our on-line newsletter, which is emailed out monthly. It provides information about upcoming 4Culture opportunities for artists, such as: Gallery4Culture, e4c, Site Specific and our Touring Arts Roster, as well as, opportunities from other organizations and helpful tips from the field.

After working for seven years to secure funding for this and numerous other funding programs, 4Culture, with bipartisan support of the state legislature, was able to secure funds for this program through a portion of the King County Lodging Tax. We look forward to receiving many new applications next year!

© 2009, Toby Campbell, Anomie Belle, Image: Anthon Smith

Piper O’Neill’s Cigar Street, Masks, and Mind Walk, offers three animations that explore the notion of nostalgia, inherited histories and how those perceived memories inform one’s view of the world. Cigar Street, Masks, and Mind Walk are all made through stop motion collages and vintage film clips. Accompanying music was sourced through The Smithsonian National Archives.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Drew Christie’s, Fire, Fire, I Heard The Cry, shares an animated interpretation of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The catastrophic fire destroyed much of what is now Pioneer Square, though lives were spared. The images in the animation were created by linoleum block prints, hand colored in acrylic and inspired by historic photographs taken in the aftermath of the fire.

Artist’s Bios:

Piper O’Neill is a Seattle-based artist who works in a variety of visual arts media including painting, collage, sculpture and video. She has exhibited extensively in Washington State and has also shown works across the US. O’Neill holds a BFA Illustration and Experimental Animation from Parsons School of Design in New York and a Masters of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington in Seattle. O’Neill is represented by the Winston Wachter Gallery of Seattle.

Drew Christie, is an illustrator, animator and artist who lives and works in Seattle, WA. He received his BA in Experimental Animation from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.  He is the recipient of numerous animation awards and has been featured in The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine and The Stranger as well as illustrating for Yeti, Light in the Attic Records, The Fretboard Journal, City Arts Magazine and Stringtown Press.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Up to sixteen media works or media proposals will be selected for presentation through this public gallery for a period of up to one year. Due to the transitory nature of the audience, works of all genres, between 1-5 minutes are desired. Learn more about e4c, see current artists being presented and apply!

The deadline has been extended to June 8th at 5:00 p.m.

This project received generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Opening: First Thursday, May 5, 6-8:30pm

Three new video works will debut on e4c screens First Thursday. Ben Houge’s Shanghai Traces is the artist’s response to the massive beautification campaign that Shanghai underwent in preparation for hosting the World Expo in 2010. Houge’s six year residence in Shanghai allowed him to witness the city’s breakneck development first hand. Houge’s artistic work includes photography, music composition, audio, video and game design.

The Drydocks is one of several videos created by Seattle-based artist Scott Schuldt as part of his ongoing project entitled, The View from the Canoe. Schuldt began this project in 2008 as an artistic documentation of waterways, focusing on but not limited to the Seattle area. The artwork Schuldt has developed from this multi-media project includes works on paper, writing, spoken word, video photography, sculpture and a blog.

Photographer Eduardo Calderón developed Portraits of Visual Artists in King County as a video after decades of photographing artists whose work has contributed to the cultural history of the region through a continuously evolving production of works of art. Through interviews, Calderon captures the individual artists, their work and the vital culture of the region. This project was supported by 4Culture’s Heritage Special Projects and Individual Artist Projects funding programs. Eduardo Calderon is currently photographer in residence for Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant, where 4Culture will dedicate significant public artworks this fall.

For more information about Gallery 4Culture, e4c and the artists on exhibit please visit the 4Culture Galleries site.

Image: Still image from Shanghai Traces, by Ben Houge

4Culture seeks media artworks for e4c, a storefront gallery for electronic art. Visible by foot, bike, car or bus to more than 20,000 people each day, e4c exhibits selected artworks from regional and national artists, on rotation, from 7 am – 10 am, daily.

Up to sixteen media works or media proposals will be selected for presentation through this public, gallery for a period of up to one year. Due to the transitory nature of the audience, works between 1-5 minutes are desired. Media artists, residing in the U.S., working in all genres are encouraged to apply.

