Martha Rosler - Semiotics of the Kitchen - West Coast Video Art - MOCAtv

00:11:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDUDzSDA8q0

Summary

TLDRThe video presents an artist's insights into their beginnings in video art during the early 1970s at UC San Diego. The artist recounts learning video production in a medical studio, reflecting on the burgeoning interest in video among artists at that time. The emphasis is on creating art that is easy to disseminate and focused on experimentation, favoring minimalism and directness over conventional filmmaking techniques. The artist shares their unique perspective on video as a medium, shaped by influences from kitchen settings and humor, ultimately aiming to evoke laughter and provoke thought.

Takeaways

  • 🎥 The artist began their video journey in a medical studio at UC San Diego.
  • 🖌️ Early video art focused on experimentation rather than commercial success.
  • 📺 The rejection of traditional editing methods was a key theme.
  • 🥘 The influence of kitchen settings played a significant role in the artist's work.
  • 😄 Humor and deadpan comedy were integral to the artist's style.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    A conversation about a garage sale at the Museum of Modern Art reveals the speaker's journey into video art, sparked during their graduate studies at UC San Diego. Under the guidance of a department chair and a studio director, they embraced video as a medium for experimentation, focusing on its accessibility and potential rather than commercial success. The rise of video in the art world during the early 1970s offered new avenues for expression, leading to the creation of works free from traditional commercial constraints.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:11:25

    The speaker reflects on their artistic approach, heavily influenced by the aesthetic of gurdart and a desire to minimize technical interventions in their work. Through a project called 'Semi-Oal Kitchen,' they aimed for minimalism, featuring fixed camera setups and in-camera edits. Their work was an exploration of everyday life, presented with a sense of humor and an homage to late-night commercial aesthetics, contributing to their unique artistic voice from a Californian perspective made within the New York art scene.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • What was the purpose of the video studio at UC San Diego?

    It was meant to make tapes of autopsies and operations.

  • Who taught the students video production?

    Charlie Cox taught the students video techniques.

  • What motivated the artist to pursue video in the early 1970s?

    There was a growing interest among artists in video experimentation.

  • What style did the artist aim for in their video works?

    The artist aimed for a minimalist style with fixed camera shots and in-camera edits.

  • What influences did the artist draw from for their work?

    The artist drew inspiration from kitchen imagery, late-night commercials, and deadpan comedy.

  • What was the significance of the proposed garage sale?

    The garage sale was organized by artists to sell their works and promote their creations.

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  • 00:00:21
    thanks for agreeing to meet with me in
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    the storage space for the garage sale
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    that will be in a month and a half at
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    the the Museum of Modern Art in New York
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    in the atrium and this is our backstage
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    area I got into video because I was a
  • 00:00:39
    grad student at UC San Diego and they
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    had an actual video Studio whose purpose
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    was to um make tapes of autopsies and
  • 00:00:53
    operations and David Anton who was the
  • 00:00:56
    department chair at the
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    time uh was in conversation with Charlie
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    Cox who was the guy who was running the
  • 00:01:04
    studio and they came up with the idea
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    that we would all learn video so David
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    and four other guys and I all learned
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    video in the studio from Charlie Cox in
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    about 1972 or 3 in the basement of the
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    medical school and of course this was a
  • 00:01:23
    moment when artists were interested in
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    video and had begun working with video
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    and ellan Anon who was David's wife was
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    beginning to make video as well so it
  • 00:01:33
    was in the air you know cheap movies
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    lousy quality but so many
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    possibilities this was a good way to
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    evade having to think about making money
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    because of course we wanted that is my
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    little cabal I don't know about anyone
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    else we were interested in making things
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    that were easily disseminable
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    transmissible mailable show in the
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    basement show in a classroom what ever
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    and open addition meaning it wasn't
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    addition and it wasn't intended for sale
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    we were all in it
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    for the idea the love the possibility of
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    experiment what I was really interested
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    in was looking like good dard
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    so what did that mean to me it meant
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    fixed camera with very few movements
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    that is goodart in the zig of verv
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    moment where the apparatus is so
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    crudely
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    unwieldy that it made itself visible by
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    not doing the things that video and we
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    to the point cuz whoever heard of video
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    film was supposed to do that is to have
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    clean cuts and uh Fades and cross Fades
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    and edits and in particular I wanted to
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    do only in camera edits for a while so
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    that I really wanted to stick to the
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    most minimal presentations possible and
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    semi oal kitchen was built around a
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    single zoom out at the end fixed camera
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    zoom out uh it was um an idea I got
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    walking down the street on the Bowery
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    and just thinking oh words things women
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    images kitchen where can I get a kitchen
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    I need an alphabet I'm going to call it
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    semiotics but it's going to be a
  • 00:03:28
    vocabulary
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    and that was it just came together in a
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    short time I went to film video Arts
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    they lent me a Panasonic where the
  • 00:03:38
    blanking interval was out of syn so
  • 00:03:40
    there's a you can see the blanking
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    interval there a line across the bottom
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    and it did it was
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    striping black and white portter pack
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    what the hell I was interested in the
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    idea so just to say again I knew very
  • 00:03:57
    well how to edit I knew very well how to
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    do A and B rolling I knew how to use a
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    color camera I knew how to use a studio
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    but I didn't care about any of that
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    stuff this is a work that is um midway
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    between an artist's loft posing as a
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    kitchen and the television Studio of
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    people like Julia Child it also is meant
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    to evoke late night commercials of the
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    Ginsu knife variety where you have
  • 00:04:28
    amateur performers kind of hacking away
  • 00:04:31
    and uh it's a dead pan comedy New York
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    style even though I was in fact a
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    California artist at the time it was
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    made in New York in the loft of an
  • 00:04:42
    artist and it was intended to look like
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    some kind of strange set with a strange
  • 00:04:50
    woman doing strange things that
  • 00:04:53
    hopefully would make you
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    laugh
  • 00:05:28
    for e
  • 00:06:11
    apron
  • 00:06:19
    bow Chopper
  • 00:06:47
    dish egg beater
  • 00:07:19
    Fork greater
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    hamburger
  • 00:07:45
    press Ice
  • 00:07:56
    Pick juicer
  • 00:08:21
    knife lle
  • 00:08:37
    measuring
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    implements Nutcracker
  • 00:09:21
    opener pan
  • 00:09:32
    quart
  • 00:09:45
    bottle rolling pin
  • 00:10:14
    spoon tenderizer
  • 00:10:36
    u
  • 00:10:38
    v
  • 00:10:41
    w
  • 00:10:45
    x
  • 00:10:53
    y z
Tags
  • video art
  • UC San Diego
  • experimental filmmaking
  • minimalism
  • deadpan comedy
  • kitchen imagery
  • artistic influences
  • in-camera edits