The application deadline is Wednesday, May 25, 2011. Guidelines and applications, which include information about eligibility and review criteria, are available online at http://www.4culture.org/e4c/apply.htm

e4c is located adjacent to Gallery4Culture facing Prefontaine Place South in Seattle’s Pioneer Square neighborhood. e4c consists of four, LCD monitors and two speakers mounted to face the exterior of the building, broadcasting sights and sounds to passers-by.

Selected artists will work with the e4c program manager to adapt selected work for optimal presentation. e4c utilizes software with a timeline interface, which is distributed through a network to the display monitors and speakers. The selected artists will also work with the e4c program manager to create promotional materials. Each selected artist will receive a modest honorarium to help defray expenses. The artists retain all rights of the works submitted.

For more information please contact heat...@4culture.org or call 206.296.8676.

This project received generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

About e4c

E4c consists of four, large LCD monitors adjacent to Gallery4Culture at 101 Prefontaine Pl S, Seattle WA 98104 at the corner of Third and Prefontaine. e4c exhibits can be viewed from the street 7:00 am – 10:00 pm, daily.

e4c, photo by Michael Young, YaM Brand

Waterway and Crashing Waves debut on e4c

First Thursday, April 7, 2011

Excerpts from two recent works by media artist Britta Johnson will debut First Thursday on e4c. Johnson utilizes stop-motion animation, sound and narrative elements to examine the benefits of a natural drainage system in Waterway and the tale of shipwreck victims going mad in Crashing Waves.

Britta Johnson is a Seattle-based director, stop-motion animator, editor and video artist. Johnson has exhibited her installations, multimedia and film work extensively across the US. She has helped create several music videos for bands such as the Fleet Foxes and Minus the Bear. She is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies. She currently teaches animation at Coyote Central Junior High and holds a BA from Carleton College in Minnesota.

Teaser of Waterway: http://vimeo.com/20606829
Teaser of Crashing Waves: http://vimeo.com/16335736

Britta Johnson, Waterway, video still

Miguel Jara
In the Woods

Miguel Jara’s compositions are built with the simple act of drawing with pencil on paper. His animations focus on natural forces and elements, energized by the multiple screens offered by e4c. Jara portrays the constant battle of life through the gaze of wolves, the rumblings of the skies, and the flight of birds. He attempts to translate powers of the nature into the transient context of a normal street scene.  Original music for this work was created by Jaime Hoyos.

Miguel Jara is a visual artist working with video and animation. He has received his Masters degree in visual arts from the National University of Colombia in 2008. Jara exhibits both nationally and internationally. Originally from Bogota, Columbia, he is currently based in Brooklyn New York. http://www.vimeo.com/migueljara

Joseph Farbrook
Cell in the New Body
Texture

Joseph Farbrook will present two works adapted for e4c including Cell in the New Body and Texture.

He writes, “I am fascinated by the continual play and the dynamic fluidity between symbols and phenomena, and I have set out to explore the illusions within each. … My means for communication entails the use of the Internet as an artistic canvas, as well as creating 3D virtual environments, video installations, short films, and audio works. Merging physical and virtual spaces, my work often includes network components to gallery and museum installations. The growth of the Internet has made it possible to view it as a clearinghouse for networked consciousness, an artistic medium, and an infinite expansion to the traditional gallery space.”

Joseph Farbrook attended the University of Colorado, where he wrote electronic music, poetry, and fiction. Becoming interested in a more immersive approach to narrative, he began using computers and the Internet as creative media. Subsequently discovered by the art department, he was offered a fellowship to pursue an MFA in digital art. Farbrook exhibits both nationally and internationally. Farbrook is presently an assistant professor of interactive media and game development at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. http://farbrook.net/

Brit Bunkley has continued developing his work Floral & Fleeced for e4c. This video integrates 3D animation and actual footage, which creates surreal scenes. Bunkley writes “The computer has been a natural vehicle for creating my artwork, not only as a tool for the design and dimensioning of sculpture, but as a means towards creating virtual sculpture, photography and digital video. It is my intention that the computer output function by creating and manipulating virtual and actual photorealistic images, video and objects that are convincing and unsettling.

Jonathan Monaghan Caught in a Bad Romance is an animated video that depicts animal forms and elements, many referring to symbols of institutional power, enacting metaphorical movements and processes such as a creature-like form continuously eating itself or a dead lamb in the grip of a talon.  However everything is pink, candy-like, sleek and surreal; a strange dichotomy, somewhere between a meditation on power and Lady GaGa.

© 2010, Jonathan Monaghanon, Floral & Fleeced, video still.
© 2010, Brit Bunkley, Caught in a Bad Romance, video still.

Anna G. Norton is interested in historical architecture as the container for time as it is defined and revealed by light. Using time-lapse photography, she captures the light as it transforms a space from sunrise to sunset. Over the course of one day, the life of the space is revealed. The ephemeral quality of light plays upon the structure and suggests a tension between historical time and geological time; the animate and inanimate; permanence and transience.

Evertt Beidler’s works investigate the areas where performance, catharsis and ritual converge. In a series of short documented performances, the artist investigates transportation and commuters, an exciting theme for presentation on e4c, given the proximity to thousands of bus commuters riding by each day. The work presented was created at a point in Beidler’s process when he experienced a dramatic shift in the way that he envisioned his process and product. He began questioning not only what his work could be but also what it could do.

Read more

© 2010 Anna G. Norton, One Day, One Room, Founder’s Hall, video – still
© 2009 Evertt Beidler, The Business of Staying the Same is Always Changing, Public performance, 1 minute 34 seconds, Photo: Jill Beidler

Julie Alpert and Andy Arkley use stop-frame animation to bring garden gnomes, food items, drawings of their cat, cut paper, and felt mandalas to life. The soundtrack is composed from Andy’s extensive library of sampled music and sounds from violins being plucked to a cash register making change.  e4c will present Round and Round, a collaborative animation piece by this artist team. Additionally, e4c will feature two animations by Andy Arkley entitled; Fifty Four Fifty and What It’s All About, music-based animations.
www.juliealpert.com & www.arkley.net

Tony Buchen & Jazzmean Goodwin are a long standing collaborative team that will present three  experimental works entitled, Leda and the Swan, Isolella and Capo di Muro. These pieces use three-dimensional models to explore virtual realms. The videos represent ways of experiencing sculpture that are not pragmatically possible in the physical worlds.

http://buchen-goodwin.com/

© 2010 Julie Alpert & Andy Arkley, Round & Round, Stop frame animation – still
© 2008 Tony Buchen & Jazzmean Goodwin, Capo di Mur, Computer generated video still

Neal Fryett will present, Paper, Paste, Soap, a series of works by this emerging artist that simply and beautifully capture common, unconsidered actions in a contemporary home, such as the unrolling of a roll of toilet paper. Fryett writes “ I don’t want to circulate predetermined archetypes. I like it when these sorts of things are looked at as platforms for something else.”

nealfryett.com/

Lisa Maria Evans will present an excerpt of her text animation piece, Communified, a poetic consolidation of personal texts drawn from various participants’ journal entries. The texts layer with graphics to evoke our subconscious and weave a surprising  narrative about how our environment changes when we try to perceive someone’s thoughts. Evans writes, “Communified celebrates our inner voices, in the many tones and styles that unify us as human beings.  Through compiling excerpts of journal entries by individuals from around the globe, Communified uses text animation to emerge varying voices and emotions by experimenting in form and rhythm.” lisamarieart.com

Still from Paper, Paste, Soap by Neal Fryett

Still from Communified by Lisa Marie Evans

Neal Fryett will present, Paper, Paste, Soap, a series of works by this emerging artist that simply and beautifully capture common, unconsidered actions in a contemporary home, such as the unrolling of a roll of toilet paper. Fryett writes “ I don’t want to circulate predetermined archetypes. I like it when these sorts of things are looked at as platforms for something else.”

nealfryett.com/

Lisa Maria Evans will present an excerpt of her text animation piece, Communified, a poetic consolidation of personal texts drawn from various participants’ journal entries. The texts layer with graphics to evoke our subconscious and weave a surprising  narrative about how our environment changes when we try to perceive someone’s thoughts. Evans writes, “Communified celebrates our inner voices, in the many tones and styles that unify us as human beings.  Through compiling excerpts of journal entries by individuals from around the globe, Communified uses text animation to emerge varying voices and emotions by experimenting in form and rhythm.” lisamarieart.com

Still from Paper, Paste, Soap by Neal Fryett

Still from Communified by Lisa Marie Evans

Starting Friday, October 1st and continuing through October 6th, Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) will host Local Sightings, its premier showcase of Northwest filmmaking. This year’s festival features several films supported in part through 4Culture’s Individual Artist Projects program and some that are featured on e4c.

The festival, which happens at NWFF’s theaters in Seattle, includes both feature film presentations as well as short film programs and special events with live film performances, installation art, audience participation and parties. Also in this year’s festival will be the usual assortment of fiction, documentary and experimental films as well as a featured presentation of a historical Seattle film, and of course a festive opening party. Attend and celebrate local film!

© 2010, Betty (film still), Heather Ayers

e4c, 4Culture’s storefront gallery for electronic art is proud to present two media works by Longhouse Media.

Unreserved, is an intimate profile of Pacific Northwest artist and activist, Louie Gong (Nooksack, Squamish, Chinese, French and Scottish). In this documentary, Gong speaks about his artwork, a blend of Coast Salish with Vans, a popular skateboard shoe.  Raised in a rural farmhouse in Canada before moving to live on a small reservation in Washington, Gong grew interested in identity and “walking in multiple worlds.” Longhouse Media captures his fascinating story about how he developed this hip, contemporary artwork, which honors his Native roots.

Also featured, Two Worlds – Inside Out, is an intergenerational production made by mentors from Longhouse Media and youth from SuperFly 2010. Two Worlds – Inside Out shows young people slowing disclosing their identities  -  both contemporary and traditional. Young people use poetry, dance, music and sport to share their challenge of living in two worlds.

The vision of Longhouse Media, is to serve as an indigenous media arts organization that nurtures the expression and development of Native artists, drawing from traditional and modern forms of storytelling, cultural identity, teaching and inquiry, based in the technologies of today.

Photo © 2010 Longhouse Media, Unreserved (Louie Gong), Video (still).
Courtesy of Longhouse Media

Click here to view the embedded video.

In early August, a peer-selection panel chose 16 artists/artist teams from a highly competitive pool of applicants. From stop-motion animation to a narrative exploration of the Puget Sound by canoe, selected works represent a diverse sampling of electronic media. Projects will be presented as soon they have been adapted to meet technical requirements of the site, as early as October 7, 2010.

To date, 23 artist/artist teams have presented or are presenting from 1-5 media artworks on e4c. In addition, e4c has been included in Digital Fringe, an international animation festival based out of Melbourne, Australia. e4c was the only US venue in 2009.

SELECTED ARTISTS:

Julie Alpert & Andy Arkley — Seattle, WA
e4c will present a collaborative animation piece entitled, Round and Round, by this artist team. Their goal was to create a short collection of animations using things found around the house. Additionally, e4c will feature two animations by Andy Arkley entitled; Fifty Four Fifty and What It’s All About, music-based animations that supplement live performances of his band, The Brand Flakes.

Evertt Beidler — Portland, OR
e4c will feature several works by Beidler that focus on ideas around labor and repetitive behavioral patterns. Beidler writes, “What attracts me most to this location is that a significant portion of the potential viewers will be commuting to and from work, caring out routine activities during the course of their day.”

Tony Buchen & Jazzmean Goodwin — Santa Fe, NM
This long standing collaborative team will present a select group of experimental works using three-dimensional models to explore virtual realms on e4c. The videos represent ways of experiencing sculpture that are not pragmatically possible in the physical worlds.

Brit Bunkley — Jamestown, RI/Wanganui, New Zealand
For e4c, Bunkley has proposed two videos that are composite 3D animations with actual footage. By manipulating virtual and actual images, videos and objects are convincing and yet unsettling.

Drew Christie — Seattle, WA
e4c will present Fire, Fire, I heard the Cry, a short animated history of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The animation was created by making hand printed pictures from linoleum engravings. These engravings were inspired by historic photographs of the fire’s aftermath.

Lisa Marie Evans — Tucson, AZ
Evans will present an excerpt of an extensive text animation piece that displays varying thoughts as a test in how our perceptions of a physical space alter as we perceive someone’s thoughts.

Joseph Farbrook — Boston, MA
e4c will present two works by Farbrook: Cell in The New Body and Texture. These works explore alternative uses of text, displaying sentences as flashing single words, so that they cannot be read in the traditional sense.  As the viewer looks upon the words flashing, sentences form in the viewer’s mind as a kind of mental after-image.

Neal Fryett — Seattle, WA
On e4c, Fryett will present videos based upon simple gestures that are intensely focused on object-based events contained within the contemporary living space. These works use common, unconsidered objects as platforms for the projection of ideas experiences and questions.

Ben Houge — St. Paul, MN
Houge will adapt Shanghai Traces, a real-time generated video that is a meditation on Shanghai’s rapid change of pace in preparation for this year’s World Expo, incorporating items sold by street vendors who have been expelled from the city center during the event.

Miguel Jara — New York, NY/Bogota, Columbia
e4c will feature recently developed works entitled, In the Woods and Chex Eux. Both works are created from drawings on paper, which are then scanned and compiled as cell animation.

Britta Johnson — Seattle, WA
Excerpts from two recent works will be presented on e4c. Johnson utilizes stop-motion animation, sound and narrative elements to examine the benefits of a natural drainage system in Waterway and the tale of shipwreck victims going mad in Crashing Waves.

Dmitry Kmelnitsky — Venice, CA
Kmelnitsky will present his work, The City Unfolds. He writes, “With this piece, I ask the questions ‘Can we read a city like a book? Can its streets unfold before us like pages, inviting us on a journey of the imagination?”

Jonathan Monaghan — College Park, MD
Monaghan will create a new animation and adapt three others to create a 4-channel series that depict simple forms and elements, many that refer to symbols of institutional power, such as the bald eagle. However, everything is distorted as candy-like and surreal.

Anna Norton — Philadelphia, PA
Norton will present a selection of works from her series of time-lapse photography pieces that explore historical architecture as a container for time as it is defined and revealed by light. She writes, “The ephemeral quality of the light plays upon the structure and suggests a tension between historical time and geological time; the animate and inanimate; permanence and transience.”

Piper O’Neill — Seattle, WA
e4c will feature several of O’Neill’s stop-motion, animation works. Animations, made using found objects, drawings, cutouts, music and film clips from the past, O’Neill examines her own interested in themes of nostalgia and inherited histories.

Scott Schuldt — Seattle, WA
Schuldt’s View from the Canoe Project is a non-traditional documentary work that incorporates the artists reflections on nature and the attitudes people have about water. The work also demonstrates how the artist has been able to find a very real sense of wilderness in an urban setting.

Currently, fourteen artworks, by twelve artists are on display  from 7 am – 10 pm each day on e4c, 4Culture’s storefront gallery for electronic art. This summer a peer-panel will review and select new artworks for e4c. We have received applications from media artists working in diverse genres from across the US. We are looking forward rolling out new pieces in the early fall!

The artists listed below have works on e4c now. Come by 4Culture to see their work and visit their websites to learn more about current and upcoming projects.

Laurel Beckman
Scott Groeniger
Sabine Gruffat
Tomiko Jones
Noah Klersfeld
Margot Quan Knight
David Kwan
Tess Martin
Ann Oren
Kamran Sadeghi
Kenny Schneider
Ann-Marie Stillion

The following artists previously had artworks featured on e4c. We thank them for sharing their videos with us for one full year. Check out their websites to see what they’re working on today.

Tina Aufiero; Perry Bard; Thom Heileson & Wyndel Hunt; Stephen Hilyard; Salise Hughes; Bennett Morris; Heather Dew Oaksen; Relja Penezic & Victoria Jordanova; Gazelle Samizay and Robert Zverina

e4c has received generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts

© 2007 Salise Hughes, Shiny Things (presented on e4c during 2008-2009)